My laptop turns off unexpectedly

Hello widestination,

Your system should be able to run windows fine (although adding more details to your system specs is the only way for me to tell. How long have you had it for?

Does it just suddenly shut off black/no sound? Are you using an A/C adapter at the time this happens or just battery? (and make sure there's no magnets stuck to the case or close to it - happened to someone the other day with similar presentation)

What types of apps are you talking about running and how many? (this could obviously play a role)

Might it be over heating? does it have adequate ventilation? You may need to invest in a $15 fan stand especially if it is on a flat desktop or similar.


Mike

so you mean it happens even when the A/C is in and it is setup to be charging the battery, your sure! Because if the battery is too low and the cord gets touched or pulled , maybe even breathed on with some computers (and the quality of the jack soldering) it will have no acceptable power to resort to for a instant, and may shut off.

Assuming thats not the case, it could be malware, What type of Anti-virus protection do you have? and do you ever run a scan for malware?

How long has this been going on?

It can often be due to heat, any ventilation may be beneficial,

Mike

The cause should be logged in Performance log at time of failure: troubleshooting steps

If not and it compiled a bugcheck log of the crash then post it up in our Crashes forum where it can be analyzed with certainty: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Forums

I use Avast! 6 Internet Security to protect my system. I don't think it's the best in the market, but it takes low resource! Should I try something else?
In another thread here I read about the heatsink gets dirty and hence the problem can occur (hell if I know that). Can that be a problem? What should I do to clean that?

Avast is a pretty solid product for the average home user. I wouldn't see any reason to switch.

And yes fans and heatsinks do get rather dusty, it's humid enough here in Florida, US to cake on rather quickly, but in most cases, you can blow some canned air (usually its just pressurized carbon dioxide) and spray some laptops through the vent holes, as long as you think you can pull of a strategy to try to get the dust OUT more than IN. But just blowing a puff of it (while the computers off) will get a cloud of dust to be released (But how are you going to be able to determine where the heat sink is from the exterior?)

Mike

widestination said:

You're right Mike. From outside, I simply can't figure out where the heat-sink is located. Should I open up my system for that?

Only you can make that determination, you just have to balance out your level of ability, with your willingness to a risk. Be careful, as not to supply any static electricity, to anything metal inside, unless you know it to be ground or you are otherwise grounded. (obviously I'm assuming you know what I mean, otherwise I'd recommend just Pushing as much air "threw" the case as possible. If you do decide to open it, this heat-sinks vary in appearance, but are often just a bent piece of copper tubing/rod that will be attached to a flat plate to make better contact with the CPU, etc. Just be sure to avoid separating the plate from the CPU, unless you really feel like diving in and have some type of thermal compound to replace the existing older dryer paste.

widestination said:

I have put my hands on old desktop CPUs before, but barely have a clue about laptops.

Just think very tiny screws, and much tighter spaces, with little in the way of extra space!

widestination said:

But I wanna solve it by myself anyway rather than taking it to any hardware store (my warranty has just expired, but I don't think that heat-sink falls under warranty!). What do you suggest? Take a chance and open it up?

I know the feeling, again, I don't want to say "yes" then your next start with an "Oops!" It halfway between a cell phone and a desktop, I think you can judge from past experience.

I don't know if you read any of the links posted by Greg (post#7,) but they may help you figure out with more certainty what the problem actually is, as we are simply looking toward a possible cause, by using more of a statistical method. They should contain well-documented, easy-to-follow directions.

Obviously, it can't hurt to "properly" get the dust out of you laptop's ventilation system whether it's the cause or not, It would surely be eventually.

And while I don't have any links for you right now, It wouldn't hurt to have an application that reveals your system/HDD/CPU/etc.. temperatures. Of the top of my head you could use Piriform's Speccy which will also let you see many other properties of your laptop, as well as save them to a file for later comparison or upload for us to get a better understanding of a problem you may seem to have.

Good luck!
Mike