computer shut down
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:16 am
by Winke
Friend's of mine laptop shuts downs while running a virus scan or any intensive application and feels very hot on the bottom.
Powersupply?
Winke
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:41 am
by Augomatic
It's probably the autoshutdown due to overheating. Check the fans on it and make sure they are cleaned out. You could also try running the laptop raised off the surface for a temporary solution (when I ran my bot on my laptop, I propped the laptop up on 2 2X2's to keep it cooler).
If your PSU was dead or dying, you'd more likely have more "random" problems then it just shutting down.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:30 pm
by Winke
if it's not the fans than powersupply?
Winke
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:42 pm
by Augomatic
Possibly, but it doesn't really sound like it in this case. When a PSU goes, its usually more pronounced, your problem seems to only happen under load, which could make sense since thats when the PSU would be providing more power, but that is more likely to be a heat problem of some sort. There are various utilities out there that will monitor voltages, and one of those being out of wack might indicate a problem.
Could also be the motherboard, since problems there could either force the laptop to shut down, or it could be incorrectly shutting it down when it shouldn't.
The biggest problem is that with a laptop, there isn't going to be much on it that you can fix yourself, so if its under warranty, you might as well just bring it in and be prepared to wait over a month as they "fix" it (half the time, that won't even fix it).
If its not under warranty, I'd try some "home" remedies, like cleaning up the fans, maybe defragging the drive (to reduce the drive scanning), or putting a household fan pointing at it to keep it cool. You could also look at underclocking it some, which will often help. Its just too expensive to fix laptops, since the costs are ridiculous (takes a long time to open one up compared to a desktop, the technicians need special "certification", and the parts are often proprietary (therefore more expensive ) to bother fixing one in most cases.
Again, if its not under warranty, you could always crack it open and take a look, but I'd only recommend doing that once you've decided its not worth having someone else fix. Opening up a laptop is a real pain in the ass, and depending on the laptop, you could very easily end up doing more damage than good.