Computer Restarts Randomly

[f.afridy]

hello my friends,
5 months ago my pc used to turn off automatically from 5-6 hours
Later my pc's LCD broke and I changed my LCD. Then my pc used to shut off 1-2 hours or some random lines and colours come on the screen. When searched for remedy for the shutting down problem, I came to know about overheating problem in my pc and I came to know that my heatsink was clogged up. But first I decided to clear the LCD problem, I Tried restoring the programs in my pc but unfortunately my shutted off during system repair. My windows got corrupted and I was not able to boot to windows. Then I tried installing ubuntu but it used shut off during installation, yesterday I used a vacumn cleaner to clean the heatsink and I successfully Installed ubuntu but still the pc shuts off without overheating and again LCD shows some lines and colours.

Specs of my laptop
Toshiba Satellite l300 (3 years old)
2 gb ram
250 gb hdd
Intel pentium dual core
Ubuntu 11.04 OS
Any solution?

[CoMpUtErGoD20XX]

It is highly possible that the laptop is still overheating. I would check to make sure the fans are spinning properly and that they are comming on when they are supposed to. You could use a utility such as SpeedFan (free) to see the system temperatures and what speed the fans are spinning at. Also see if the event log has any information about the shutdowns. This may be able to tell you if it is an application or over heating.

Access Event Logs:
Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer > Look at System & Application Log for errors

For the graphics issue it may be the graphics card/motherboard and not the display. You could try using a external monitor for a few days to see if this same issue appears on the monitor. If it does it is a bad graphics card or motherboard. Also, before doing this make sure you update your system to the latest graphics drivers available. You can get them directly from the laptop manufacturers website or Ati/Nvidia's site.

I hope this helps!

[Rik from RCE]

Trying to repair a software problem while you have a known hardware issue is the wrong way to go about it. You MUST fix the hardware issue first.

Get that dust out!

Test your ram with memtest!

Test your hard drive with hdtune or a utility from the maker of your hard drive!

Once you have the hardware problem sorted THEN you can sort the software.

You can install bad software onto good hardware but you can't install good software on bad hardware (if you get what I mean)!!!

[CoMpUtErGoD20XX]

Rik is absolutely correct. You must figure out the hardware issues before attempting to install the software. MemTest and HDTune are both a good idea to ensure your RAM and HD are working properly.

I don't know about Toshiba laptops specifically as I use Dell all the time but I would suspect their is hardware diagnostics that can be run directly from the PC or from a disc provided by Toshiba. If you have these I would certainly run a full hardware system scan just to see if they identify any problems.

[Rik from RCE]

I know the L300 quite well as I have personally repaired quite a few. They don't have any useful diagnostics software either onboard or on the website. If the laptop is continually used while it is overheating it will damage the chipset or the GPU.

Get it running cool as soon as possible!