Topic: Every once in a while my laptop shuts down

[xtopave]

   As I said every once in a while it shuts down, no warnings whatsoever, with or without the battery on. The day it decides to do that it does it many times. And then it works fine for weeks. Someone said its the damned Vista but before I take it to a technician I thought to ask for your opinion. I'm pretty illiterate about computers so have that in mind if you care to answer this. 

[Skadi]

If it's not overheating, and it's not old enough that something shouldn't be failing.. then, you can set your system registry so you can look at shut down errors. That could give you a clue why it's shutting down. I assume your basic settings are set to not save power and power off automatically.

Or.. even if it's newer, something could still be failing. i had a really new computer one time that had parts fail fast on it.

[xtopave]

The overheating thing worries me because it could be that.

I bought it in June 2008.

I assume your basic settings are set to not save power and power off automatically.

You're right about that. Thanks for the reply Skadi. 

[Skadi]

I don't have a laptop, so I don't know how hard they are to clean. You could see if it just needs blowing out. It could be something that simple.

[xtopave]

I've heard it's simple but I've never done it. I guess I'll take it to someone to do it.

[smokester]

If it is shutting down sporadically when it's hot (been on a while), then it is not really an error more a safeguard.  One of my laptops shuts down quite quickly if I use it in bed (sat on the duvet) as it doesn't get enough space for the air to circulate, but If I use by the window it never shuts down.

Cleaning a laptop internally is not that easy as to do it thoroughly you'd need to dismantle it. But it could be that a tiny particle of dust has gotten between the heatsink and the processor, which would cause it the processor to overheat and then it would shut the comp down, but it would do that consistently if that were the case.

Make sure it is well ventilated (raise it up at the back is good) and the grills that are for airflow are vacuumed out, and see if it gets better.

[xtopave]

I always pay attention to the ventilation issue. It's not always when it's hot (the weather I mean). And when it starts with the shutting down mambo it shuts down even when I let it cool down. Sometimes it does it within the first seconds since turning on.

I'll try to vacuum out the ventilation grill. Thanks smokes.