Laptop Problem

[crc-ict]

I have been asked to look a friend's laptop which has been behaving strangely lately. It is a Toshiba Satellite 1900, P4 2.4GHz, about 3 years old.

 

When she uses the machine, after about 10 minutes or so, it switches itself off. No shutdown sequence, no error messages, no beeps or anything, just powers straight off.

 

It seems to happen more quickly when the processor is working hard. The fan can be heard to be running fast, and speeding up as workload increases.

 

I have removed a door from the bottom of the machine which exposes a metal cover adjacent to a ventilation grille on one side and the outlet of the fan unit on the other, and this is extremely hot to the touch.

 

I am guessing that perhaps the fan is running but not blowing properly for some reason? I was wondering if anyone here had any other ideas, and also whether anyone knows of a good source of Toshiba laptop spares, preferably who are willing to deal direct with the public.

 

I'd be grateful to hear any suggestions - I'm running out of ideas!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

[Ric_]

For spares you might want to try Stuart at 1st Technologies (01254 878800) and he would be able to sort you out with a nice non-Toshiba laptop very cheap if yuo decide that the thing is royally screwed.

 

Not recommended but can you turn off the automatic shutdown in the BIOS? If so you may be able to rule out whether or not it is the heat that is causing it to power off.

[_Bat_]

Probably a different problem, but just before I read this post I have been playing with a toshiba satellite 1400 (like, six years old). It has a similar problem, it kept cutting out completely and the more quickly it was switched back on again, the quicker it would cut out.

 

Even though the laptop registered the AC power as being connected, I swapped the power cable for one from the other working laptops and hey presto, it works fine (as of the moment).

[john]

I have had a Toshiba laptop where it does that, and it is the CPU over heating and shutting it down for safety. The issue is the veins in the heatsink get clogged with dust internally, so it cannot pass the air through them. I take the heat sink off completley, remove the dirt, blow it all out, put new thermal paste on and screw it back on and job done.