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  LiveWire / Technical Forums / Hardware Tech Support / Viewing Topic

My compy shuts off all the time
Replies: 11 — Last Post May 19, 2008 5:07am by marshmellowman
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( EarthEmpire )


Soothsayer
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So I have a Toshiba laptop, it's about 5 years old and lately it has been shutting off really often. It basically doesn't last longer than a few hours and then I can't restart it for an hour or so.

I was thinking it's probably overheating, but it has a fan thingie under it... So I don't know.

Ideas?

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DeviantArt Myspace

7:24 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: April 2005 | Days Active: 833
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swiggs26


Grasshopper 		Reply
that happened to my laptop. if you get a good fan and let it sit a day with the fan going it should work. it helped me
7:27 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: May 2008 | Days Active: 1
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emmy350


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Settings? New computer? I really don't know...but I'd check the settings, and see about getting the fan or something fixed!

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7:28 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: Jan. 2006 | Days Active: 828
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igotaquestion


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Maybe the fan can't circulate the air enough, i think they have cooling pads for laptops though.

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7:29 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: Nov. 2007 | Days Active: 396
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Latin Muscle


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You are right, the fan is too weak and  it's dying.
Get it replaced, or better  yet...just get a new  laptop.


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7:35 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: Oct. 2007 | Days Active: 362
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Soothsayer
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Quote: from latin muscle at 8:35 pm on May 17, 2008
You are right, the fan is too weak and  it's dying.
Get it replaced, or better  yet...just get a new  laptop.

I love my laptop and don't like my money deprived bank account. So I'll probably clean the fans and see if that helps.

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DeviantArt Myspace

7:40 pm on May 17, 2008 | Joined: April 2005 | Days Active: 833
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spacemac


Soothsayer
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it would help if you could post the model and specs of yer laptop so that we'll see what can be done.

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Crazy snake

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Well if its 5 years old, the battery certainly wont be as good as it was when you first got it. Try buying a new battery, or set your laptop in power save mode (if you havn't already done that)

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marshmellowman


non compos mentis
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Is it dying on its own when you're not connected to a power supply, or does it turn of when actually plugged in too?

If it's the former then the battery in the laptop seems to be failing. This is not common after so many years of use, computer batteries can lose their charge.

If it's the latter however, then you've got other problems to worry about. It may be a hardware problem, such as how you suggest overheating. When my laptop had overheating problems I took it outside where the wind was blowing and tried to use it by lying it on the pavement. I found that it didn't turn off, so the problem was with overheating.

Sometimes the vents can get clogged up with dust over the years. Just take a vacuum cleaner and gently pass the handle (used for cleaning smaller parts) over the exhaust part. You might be surprised about how much dust there is stuck in there.

If that doesn't work it may have a more serious hardware fault (such as the thermal glue not conducting heat properly) and this would require service by the OEM. It's safe to say I think if this is the case then the expenses spent on repair would fair outweigh the fixes you get from it, so you might be better off buying a new laptop.

Hope this has helped, PM me if you have any further questions.

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4:59 am on May 18, 2008 | Joined: Feb. 2007 | Days Active: 712
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Soothsayer
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It's Toshiba Satellite A30 with WinXP (SP2).

2.50GHz
480MB of RAM
80 Gig'ed hard drive, plus 2 external ones, totalling about 550Gigs
The graphics card... sucks.. but I don't think it matters anyways.

Marshmellowman, it shuts off while plugged in, I don't even try to run it on it's battery anymore. So I used a vacuum to get the dust out (or tried to) and it's working so far... We'll see how long this lasts.


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Remember, remember the 9th of November. Never Refer.
DeviantArt Myspace

9:24 pm on May 18, 2008 | Joined: April 2005 | Days Active: 833
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marshmellowman


non compos mentis
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Yeah, then it definitely seems that the problem is overheating. Sadly this can be caused by many problems, and the vacuuming solution may only be temporary. If it still continues you might need to send it off to service (or if it's too expensive sell it on ebay as defective and get a new laptop). My brand new Sony had the exact same problem once, anything remotely processor intensive I tried to do and it shut down.

In the mean time you might be able to tweak with the settings in the power management or maybe elsewhere to get your processor to not run at 100%, this should also prevent the overheating cutoff by the motherboard.

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and victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace.

5:07 am on May 19, 2008 | Joined: Feb. 2007 | Days Active: 712
Join to learn more about marshmellowman England, United Kingdom | Straight Male | Posts: 21,295 | Points: 38,533
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