Laptop Shutdown Problem

[Jon Miller]

Just recently, my one year old Acer laptop has started abruptly shutting down about a half hour or so after starting up. I blew all of the vents out and the air flow seems to be normal with the fan and it doesn’t seem to be running anymore than normal.

Any idea’s on what might be causing this ?

Jon Miller
KT8NDO

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

I'll bite...
I know so little of other important considerations that may pivotal in this diagnosis - but I'll go to general causes first. It's only a year old and I'm unaware/unsure of the exposures/abuses that it may/may not have faced. If you have dealt with taking a laptop apart, then you may want to remove a lower panel that may give you a better view of the motherboard. If you haven't; then it may well be time to take it to a qualified repairman

Don't assume that the CPU is being adequately cooled; the condition you described is typical of a CPU overheating. If you can see the CPU heat sink and it is free of debris (cat hair is a killer, but any collection of lint and dust will also insulate the heat sink='trouble'). If the thermal paste has ozzed out, then the lack of cooling provided by the thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink may also be the cause. Don't do this if you don't know what you are doing, you could make it worse than it is. If it ust be replaced, I suggest Arctic Silver - which is one of the finer thermal pastes available on the market - and supersedes any other by far. You started this question with some doubt that heat may be the cause. So I entertained that premise first.

There may be other components on the motherboard that is failing/intermittent when the laptop has reached operating temperature. Let's hope that isn't the issue, or it could get costly.

I'm not going to overlook the other obvious factor. The operating system may be a cause. Check your system files to be sure that all of the drivers are there; if the system files shows errors that could cause the OS to reboot. Not common, but it has happened before. Chances are you have Vista, and there have been many issues like this and others that cause issues with hardware that may be tied to shutdown.

The power supply/battery charger may also be an obvious failure. I run my battery condition icon in the tray to monitor the battery's charge/state. You can check that out when you start it up; it's usually in lower tray on the right-hand side.

If your laptop fails these most obvious and detectable causes above; then I suggest to contact the vendor who sold it to you and see if there is any warranty repairs or recalls that may have been issued for your unit.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

The easiest first step, if you're comfortable, may be just to reseat the RAM. I would tend to agree that it's heat or software related, but try that first since it's probably the easiest thing you can do.

 

[Jason Foster]

Heat would be my first guess too. However, if you've taken it mobile a lot, say chasing in the plains, it is possible (although remote), that due to the back-in-forth temperature changes of A/C interior, then heated interior, it's possible that dew has collected on the inside (common problem with cameras too).

Another thing to check is if the battery and AC power supply work normally. Sometimes with mysterious shut downs, the battery charging function doesn't work in a normal capacity. Also check your power consumption settings.

The interesting thing is that you don't get any error message after you restart. That kinda eliminates either scenario. My Dell overheats very easily...a bad design flaw in the position of the vents and fans (on the bottom....arrrgg). So it may be something deeper. But the first two suggestions would be on par.

Good Luck.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Not trying to be funny here, but the name ACER is your main problem. Acer's are notorious for problems, and I have experience bad things with the one I owned back in 98. I had a new acer desktop that went out on me after just 8 months. Turned out the motherboard failed. After reading online ratings and reviews, I'll never own an acer again.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

If you are not comfortable with taking your laptop apart, that is quite understandable. If you have a experienced and knowledgeable friend that will look at it for you, then I would start there first.

Jason made a comment about his bad experience with Acer. That wouldn't surprise me; laptop/PC mfr's must start with quality components to have a decent or above-average performing product. Motherboards are the foundation of ANY computer - PC or laptop. I don't know what motherboards Acer uses, but I would want to know if I were ever to consider purchasing one - that's for sure...

One brand that I never heard discussed when laptops have been mentioned - is ASUS. ASUS makes -IMHO- one of the FINEST laptops (Sony - too) that are available - but they are also priced accordingly. Not cheap. I have built many PC's with ASUS and have one presently (I have two desktops - one is an ASUS motherboard and the other is an Abit motherboard), the performance and quality really are there.

 

[GPhillips]

If you have a Nvidia graphics chipset 8xxx or 9xxx in your laptop, there have been numerous problems reported because of heat related issues. You may want to check on the Acer support website to see if there is a recent BIOS for your notebook that might work around the problem.

 

[Jay Cazel]

From what you said Jon it does sound like a heat problem of some kind. Kinda funny but my aunt called me with her computer and it was doing the same thing, shutting down after been on for a little bit. Now it is a PC not a laptop, so I changed out power supplies, did not work, changed the RAM, still did it, put another HD in and before I could get the Op system installed it shut down. So put a different mother board in with the same cpu and so far it has been working.

 

[Jon Miller]

Thanks for all of the replies. Will try and get the heat sink fixed with new heat transfer paste. If that don't work , will start looking for a new more reliable laptop hopefully able to still get it with XP on it. Thanks again.

 

[Eric Friedebach]

Can you turn down the CPU speed? My Lenovo has a power manager that lets me choose various settings, and the one I use most often is a custom profile I called “Coolâ€￾ (maximum display brightness with moderate CPU speed.

Another thing that may help is a cooling stand.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Answer to previous post:

The CPU's in laptops (AMD or Intel) are a highly sought after item for PC enthusiasts that like to overclock their hardware for maximum performance. I think it is a carry over from the days of hot rodding cars. LOL! Truth is, these laptop CPU's can be overclocked MUCH higher than they are being used for. But PC users make sure that they overcool these same CPU's to keep them from heat death - at a premium cost and trouble.

Yes; you can turn down the speed of your CPU to reduce heat. But if your laptop/PC is overheating at the designed speed of your CPU; then you are merely staving off disaster for a short period of time. If one doesn't correct the problem that could very well destroy your CPU to begin with. Laptops that are over 1 yo and have an Intel chip tend to be less efficient with current and end up creating excessive heat. The newer Intel chips don't have this problem, and are - at the present time - the most efficient CPU's on the market. If you have an older Intel CPU; you might consider underclocking the CPU to give yourself some margin of safety from heat death.

There are programs that Overclockers use to speed up their hardware that can inversely be used to slow it down. Personally, I would just keep the CPU's heat sink clean and replace the 'stock' thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5. But, only if you know how - or know someone that does - with confidence. This paste has been proven to eliminate at least 2-3 degrees C on the average. That's nothing to sneeze at when one considers such a pivotal heat point as the thermal paste contributes to heat dissipation!

 

[Bill Tabor]

I was having a similar problem with my Gateway and eventually found a work around. Also you might Google the problem and see if other users of your model are experiencing the same thing. In my case the computer is using an AMD chip and Powernow to manage cpu frequency / voltage throttling based on load. When I was doing and intensive task such as an online virus scan or video encoding utilizing near 100% cpu at times the cpu would try to throttle down during less intense parts of processing. For some reason it would 'burp' eventually while doing this under load. I found a work around by switching the computer (while plugged in to Ac) to run at Full speed / power. This of course is inefficient and uses more power and laptop is hotter but by eliminating the throttle issue it eliminated the problem. If you are using a notebook with AMD and Powernow and need more detail on controlling the cpu management let me know and I will provide more detail.

 

[Gene Moore]

I'm late into this one, but a couple suggestions for the group. Install Speedswitch then you will know exactly where your temperatures are, HD, CPU....fan speeds etc. I've used it on my laptop for years.

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/

Second and this will sound crazy, make absolutely sure it is not a virus. Do a very deep scan (all drives) with an up to date high quality product.

Finally, sometimes it can be a battery/power supply issue. On many laptops they work together and a shorted battery can shut down the system.

One thing in your favor, it's many months before the first shortwave of March.

Good luck