Solved! Laptop Shuts down after 30 minutes

[mendza11]

My laptop shuts down after 30 minutes of use or idle, and its not a normal shutdown. It sounds like a hard shutdown.

Ive checked all over the internet for a fix and I still cant figure it out.

things ive tried:
check for overheating.
reset the bios
power management setting timer to never
running in the bios
taking the battery out and running off the charger.
I even changed my operating system to Linux Mint.

what do I do now?
it still shuts down after 30 minutes.

 

[hang-the-9]

Try different RAM or any other hardware changes, new hard drive? Maybe different charger? Could be a motherboard or CPU issue, software is ruled out since you tested with a different OS.

 

[jarotech]

Hi, the problem is in the BIOS or the EC chip, try to flash the BIOS, maybe it'll help.

 

[Grobe]

Is there an cheap Acer model ?

 

[mendza11]

im going to try to re set all the hard ware parts. its an Asus x401a-rbl4

ive reset the bios and flashed it, but its still doing the same thing

 

[mendza11]

Is there an cheap Acer model ?

its an asus x401a-rbl4

 

[mendza11]

Hi, the problem is in the BIOS or the EC chip, try to flash the BIOS, maybe it'll help.

ive reset and flashed the bios and its still doing the same thing. ill try the EC chip out and ill get back to you.

 

[mendza11]

Try different RAM or any other hardware changes, new hard drive? Maybe different charger? Could be a motherboard or CPU issue, software is ruled out since you tested with a different OS.

im going to check other hardware parts, maybe even check to see if any of them are placed incorrectly. nothing in it is new or replaced. the charger is good. hopefully its not a motherboard issue but im going to try other solutions then purchase a new motherboard if it doesnt work out.

 

[Grobe]

Reason why I ask about the model is that I bought a cheap used Acer that behaves very much the same as you describe.
Just to rule out a OS problem, I suggest you running Memtest on it and just see how long it may take before it does the same.

I may be wrong, but from what I can see from this disassembly guide:
http/www.myfixguide.com/manual/asus-x401a-disassembly/
The CPU and GPU is combined into one physical device, so if cooling is an issue then the computer will fail if either GPU ro CPU is heavily loaded.

What is a lot worse in my case: The CPU/GPU have no pins, it's soldered directly to the mainboard so I suspect soldering points is starting to crack up. If that is the case, the case is pretty much lost. There IS techniques that involving use a heat gun to rise thetemperature og GPU/CPU unit just enough so that the soldering melts just enough to re-attach between the unit and mobo. That method is more likely to fail somply because there is no way any normal user can monitor the temperature under the gpu/cpu unit and is likely to overeat, or to little heat so that not all bad soldering points re-attaches.

Or it may simply be the cooler fan that is full of dirt. That is much easier to fix.

 

[jarotech]

The problem is very simple, every 30 minutes, the BIOS or the EC checks the components of the motherboard, if the BIOS or the EC is corrupted, it sends a signal to the motherboard to turn it off. The only way to fix the problem is to reprogram the BIOS or EC chip with an external programmer.

 

[mendza11]

Reason why I ask about the model is that I bought a cheap used Acer that behaves very much the same as you describe.
Just to rule out a OS problem, I suggest you running Memtest on it and just see how long it may take before it does the same.

I may be wrong, but from what I can see from this disassembly guide:
http/www.myfixguide.com/manual/asus-x401a-disassembly/
The CPU and GPU is combined into one physical device, so if cooling is an issue then the computer will fail if either GPU ro CPU is heavily loaded.

What is a lot worse in my case: The CPU/GPU have no pins, it's soldered directly to the mainboard so I suspect soldering points is starting to crack up. If that is the case, the case is pretty much lost. There IS techniques that involving use a heat gun to rise thetemperature og GPU/CPU unit just enough so that the soldering melts just enough to re-attach between the unit and mobo. That method is more likely to fail somply because there is no way any normal user can monitor the temperature under the gpu/cpu unit and is likely to overeat, or to little heat so that not all bad soldering points re-attaches.

Or it may simply be the cooler fan that is full of dirt. That is much easier to fix.

There is no heat problems with it. ive checked the fans and theyre running fine. the laptop doesn't overheat at all. Ive checked the temp's and theyre normal.
if its the cpu/gpu should I just replace the motherboard?

 

[mendza11]

The problem is very simple, every 30 minutes, the BIOS or the EC checks the components of the motherboard, if the BIOS or the EC is corrupted, it sends a signal to the motherboard to turn it off. The only way to fix the problem is to reprogram the BIOS or EC chip with an external programmer.

could you possibly point me in the right direction on doing that? how do I reprogram it?