Laptop keeps cutting out.

[Guest]

Hi,
I own an old Protege 7100 laptop using Windows XP. If I watch a DVD on the
machine using the battery and not the mains power, after about 10 minutes,
the laptop just cuts out like it has run out of power. If I turn it on again,
I can watch the DVD for about 3 minutes and the same happens. The large
external battery is new. When it cuts out, I restart and check to see how
much battery life is remaining, and it tells me that the battery has not
fully discharged. This does not occur when using the mains power.

I was wondering if the laptop had another smaller battery that was dead
(because it is so old) and that is effecting its performance. If I am using
the laptop for word-processing or other non-taxing things, there machine is
fine (until the battery fully discharges).

I also know there are a number of different Power Settings possible. I have
checked under Settings->Power Management but there does not seem to help.
Also, I know there are various boot-up options I can take - F10, F12 but I do
not know enough about it!

I do not know a lot about computers, so any help would be very useful.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[null2006]

I'm just guessing here:

A DVD player uses a lot of power, because it is constantly running in order to
read the DVD and play the movie. Thus, it rapidly depletes the battery. When you
reboot, you get a few minutes of DVD life 'just because'. The battery isn't
totally drained, but it takes more juice to run the DVD player than it takes for
normal processes on the laptop.

 

[Brad]

My Guess is it is overheating. Try cooling it down.

Brad
http://www.pcast.com