Combination of random restarts and randomly unable to startup

Recently my laptop Sager np8250 suddenly started experiencing issues where it will randomly shutdown and restart. This is also paired with an issue where when trying to turn it on or restarting it will only startup for long enough to lightup the backlit keyboard and various other led's for a second before shutting back down.

Both of these issues are completely random as well, sometimes if i have the laptop up it can work flawlessly for anywhere between several minutes to several days before it randomly shuts down, and sometimes the laptop will decide to power up if i press the power button enough times.

All of this seems to be completely random and independent of heat as i can leave the laptop off overnight and it still might not be able to startup. Similarly i could be running a fairly intensive game and it won't restart but i could also be just leaving it idle and it will restart.

 

Is it doing a restart like you told it to "restart" or are they sudden shut downs then restart.

 

They are sudden restarts like someone just pulled the plug and then put it back in. Usually what happens after is the pc will try to automatically restart but it will usually fail a few times and then shut down.

 

I think you need to send it in, try to come up with the scenario that is most repeatable. The first thing I would do is strip down the machine, rebuild all of the internals.

 

Most repeatable scenario that causes the laptop to randomly shutdown? I think that would be difficult, there seems to be zero correlation between any kind of activity and it shutting down although lately it seems that the duration that i can get the laptop to run before it randomly shuts down is decreasing. Interestingly it has never shut down itself while in sleep mode but has shut down immediately upon waking. Sending it in would be the easiest solution but at the same time i sort of wonder if this sounds like some form of damage to the motherboard. While the laptop itself isn't really too old yet in my opinion, only about 2 years, since the parts warranty has expired it makes me wonder if it'll even be worth sending it in for a repair that could cost several hundred rather than considering a replacement system.

 

Power issue? Especially because of the sleep->wake problem (spikes) and difficulty starting after recent shutdown (capacitors saturated). Try running on battery or adapter alone and/or use different adapter. If that didn't help, take a look at motherboard; with any luck it'll be an obvious defect.

 

I feel the instant shutdown on wake might just be coincidental timing as it feels the laptop has gotten progressively worse over a couple weeks. After it's first random restart+some hours of being unable to startup i was able to get it to run for about 5 days without any problems but now i'm struggling to get it to run for over a hour before it randomly restarts/becomes unable to turn on. I don't have a spare adapter of that size and just removing the battery or adapter has not immediately allowed the laptop to start up normally if it recently had a restart/shutdown. As for looking at the motherboard, it's a bit hard since it's a laptop but i haven't seen anything glaringly obvious from what i could see without disassembling it completely.

 

I'd follow Meaker's suggestion then; remove all non-essentials, gpu too. Leave out all drives and keep only a single bank (reset bios too). With a bit of luck there's something shorting, something that's non-motherboard, that is.

 

Laptop was purchased from xotic, would stripping down the pc void the labor warranty?

I also question if disassembling/resassembling the laptop is something i can reliably do without messing up.

 

Doing so will not void the warranty, but any damage caused while doing so is not covered.

 

Unsure if that is a step i will take as i'm not really all that confident in my ability to disassemble and reassemble completely without messing something up. Especially because even if i find a some kind of problem with the motherboard or etc... i can't actually do anything about it.

 

I suggest you work with xotic over the phone then, they may want you to send it in.

 

That's probably going to be the plan once i have the opportunity, just wanted a second opinion if this might possibly be an issue with something that's replaceable.

 

We don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with, its best to send it in.

 

Another random shutdown except it managed to last for a day. Bit of a change though, oddly now the time the laptop stays *on* but unable to boot is longer, and it no longer attempts to restart after it fails to do so. I have also noticed that it's possible that it seems to power the USB less as well...previously would get a fairly bright flicker from the mouse, but now it's become shorter and dimmer.

I've read all sorts of peculiar solutions that are things i might actually be able to do such as remove a ram module, reconnect hard drive, or replace cmos battery, but do any of those even seem like they could cause such a severe issue?

Could it be possible that bad thermal paste could cause intermittent overheating issues? I've heard several times that overheating is a common cause for such an issue but when my laptop did work, the temperatures were fairly normal.