Notebook PC crashing - diagnosis?
 

My wife's notebook is crashing for no apparent reason, and we're a bit baffled by it. Can anyone point us in the right direction, or suggest some tests we could run?

After 20-25 min. the computer suddenly turns off, as if you pulled the battery out. No warnings from windows, nothing. Then if you turn it back on, it seems to last less and less time before it shuts down again. The battery reads at 100% according to windows. She said it feels hot to the touch on the underside (where the fans are) but the fans are indeed working. The lights on the front indicate the AC adaptor is connected. We tried running it with the battery removed and just the power cord connected, but the same thing happened.

Thanks!

Chris

Clean the heatsink, lint clogs them. Remove the fan cover and you should see it there.

what operating system? what are your power settings? it could have been accidentally set to shut down the hard drive after x number of minutes..

If you can't get to the fans, with the laptop off, shoot some canned air from where the air exits. This should push tons of crap out where the fans are. Toshibas are famous for this.

Dave

Make/model? Some have notorious design flaws resulting in failures like this (like my Dell 5150). Warranty?

Hey guys, thanks for the ideas so far. I forgot to mention it's a Toshiba Satellite A70. We got it all apart, and sure enough there was a ton of crap in the heatsinks and fans. Cleaned out, now working on reassembly. (1am, have to work in the morning...)

You took the entire thing apart? And yes, the A70 is notorious for sucking in dust. See if you can get it apart and back together in 45 minutes. That's my record. Well, I did it daily.

Dave

Could be hardware-heat related as others have suggested. Have you installed any device drivers lately?