laptop turns itself off

[Guest]

Hi, my neice has aquired a laptop for her studies at uni, she accessed the
internet without having any form of antivirus software on it, now she says it
turns itself off after a few minutes every time she uses it. Could it be a
virus and should we load a recognised antivirus programme on it then scan for
probs or should we try system restore first? thanks for any help in
anticipation!

 

[ras]

That is possible but it's more likely that the cooling fan is not working
and causing the laptop to overheat.

 

[Steve Shattuck]

Hi, my neice has aquired a laptop for her studies at uni, she accessed the
internet without having any form of antivirus software on it, now she says
it
turns itself off after a few minutes every time she uses it. Could it be a
virus and should we load a recognised antivirus programme on it then scan
for
probs or should we try system restore first? thanks for any help in
anticipation!

Blaster virus (or variation) is the most likely cause.

 

[Steve N.]

Blaster virus (or variation) is the most likely cause.

No it's not.

Steve

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi, my neice has aquired a laptop for her studies at uni, she
accessed the internet without having any form of antivirus software
on it, now she says it turns itself off after a few minutes every
time she uses it. Could it be a virus and should we load a recognised
antivirus programme on it then scan for probs or should we try system
restore first? thanks for any help in anticipation!

She's probably infested with either the Blaster or Sasser virus. It usually
takes only seconds of being on the internet unprotected to get these. For
more specific help, get her to copy down verbatim the exact message she gets
before shutdown, and post it here.

 

[Guest]

hi, i had the same problem. i did have a problem wih over heating so it might
be that. but i also had a worm virus which shut down my computer a few
minutes after i started it up. it was well known at the time. however it
didnt just turn off. it shut the computer down first without me requesting a
shut down. have a look at the symantec website. they do explain such viruses
quite well and might have some pointers for you.