Randomly shuts down!?!

[Guest]

A while back I had to fix a problem with my laptops fan. It would keep
overheating and shut off. I sent it in, they fixed and from then on it
seemed to be fine. Now.... the fan is fine but it's started just shutting
off again. It usually happens when it has been on all day and seems to be
overheating (if that is possible.) Later, after letting it cool down, it
starts running fine again. My big concern is, why is it just shutting off at
all? I've been around thousands of computers, enough to know it shouldn't be
randomly shutting down. (My work computer nevers just shut off).... What can
be the problem? What should I do?

 

[Ron Martell]

A while back I had to fix a problem with my laptops fan. It would keep
overheating and shut off. I sent it in, they fixed and from then on it
seemed to be fine. Now.... the fan is fine but it's started just shutting
off again. It usually happens when it has been on all day and seems to be
overheating (if that is possible.) Later, after letting it cool down, it
starts running fine again. My big concern is, why is it just shutting off at
all? I've been around thousands of computers, enough to know it shouldn't be
randomly shutting down. (My work computer nevers just shut off).... What can
be the problem? What should I do?

Most new computers do have automatic overheat protection and that may
be what is causing your problem.

Laptops are not designed for long term continuous operation and the
design compromises necessary to get all of the hardware fitted into
the small laptop case means that there is increased risk of
overheating if the machine is used for extended periods.

There are temperature monitoring utilities available, and there may
even be one from your laptop's manufacturer (which would be the best
choice). Also check the BIOS setup and see what it has available for
overheat alarm settings.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[makaronid]

I also have the same problem with my laptop shutting down automatically while
browsing through the internet or using windows media player. I have just
formatted my laptop, assuming that it was a virus, but the computer is still
shutting down. You said that it may be due to overheating, "new models have
an automatic heat protection." I'm not sure if my laptop counts as a new
model or not; I bought it 3 years ago. My laptop is a HP Intel Pentium M
processor 1.60GHz, 199GB RAM using Windows XP Home SP2 version 2002. I'm not
really good at fixing computers and hoping that you can help.