My laptop is 6 years old. There was no problem earlier but now it started shutting down randomly. Laptop battery indicator shows that it is battery problem. But I have noticed that, this problem occurs when charger is connected to it. There is no shutdown when I am using laptop on battery.
Laptop shutdowns suddenly without any warning
- Thread starter kamalP90
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from kamalP90 : "Sudden shutdown of laptop without any warning"
My laptop is 6 years old. There was no problem earlier but now it started shutting down randomly. Laptop battery indicator shows that it is battery problem. But I have noticed that, this problem occurs when charger is connected to it. There is no shutdown when I am using laptop on battery.
Question from kamalP90 : "Sudden shutdown of laptop without any warning"
My laptop is 6 years old. There was no problem earlier but now it started shutting down randomly. Laptop battery indicator shows that it is battery problem. But I have noticed that, this problem occurs when charger is connected to it. There is no shutdown when I am using laptop on battery.
Saga Lout
Olde English
- Mar 31, 2010
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I've merged your two threads on this subject so you get the maximum advice.
Have a look in the System logs in Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer to see what the messages say after each restart from a shutdown.
That might tell us something.
Have a look in the System logs in Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer to see what the messages say after each restart from a shutdown.
That might tell us something.
Something's that 6 years old that only shuts down when plugged in could point to a overheating issue... When on battery, the CPU is sometimes throttled to try to maximize battery life. The byproduct is less heat and thus no shutdown. However, when plugged in, the CPU is allowed to go up to TDP which may cause heat issues which will cause the machine to immediately power off to prevent the CPU from cooking itself...
You may need to take the machine apart, clean the heatsink and fan out completely, reseat the heatsink/fan and re-apply thermal grease. Something that's 6 years old, the fan itself may have failed which would greatly contribute to your issue... If you're not comfortable doing this yourself then get a friend who is or find a professional. Taking an laptop apart is not nearly as easy as taking apart a desktop. Heatsink/fan assemblies and the CPU itself (laptop CPUs tend to not have head-spreaders) for laptops are also more delicate. Be careful!
You may need to take the machine apart, clean the heatsink and fan out completely, reseat the heatsink/fan and re-apply thermal grease. Something that's 6 years old, the fan itself may have failed which would greatly contribute to your issue... If you're not comfortable doing this yourself then get a friend who is or find a professional. Taking an laptop apart is not nearly as easy as taking apart a desktop. Heatsink/fan assemblies and the CPU itself (laptop CPUs tend to not have head-spreaders) for laptops are also more delicate. Be careful!
I guess this may not be heating issue. Because many times it shutdowns when it is completely cool. Like when I have started it after few hours. And battery indicator shows a battery problem. Link of photo below.
https
/goo.gl/photos/hW1PdFAwkv829aVH7Holy cow, six years.. What's your secret? I've been a hardware junkie for (a moment please, I am doing the math) almost forty years and DC power has never been kind to me.
Let's assume your utility bills leave no room for the acquisition of a new laptop or you're just very fond of your current machine. . AC power is not a constant, there are spikes, surges, and even brownouts which occur so quickly they are unnoticeable. Keep all appliances - especially live ones that trigger events and make whirring sounds - fridge, microwave, air conditioner, razor, chainsaw etc., on a separate circuit from the one running the AC outlet you use to power your laptop. The same goes for every microchip bearing gadget in your home. Unless it's over twenty years old, this includes your toaster. Just stay away from the kitchen 🙂 if you're not sure which circuits run which outlets, plug some lamps in here and there and see what lights up or goes dark when you remove fuses.
Hey Kids, don't try this if you rent your home unless you're sure your sadistic landlord hasn't installed little traps to prevent you from upping the wattage. You'll spot the little buggers no problem...just walk away. Don;t share your computer circuit with the stuff that generates a signal. No tv;s or radios and certainly no phones. One power bar for one AC cable, and maybe a lamp.
Don't use just any power bar. Use a certified Surge Protector. There's a bunch of them. Do a search online for reviews and buying guides.
It's kind of ironic, but even the best surge protectors need replacing before well before six years...
It's all over when you need AC full time. The firmware in your laptop is looking to charge a battery, not run the BIOS. The unit won't be able to keep itself cool and that's a dangerous situation.
.....good luck!
John Chapman
Estimable
- Apr 26, 2015
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I would have suspected overheating also, especially when you say it doesn't shut down when running on battery. It's likely to be a wad of dust caught between the heat exchanger fins and the fan outlet. A second possibility is a non-functioning fan. Do you hear it start running? Can you feel warm air at the fan outlet? If the fan is unable to remove heat it won't take long before it shuts down. Incidentally if you have a cat this problem can be very much worse since cat hair gravitates to this area of a laptop. As Welin said, dismantling a laptop is not for the average user. One possible alternative to dismantling is posted at http/forum.webuser.co.uk/showthread.php?t=142946
Incidentally I still use a 2007 Dell 1720 laptop which I'm loath to part with since it has a 1920 x 1200 resolution screen. It's on it's 3rd keyboard, 2nd battery, 4th power supply, 2nd fan and now has a 256 Gb SSD and a 1 Tb second internal drive.
/forum.webuser.co.uk/showthread.php?t=142946Incidentally I still use a 2007 Dell 1720 laptop which I'm loath to part with since it has a 1920 x 1200 resolution screen. It's on it's 3rd keyboard, 2nd battery, 4th power supply, 2nd fan and now has a 256 Gb SSD and a 1 Tb second internal drive.
n9zn
Distinguished
- Dec 6, 2010
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Overheating is the more likely culprit that explains your dilemma.
When a CPU is cold and you apply power it heats very quickly. If you had dust caught in the fan preventing it from spinning right away that could easily explain the immediate shutdown when you start a cold laptop. Laptop startup consume a great deal of CPU cycles and CPU computing cycles create a lot of heat, much more heat than a laptop that has been on but sitting idle.
Also after 6 years you NEED to replace the battery in your laptop in addition to re-application of heat transfer materials and a thorough cleaning of everything inside the case of the laptop. If the laptop were mine I would also run diagnostics for the Hard Disk Drive to insure it is operating correctly, not creating additional heat or corrupting data.
You can learn to do these things by viewing YouTube videos that instruct you in the process of opening the laptop and how to clean and inspect the internals. If you are not adept to this type of work take the computer to a qualified technician and let them take care of all that needs attention.
EDIT: When the laptop shuts down is the power light still illuminated? If it is the trouble may be with the internal graphics chip controlling your display. When there are problems with graphics it can often cause a computer to appear to have shut down. What really happens is the display usually goes completely black when there is a failure in the graphics circuitry.
When a CPU is cold and you apply power it heats very quickly. If you had dust caught in the fan preventing it from spinning right away that could easily explain the immediate shutdown when you start a cold laptop. Laptop startup consume a great deal of CPU cycles and CPU computing cycles create a lot of heat, much more heat than a laptop that has been on but sitting idle.
Also after 6 years you NEED to replace the battery in your laptop in addition to re-application of heat transfer materials and a thorough cleaning of everything inside the case of the laptop. If the laptop were mine I would also run diagnostics for the Hard Disk Drive to insure it is operating correctly, not creating additional heat or corrupting data.
You can learn to do these things by viewing YouTube videos that instruct you in the process of opening the laptop and how to clean and inspect the internals. If you are not adept to this type of work take the computer to a qualified technician and let them take care of all that needs attention.
EDIT: When the laptop shuts down is the power light still illuminated? If it is the trouble may be with the internal graphics chip controlling your display. When there are problems with graphics it can often cause a computer to appear to have shut down. What really happens is the display usually goes completely black when there is a failure in the graphics circuitry.
I would have to agree that it is overheating...especially if it is a Toshiba. I have a Toshiba that is less than a year old which kept shutting down out of the blue and now when I make sure it doesn't get too hot it no longer shuts down.
Saga Lout
Olde English
- Mar 31, 2010
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If it's a possibility that it doesn't really shut down, I would suspect Hibernation. At six years old, it could be a new Windows 7 and the best thing to do in 7 is to turn the hibernation facility off.
Call up an elevated Command form and at the prompt, type
powercfg hibernate off
and hit Enter.
It's an unlikely suggestion if it's only recently started behaving this way but it's just a thought.
Call up an elevated Command form and at the prompt, type
powercfg hibernate off
and hit Enter.
It's an unlikely suggestion if it's only recently started behaving this way but it's just a thought.
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