Asus U56E-BBL6 Random Hard Shutdowns

[NotAPimecone]

Hi,

I have a weird problem with my laptop, an Asus U56E-BBL6. It randomly shuts itself down, no warning, no error message, no event logs, no bluescreen. Nothing. It's as if someone pulled the battery. Something else I note, this problem seems to happen more often when running on battery than when plugged in. However, it does happen sometimes when plugged in as well.

It seems to be related to the intel HD 3000 integrated graphics (the CPU is a core i5 2430M). I have never had it happen in safe mode, and I can run windows regularly if I disable or uninstall the intel graphics driver.

I have done a full format and reinstall of windows to no avail.
I have installed a few different versions of the driver, but the problem always happens again.

Do I have a hardware problem? (I'm pretty sure the answer is yes) Is it the CPU, motherboard, power supply? Any ideas how I can further diagnose this? It's a real pain as one of the main things I use this for is playing videos over HDMI and that won't work without a graphics driver installed.

Or should I not bother and just start shopping for a new laptop?

 

[jimthenagual]

Your computer may be shutting down because it is getting too hot. Let us know what kind of temperatures you are getting, especially when under heavy use.

Download and install realtemp here http/www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

 

[NotAPimecone]

Definitely not temps, I used CoreTemp to check while running Prime95, never went over 70 (CPU is rated for 100C max)

 

[thestonedigger]

Since you got a laptop you are in a hardspot.. It might be that the GPU has melted togheter happend to me once, but that was a desktop.

 

[jlinnovation]

I am having the exact same problem with the same laptop. I did notice that is occurs more when running on its own battery as well.

 

[mikechid]

I have the same laptop U56E-BBL5 and it's just over 2 years old and having the same power cutout issue. You hear a click, then power is off & screen is black-- no blue screen or shutdown warnings. The events are logged as a "Kernel power 41" error that comes up in windows errors reports. Does not seem to be heat related. I pushed the core temp up to 85c with no problem tonight. When the problem occurs, power cuts with NO major load on system!

This can occur on AC power and on battery power. I have yet to find a way to force it- it just seems random. Sometimes happening many times in a day and sometimes not at all. I noticed that when it was happening multiple times, I could trigger it by opening an application, like Word as though from idle, a little stress just killed it. Most of the time, when it happens the computer is just idle.

I have yet to find a definitive solution. I'm thinking of sending to Asus or taking to a computer repair place in San Francisco. Maybe it just needs to be cleaned of dust and all connections checked & tightened...