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Apr 6th, 2007

Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

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I have a 2005 Toshiba laptop with a celeron processor. For some reason my computer will just shut off without warning. You've got about 15 minutes tops to use it before it'll just turn off unexpectedly. If you're doing something a little more complicated, like running a virus scan, it'll turn off within a few minutes. I think the longest it's stayed on in about a year is half an hour. It's just been sitting on the desk for over 6 months without use because it's not even worth my time to try and use it. You can look at a few webpages, then it shuts off. Sometimes you can't even get that far. It'll load the desktop and before it even loads any programs, like an antivirus program or something else, it'll turn off. That's less than 1 minute of time right there.

I tried turning off all unnecessary startup programs like messengers, players, etc but that only bought me about a minute of extra time with it. I also deleted pretty much anything extra on it because I figure I'll lose it soon anyway so I transferred everything to another computer. I have close to zero music, pictures, videos, etc.

Any ideas what's wrong with it? I don't even know if it has a virus because I haven't been able to run a scan in ages without it shutting off first. I'm very careful about not putting myself at risk for viruses, though.

I just want to know what's wrong with it and what I can do to fix it. Keep in mind that I don't have much money to get it inspected by a professional. Even if I can't fix it myself, it'd be nice to identify the problem.

Thanks.

Last edited by ornery_hipster; Apr 6th, 2007 at 4:12 pm.

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Apr 7th, 2007

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Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

This doesn't sound like a software fault but more of a hardware fault - predominantly the battery and charging circuit.
As with all rechargeable batteries laptop ones get to become useless after x amount of charges.
have you tried replacing the battery?
What happens if you run the PC on the AC power? Does it stay on or not?

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Apr 7th, 2007

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

Well there is a power problem. The battery is only good for about 20 minutes so I keep it plugged in the wall. However, the place where you plug it in is loose so you have to put the cord in just right and keep very still. The old cord was worn out from all of the ridiculous propping up I had to do so I bought a new cord, it stays in a little better, but the "jack" itself is still messed up. Even if the cord stays in okay, though, the laptop still shuts off.

Last edited by ornery_hipster; Apr 7th, 2007 at 11:53 pm.

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Apr 8th, 2007

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

I agree with Janine. Rechargeable batteries are very lifespan-limited.

I could add 2 thoughts here:

1. Bad battery could be the symptom and not the cause. The cause could be bad charger/PSU that is not producing enough power to feed the machine and recharge the battery.

Btw, do you get any extra work time if you pull the battery out?

2. Also sounds like an overheating problem. Make sure that all the fans are spinning and no heatsinks are loose.

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Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

Click to Expand / Collapse Quote originally posted by ornery_hipster ...

I have a 2005 Toshiba laptop with a celeron processor. For some reason my computer will just shut off without warning. You've got about 15 minutes tops to use it before it'll just turn off unexpectedly. If you're doing something a little more complicated, like running a virus scan, it'll turn off within a few minutes. I think the longest it's stayed on in about a year is half an hour. It's just been sitting on the desk for over 6 months without use because it's not even worth my time to try and use it. You can look at a few webpages, then it shuts off. Sometimes you can't even get that far. It'll load the desktop and before it even loads any programs, like an antivirus program or something else, it'll turn off. That's less than 1 minute of time right there.

I tried turning off all unnecessary startup programs like messengers, players, etc but that only bought me about a minute of extra time with it. I also deleted pretty much anything extra on it because I figure I'll lose it soon anyway so I transferred everything to another computer. I have close to zero music, pictures, videos, etc.

Any ideas what's wrong with it? I don't even know if it has a virus because I haven't been able to run a scan in ages without it shutting off first. I'm very careful about not putting myself at risk for viruses, though.

I just want to know what's wrong with it and what I can do to fix it. Keep in mind that I don't have much money to get it inspected by a professional. Even if I can't fix it myself, it'd be nice to identify the problem.

Thanks.

CHECK ALL YOUR SCREENSAVER SETTINGS AS WELLAS YOUR POWERSAVING SETTINGS
R CLICK ON DSKTOP+PROPERTIES+SCREENSAVER TAB, OR POWER TAB

hendersonmitch

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Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

Click to Expand / Collapse Quote originally posted by hendersonmitch ...

CHECK ALL YOUR SCREENSAVER SETTINGS AS WELLAS YOUR POWERSAVING SETTINGS
R CLICK ON DSKTOP+PROPERTIES+SCREENSAVER TAB, OR POWER TAB

ALSO CHECK SETTINGS FOR LOW BATTERY WARNING SETTINGS

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Apr 8th, 2007

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

sounds like you need the power jack/socket resoldered to the motherboard,
had to take my friends A70 , to shop and have it resoldered

Last edited by caperjack; Apr 8th, 2007 at 9:42 pm.

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Apr 9th, 2007

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

the fault with the Power jack/socket wasn't mentioned before in the beginning of this thread so I am siding with you Caperjack.
If there is a bad connection somewhere then of course its going to creat no end of problems. The jack being loose is evidently going to cause a bad connection. It shouldn't be loose by any means

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Apr 28th, 2008

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

I am having the same problem. The CPU runs for about 6 seconds at 100% and then the laptop powers off suddenly, usually when doing a virus or spyware scan. I notice that when I reboot it runs through the BIOS startup but then windows just sits there blank until I reboot again and then it goes through perfectly. I'm going to assume it is an overheating problem as it also does it in safe mode when I try and do a virus scan.

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Apr 28th, 2008

Re: Laptop shuts itself off constantly & without warning.

sounds like heat problem ,try a can of compressed air ,blowing out all opening's to the innards of the laptop like heat sinc's and fans

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