sudden shutdown - 6200 series

I have just gotten my second 6235 (has the AMD 64 2800+), having returned the first to the store since it seemed to run hot and the fan seemed over-busy. It also had a tendency to just die, one second after revving the fan to full, which it did a few times in maybe 12 hours of use, usually (exclusively?) under battery power, and after being in use maybe a couple of hours or so.

My replacement seemed better--cooler, less fan activity--but today it did the same trick of just dying. This requires a re-boot, although it somehow doesn't trigger a disc-scan. This occurred under AC power.

Makes me nervous about this machine / series, since my old laptop was extremely stable under XP Home (even without SP2), and I'm questioning my choice, despite otherwise quite liking it. Unexpected crash-and-dying is something I don't intend to tolerate. I haven't done anything weird to the configuration or anything. As far as I can see in the Events viewer, nothing was recorded, though perhaps there are other places to look.

Anybody have similar experiences or suggestions? I should mention, too, that I was merely surfing the web, not doing anything to stress the machine (not that sudddenly powering down would be acceptable even if I did).

 

Sounds like your laptop is having overheating problems. Have you been using it lots on your lap?

 

Thank you, Turbo.
I had already returned the first one of these for precisely that. This one did not seem to be overheating, the fan behaved normally, etc. I tried to secure help from a tech support guy, and while I was trying to have him help see whether there was some sort of a log file which might have recorded the specific event which triggered ths shutdown, he stated that I was now straying into an area which was Microsoft's domain, and that Averatec just supports the hardware (gee, I guess the "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on the case means nothing). I finally managed to pursade him (he had a very arrogant tone) to help me further, and all he came up with was to reset the BIOS (which I had never changed) to its defaults. I've spoken to that guy once before, and he seems to think everything that he doesn't understand can be fixxed by monkeying with the BIOS.

I guess a combination shoddy tech support and unease about the machine's reliability pursuaded me, in the end, to return this one, as well, to the store (this time for a refund!).
My old (Fujitsu) notebook hasn't crashed ONCE in three years under XP (I know, I'm amazed too....Microflaccid?!), and I can't justify spending upwards of a grand for a new machine that is LESS stable!

Bye-bye, Averatec!

 

Sounds good. I wish I could return mine.

 

Hmmm.....I wouldn't think it would overheat. I've heard of Pentium 4 laptops overheating and shutting down, but not ones with this Athlon processor. You also said you weren't doing anything intensive. It must have a pretty poor cooling system and/or is just built poorly.

 

I have similar problem with my one month old 3250HX. The unit was running OK on battery until I did a battery calibration overnight. When I turned on the Averatec the next morning on battery only, it turned off itself after about 3 minutes. I turned it back on and the same problem repeated. The corner where the fan is was very hot. After I plugged the AC back in, it ran OK and the unit was just warm. I've emailed tech support yesterday but haven't got a response yet.