Laptop Turning Off Suddenly

[jsphdickens]

I have had my Sony PCG-7192L Laptop for about a year. All of a sudden, it is turning off within a few minutes of restarting. The process of booting up itself seems slower as well.

In my experience, this kind of problem deals with overheating, with maybe a dirty heatsink or a fan that has broken or is mounted incorrectly. I disassembled my laptop, only to find that my heatsink was free from dust and my processor fan was working fine.

Monitoring my Temperatures with RealTempGT, the maximum temperature I will get up to before shutdown is 55C.

Any fresh ideas would be really appreciated.

 

[iedgar10]

If you removed the heatsink fan from the laptop you should have put on some new thermal paste. You didn't mention that you did so I assume that you didn't. Perhaps since you didn't the cpu heats up way too fast to allow Realtemp to measure it correctly.

How long does it take before it shuts down the first time? Each time thereafter? If it's a heating problem it generally lasts longer turned on on the first boot. IT usually lasts less each time thereafter.

Any blue screen? Any other performance issues? If you are having other issues it would be a good idea to post them on here so that way the culprit is found faster.

 

[WR2]

Hello jsphdickens;

Shutdown @ 55C CPU temps sure doesn't sound heat related. (unless maybe some other parts is overheating).

You can check to see if it's Operating System related.
Build yourself a LIVE CD (bootable CD with operating system included). If the LIVE CD will run for an extended time you can start to think that the hardware is OK and you have a software/operating system problem.

 

[WR2]

The Live CD list
Look for one of the Rescue version like Trinity Rescue Kit.
It's always a good idea to have a Rescue CD on hand and know how to use it.

Or use AVG Rescue CD which will also run an AV scan when you boot it up.

 

[jsphdickens]

If you removed the heatsink fan from the laptop you should have put on some new thermal paste. You didn't mention that you did so I assume that you didn't. Perhaps since you didn't the cpu heats up way too fast to allow Realtemp to measure it correctly.

How long does it take before it shuts down the first time? Each time thereafter? If it's a heating problem it generally lasts longer turned on on the first boot. IT usually lasts less each time thereafter.

Any blue screen? Any other performance issues? If you are having other issues it would be a good idea to post them on here so that way the culprit is found faster.

I didn't have to remove the heatsink to get to it and see that it wasn't dusty and that the fan is working, although I do have thermal paste if I decide remounting it is something I should try.

For some reason, after reassembling and putting my laptop back together I haven't had it turn off since my initial post. I'm using it now. Temperatures are staying around 50C during web browsing and word processing. Yesterday, this was happening repeatedly and never staying on longer than a minute or two.

Everything seems fine now, but before I did anything the computer would boot all the way up (slower than normal) and then shut off about the time you try to launch a program.

In my experience, computers only abruptly shut off whenever a fan isn't working or mounted correctly, or when they overheat past 90C, or when I poor Diet Pepsi onto them.

 

[itstrick]

@jsphdickens

Did you figure out what the problem is??

 

[jsphdickens]

Yes, sorry for not stating the result. A small screw had logged in the fan above my processor, causing it to stop spinning. The computer was shutting off automatically to protect itself. Removing the obstruction solved the problem and I haven't had any issues since my OP. Thanks

 

[jsphdickens]

Best answer selected by jsphdickens.