Laptop shutting off on random occasions

O

Oohah

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
91
Hello

I have this laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A-200 series. I've had it for a year now (bought it used).

For the past two months, it has been abruptly shutting off on random occasions. The problem seems to get worse every week.

I'm wondering if this problem is related to my battery? I noticed that battery life time has decreased alot in the last 6 months... And it usually occurs when battery is charging, although it also happens when it is not...

Anyone have had similar problems?

Should I replace my battery?

Thanks for answering.
 
First thought I have is heat. A dust buildup would produce those exact symptoms, especially the progressive problems. The abrupt shutoff in this case would be the cpu hitting it's thermal limit and shutting down.

I'd take a can of air to the vents and see what comes out, if it's a lot, consider taking the casing apart to blow out the inside.
 
First suspect is overheating. This is usually caused - at least on laptops - by one of the following or a combination of all of them to some degree:

- Dirt/Gunk/Lint trapped in the CPU cooling fan
- Bad fan, as they do sometimes just stop working
- Dirt/Gunk/Lint trapped in the heatsink itself (usually appears as a silver/copper piece of hardware when viewed through the air vents
- Dirt/Gunk/Lint trapped in the air vents themselves

The suggestion above about compressed air is the best solution, albeit a potentially temporary one. Blast all the vents that appear to be pulling air into the laptop and look for a puff of dirt/dust to come out some other vent. If you notice this, that's a good sign. Personally when I get such a machine from a client/customer, I disassemble the case to get direct access to the fan/heatsink assembly and blast it clean which is the best possible solution.

But some laptops are notoriously difficult to disassemble, or they make you literally tear the whole thing apart top to bottom to get to what you're trying to access. Seems stupid but, that's how things go.

Good luck...
 
I knew this was going to be a toshiba thread even before clicking.
 
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