L2000 Random Shut-Off Problems (Overheating?)

So I have had my L2000 for just over 2 years. I sent it in once under warranty to fix the random shut-offs. I would be doing something, and boom, the whole thing is off. I would need to remove the battery (and unplug), hold the power button for 10 seconds, replace the power and it would restart.

Last December the thing would not boot with the CD/DVD drive installed, so I ran it with a big hole in the side since then.

Now it is powering down more frequently, when just sitting idle. I installed the newest BIOS and it still does the same.

I saw the thread about undervolting it, would this help the situation? I am looking through it, and everybody is posting results, but I am not exactly sure on how to do it.

Is there anything I can do make it more reliable? I have recently replaced it, but I would like to keep it around for a bit longer as a secondary notebook. Ideally I would like to format it and do a clean install, but that is hard with-out an optical drive.

 

First things first. You should use a program such as Core Temp to see if your CPU is overheating at all. It should stay in the 50-58C range when it heats up. If it gets into the 60C+ range... you may have a problem. If so, assuming the fan is working, I'd suspect that the CPU heatsink isn't mounted correctly. That's fixable by a technician or a serious power user (I've done it) but let's not go there just yet.

Undervolting would help if overheating is the issue.

You may just need a new optical drive, they break fairly often, in which case I'd pick a highly rated slimline IDE DVD burner from Newegg and slide it in. The bezel won't match precisely but it'll work. I'm assuming you still have the mounting hardware from the old drive?

 

I haven't looked much into the optical lately, since if the PC won't stay on, an optical drive isn't worth much.

I figured out some underclocking, but it just clicked off running at .9V at 4X. The temp on the AMD dash was 49-50, and the voltage software was 59-60.

Under full voltage the temps were around 60 and 75 respectively. It did not shut off during that test though.

The fan is working, I can hear that. How difficult is it to check the heatsink?

 

The service guide documents how to disassemble the notebook to get to the heatsink. Go to the downloads page and click the Manuals link on the left-hand side to find it.

It sounds like you don't have an overheating problem, in which case... I don't know what's going on. Possible, but unlikely.

Boot MemTest86+ (from a flash drive or USB floppy since you don't have an optical drive?) and see how long it runs. If it doesn't report errors and doesn't crash overnight, I'd suspect a broken Windows installation. If it does report errors you probably have bad RAM, though that usually causes BSOD's rather than shutdowns.

 

I took apart the notebook this evening, and there appeared to be no thermal compound on the CPU ans some sort of oily substance on the GPU. I will get some thermal compund from work tomorrow and see if this helps.

The cooling fins on the sink by the fan were pretty dirty as well, I will clean that out and see what happens.

 

I put the compound on and reassembled the PC just as I took it apart, and now it doesn't boot. No lights, no noise, nothing.

Now does this mean I got too much compound on the chips, or I blew them up with static?

Is there any interlocks or something I missed?

 

You're supposed to use a very thin layer over the CPU core (the raised bump in the center of the chip package). Too much will act as an insulator rather than a conductor. That said, you should have seen some response when you hit the power switch. Maybe the switch panel didn't get reinstalled correctly and the power button isn't making contact with the switch underneath?

 

I pressed the button on the panel directly as well.

A bit did kinda fall off my finger onto on of the surface mount caps, but I think Ii cleaned it up pretty well. I am going to hit it today with some flux remover to make sure.

 

The first thing i would have done before opening it up would have been use a can of air spray and spray the dust off. because i know that usually causes the fan to stay because of false sensor reading.

 

I think is is something to do with the power circuit. Sometimes I can get the thin to come on for 5 seconds or so, then it shuts off. It seems completely random. Sometimes it will to this 3 times in a row, others nothing haspens for several hours.