Sudden Power Off !

Hi, I have a toshiba 1800 series.. It's has been working fine for a year but lately I am experiencing problems with it..It shuts off by itself without giving me any warning even though it is connected to the electrical outlet. Sometimes shuts down on me twice a day and some other 10 times a day. Is anyone experiencing the same problems? Can you help me find out why this is happening?

Thanks so much,

XCell T.

 

What operating system is installed? If it is pre win 2000, like 98 95 or ME then it could just be time to do a clean reinstall or better yet upgrade to XP.

Jack

 

Check the Toshiba Power Utility and verify the settings. You want to see what battery levels the alarms are set for and what action is used (shut down, hibernate, etc.). If everything is kosher there, I'd next look for an app to measure CPU tempature. I've read various posts that seem to indicate one of the symptoms of overheating is a shutdown; another is the laptop just freezing. You would have to search for an app because not all tempature applications work with all laptops. If you're clear on those fronts, then I'd check my anti-virus definitions to make sure they are up to date and my firewall to make sure it's configured properly. This way you can make sure someone didn't sneak a trojan on ya and is controlling your machine remotely. After that, I would make a log of all of my actions prior to the shutdown. What you opened, what was open, what buttons you pushed, etc. Look for a pattern; maybe it's related to software. If after all of that you still can't find the source, I'd have someone look at it. There's nothing like losing a document you haven't saved becuase your computer decided to crap out. Let us know what you find out and good luck!!

 

Thanks for the reply,
The OS is XP Professional with XP Pro Small Business Software.

 

doesn't sound like it but make sure you don't have this new worm http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/security/news/article.php/3352871

download http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm prime95 stress test software run the torture test, if your sysetm isn't stable it will crash it and if your system is over heating it will crash it. My first guess is that since you've had your machine for a year it needs to be cleaned out a bit so the thermal mod isn't dissipating heat properly. while running that program or a dvd or something that is stressful put your hand near the fan exhaust vent to see if the fan is even turning on, if not you got a problem. Everything in a laptop is rigged to save power so this little ic on the system board that monitors temperture turns on the fan when the processor starts getting too hot. If the vents on the thermal mod are clogged with dust it will evetually over heat. If you are lucky a warning msg will popup telling you that you have a cooling problem and to shut down the computer and turn in the laptop to a service center. The truth is that it could be a lot of things ranging from software to even that little ic on the system board that is known to go out. It takes a little troubleshooting to figure out whats wrong, but most likely its dust or software.

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