Random shut-off? (Laptops)

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-09-20 12:54pm

Was on the subway operating my laptop with well over 80% of battery life remaining, when spontaneously it just went out -- no shutdown sequence, no indication, just the monitor and lights of it going out, and then I wasn't able to turn it back on (removing and reinserting the battery did nothing) until class, where I found that it needed a wall outlet to turn back on but it wasn't needed to stay on.

Any idea what gives?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-20 12:57pm

Your battery just decided to die?

Post by **Edi** » 2006-09-20 02:13pm

It's also possible there's something fucked up with the componets that handle power transfer from battery to the rest of the machine. You should check it with another battery and if the problem persists, the problem is with the laptop itself. If that is the case, you should have somebody look at it and measure whether there's current and/or voltage going from the battery to the machine. That'd require some disassembly of the machine and someone who knows what he's doing, though, so you might have to take it to a repair shop. Better hope it's a bad battery.

Edi

Post by **Kuja** » 2006-09-20 03:41pm

Perhaps it overheated? I've seen laptops that were literally melted by the ehat they were putting out while running.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-09-20 04:14pm

Kuja wrote:Perhaps it overheated? I've seen laptops that were literally melted by the ehat they were putting out while running.

That too. Check the ventilation apertures for blocakge and dust and use compressed air to clean them out. Also, if the ventilation fan has broken down, the laptop will be useless until it's replaced.

Edi

Steven Snyder · Post by **Steven Snyder** » 2006-09-20 05:05pm

Edward Yee wrote:I wasn't able to turn it back on (removing and reinserting the battery did nothing) until class, where I found that it needed a wall outlet to turn back on but it wasn't needed to stay on.

Now I know that actually booting up a computer requires more power than just having it running.

I wonder if your battery is going out and is able to supply enough voltage to maintain operation, but not enough to go through the startup.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-09-20 05:37pm

Check the ventilation apertures for blocakge and dust and use compressed air to clean them out.

That was the fix last time, but I had to go to a repair guy to do it (and probably may have to again).

Funny thing is, now it's actually done this while plugged in... sometimes a simple press was enough to get it back on, one time I had to unplug it and replug it before it would...

(Would "hope" that it's a bad battery, but those're over $100 -- my dad wouldn't buy a replacement AC adapter til it became $60 instead of $80 -- and this is actually not the first instance; it's just been at least a month since it happened, as a "mom and pop" repair place solved that a while back. If it helps, I've a HP Pavilion dv1000-series, dv1040us.)

I have a Targus USB-powered cooling pad, but I think that the durability in the cable is shoddy at best -- when it stopped working once my dad ended up having to cut off the power switch box and reconnect the two connective ends (so now I can't turn it off without unplugging it) to get it to work, so our assumption was a problem in the switch, but now the thing doesn't work and without the switch the source of the problem isn't so clear to me.

P.S. Anyone have tips on making sure that cables don't bend at their ends (where they become a plug or enter a box)?

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-09-20 10:15pm

I wonder if your battery is going out and is able to supply enough voltage to maintain operation, but not enough to go through the startup.

That wouldn't explain the spontaneous shutoffs, though, unless the battery's supplying fails during operation (albeit after working for a bit) as well...

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-09-21 01:26am

Is it a Toshiba? Toshiba just issued a recall for batteries that would randomly shut off.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-09-21 10:13am

No, as stated in my second post here it's a hand-me-down HP Pavilion dv1000, all OEM components (albeit with a non-functioning optical drive that would cost "too much" to replace), and the battery is the OEM battery that came with the thing.

I've heard of the Sony and Dell (and now the Toshiba) recalls, but I've heard nothing about anything HP-related, unless HP gets batteries made by Sony.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-09-21 01:14pm

BAH! It just went and froze (no Blue Screen of Death, just complete non-response) on me today, though no spontaneous shutdowns today...

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Random shut-off? (Laptops)

Random shut-off? (Laptops)

Re: Random shut-off? (Laptops)