Hello. I am hoping someone here has more knowledge with computers than I do and can help me. I am running a Toshiba Satellite laptop. I have had this computer for over a year now. All of a sudden it has started shutting down by itself.
Now I have taken the bottom off and blown all the dust out of there. But, it still keeps shutting off. I have deleted different programs that I thought was causing the problem, but that didn't help. I have also burned off some of the movies I had on my computer and deleted those files. All in the hopes of freeing up some space and possibly helping it out that way.
I noticed in the settings that some of them were set to hybernate and or shut down the monitor after a few minutes. I don't know how they got that way, but I set them to never..or as high as it would go for each setting (up to 5 hours on some of them).
Then I have also propped the laptop up to give it more air flow.

This does not seem to have helped it either. So if anyone has any ideas on what I can do to make this stop, I would be forever grateful.
Before it was shutting down every few minutes. Now I can get hours in the morning when it works fine, but then craps out. This morning I was wondering the net and things were fine. Then it shut down and I couldn't bring it back up. Every time I tried to click back on my side after the W elcome page (Windows XP) it would shut off again.
Yesterday it shut off at one point but not completely. I had to hold the power button down for 7 seconds to make it shut all the way off.
Again, I have tried everything I know of, and things I have seen on line..as well as things I just made up. lol But, to no great satisfaction. This computer was expensive and I can't afford to replace it. I am going to be saving all my files and photos, etc. because I do find myself visualizing beating it with a hammer and I can't do that with all those files in there. lol
ladyalpha

P.S.
Please speak to me like a 3 year old. I won't take offense to it and I really don't know much. If you talk to me in computer jargon I will be lost and will irriate you by asking how to find such thing, etc. lol

run your virus scan to make sure you also have not picked up a spyware.

I had one and ended up with a new puter cause I ouwld have had to completely reformatted a 7 year old dinosaur!

It sounds like it could be the battery. Do you have it plugged in when it turns off?

OR

Do you remember when it started happening? Is it recently? Windows XP has a feature that lets you revert your computer's settings to a past day. I've had to do that a few times with my computer with viruses or other nasty such things. If you do have a virus that could be an option for you.

Ok, going to try to get this typed up before it shuts off again. (I was in midsentence last time).
I checked it for spyware and deleted off all that it found. It has since shut down three times since then, so that apparently wasn't the problem.
I checked the computer for rootkits and none were found. So that is good. But, also not whatever is causing this issue.
I am currently doing a virus check, although last time I did a scan I came up fine. But, it is worth checking again so hopefully this time it will come back alright too.

I run the computer plugged in almost all the time. The computer is recognizing that I am on ac power and the battery is at 100%. I will talk to my husband though and see if he can remember roughly when this problem began. If it was before or after our girls were on here.
They were watching a movie and turned off the power strip somehow and ran the battery down to almost dead. I do remember that it would not run until the battery had been completely recharged. So perhaps that is the problem with it. But, I don't see how that could have screwed it up this badly. Since it has been powered back up for a week now and not unplugged or accidently had the power removed from it since then.

I am really at my wits end. I keep fanning it every few minutes hoping that it might be just overheating and that will appease it. lol
I was in the middle of my virus scan earlier when it died so I had to restart that. Virus scans take so long I really don't want to have to keep trying to do one every few minutes.
Thank you for all your ideas. I am testing them all out. If nothing else, it lets me know that my computer is taken care of in those areas and rules out potential issues so hopefully it will narrow it down to the actual problem.
ladyalpha

Merry Meet Ladyalpha,

After building many desktops ( im not as familiar with laptops, but computers are generally the same) I know there could be many problems.

1. A Faulty Power Supply Unit
2. Believe it or not, the RAM can make the computer shut down like that. IF thats the case, and you want to try it out, go to www.memtest.org, try and burn a a memory test cd, and then reboot with the disk in your drive.
3. I don't know if you did this or not, because it wasn't in your posts, try removing the battery and running it off the AC adapter. IF it shuts off that way, you either have a faulty AC adapter or a faulty Power Supply Unit.
4. When you turn the laptop on, does the fan turn on? If it isn't there's a BIGG problem. Then the entire problem would be overheating, and if the fan isn't running, could mean a loose cable, a short in the wire etc.
5. i don't know how Toshiba runs their warranties, but if yours hasnt expired yet, then send it back in and have them look at it. If it falls under the warrenty then they will fix it free of charge. Of course, when you send it in, try and make sure it looks like you haven't tampered with it, because I would think it would void the warranty.
6. When you boot the computer, does it make any noises at startup? You didn't give a model number, and don't take this the wrong way, but you probably didn't pay much for it (Because I don't either for laptops, all my designing goes on the desktops)
I was looking at the motherboard for the Satellite series, and if the problem is the CPU overheating, then the motherboard itselfs would actually make a noise that sounds like a fire engine. Its the same as my desktop motherboard, but I had to be sure.
7. Like they were saying up above, it could be a virus or spyware, and something like this could be easily solved. Reinstalling Windowswith a clean swipe might do it, but I don't reccomend it due to the fact that all your files will be lost ( unless you back them up ) but if it is hardware and the laptops shuts down while setup is running, it might corrupt files, but its always a risk.
8. I looked on the Toshiba website for help to see if they had any similar problems. I didn't have a model number from your specific laptop, but try updating your BIOS.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp
Click the Downloads link. Find your model of computer and download the BIOS.

9. I know of another way to append the problem, but Im not even sure if this will work, and this something I would reccomand not trying at all, unless you feel comfortable about doing it. On your motherboard, you have jumpers. Reseting them would work. I'm can't help you with a laptop though, but if you pulled up the schematics for the motherboard I could tell you what to do.
10. Last idea I have for you is to remove the CMOS battery and put it back in. Thats located on the motherboard too.


Thats all the advice I can give. I reccomend contacting Toshiba first to see if the warranty is still valid, and let them do it though.

Blessed be,

Fate

Thank you Fate for taking the time to look things up and give me information. I had read about updating the BIOS, because this is a common problem with Toshiba laptops apparently. I however was not sure where to go to do that. I read from those that did that procedure though that it did not help their computer from shutting down but did slow their computer way down. So I think I may do that as a last resort.

I had also read where someone put more RAM on their computer and that helped. I have been removing large files from my computer in order to bring some of my storage back up, as I can not afford to buy anything new for this computer at this time.

Like most things the computer worked great until the warrenty ran out. Isn't that the way it usually goes with things though?
I spent almost 800 dollars on this computer, and I must admit I did expect it to last longer than a year.
I read that people are allegally filing a class action suit against Toshiba because of the high accurance of this problem. I am not sure if that is true or not. But, true or not, I wasn't too happy to read now that it is such a huge occurance.
But, other than the above things mentioned the highest recommendation has been to clean out the dust in the fan area. We did that and it needed it, but as I said it didn't stop the problem.

Oh, do I hear a fan run..yes. And the vent blows out warm air. When it shuts down the computer does not feel hot.
I will remove the battery and see if running it straight off ac makes it work better.
It is working well right now but the last time it shut down I just left it. That was a couple of hours ago.

I will not be doing anything with the motherboard. I don't have a clue how to do that and if I want to destroy the computer I am sure I can do it in a much faster way. lol
I will go and check the link you gave for the RAM and see what I find there.
Thanks again. Oh, as for all the specs on the machine, I have a Satellite A55 Series. The book says that it may shut down to keep from damaging or losing files, but doesn't say why or what to do to make it stop. :roll:
ladyalpha

Oh, I also do not appear to have a virus, rootkit files or spyware that is causing this problem. So it seems to be something due to the computer itself.
Could running the battery out and then recharging it cause this problem? (In my mind it wouldn't, but then again, I am not sure..).

I just took the pieces off the bottom of the computer again and blew things out again. I made sure to get in where the fan is, and some little stuff came out. So maybe that was the problem. Now you can still hear the computer but you have to really listen. It was loud before and when you pulled up anything that took the least bit of power it sounded like it was revving itself up to take off. lol I have opened two programs that before had it sounding really loud and it didn't make any more noise than what it has been since I recleaned it.
So, hopefully this will cure this problem. I'm almost afraid to think otherwise. Every time I think I fixed it, it shuts down again. I think just to prove me wrong. lol

I did remove the battery also and put it back in. Before I did that, I had tried restarting the computer (after a shut down on its own) without ac power. I got an error message and it shut itself down again. So after taking out the battery and cleaning everything, I tried with just the battery again. Everything worked fine.
I now have it back on the ac power and things seem to be doing alright right now. We will see though.

I have seen this little cooler thingy that goes underneath laptops to help alleviate overheating somewhat.

I think I saw it at Target.

At first I thought it was your power saving settings, maybe it still is. Seeing as how you already altered those settings and the computer keeps shutting down on you, I personally think you might either have a virus or some defective parts. If your warrenty isn't up yet, take it to your dealer and have them take a look at it.

Well, as soon as she opened the laptop, the warranty is void. So theres no point there. Maybe it was the fan not cooling the Chassis enough and the temperture reading was going off. Who knows, maybe one of the solutions i gave you can help lol. I glad its working somewhat now.

Blessed be,
fate

computers!!! sheesh!

Seems these big companies got us by the nether parts!

Thank you all for your help. The warrenty was done before I opened it, so we didn't worry much about that. lol
But, it seems everything is working fine now. I reblew out everything and the fan did have a tiny bit of dust left in there from the first time we blew everything out. So perhaps that was what was causing the problems. The fan now runs quietly again.

I'm not sure if it was blowing things out that fixed it or taking the battery out and putting it back in that did it. Or if it was a combination of the two things. But, I am grateful that it does.
And I was happy that I did not have a virus or other problem like that causing it.

Everyone here gave me more ideas than I could find just doing a search. All the searches would bring up was how to remove the CPU and blow it out. Which was fine the first time but when it didn't help, it lost all its helpfulness.
Knock on wood everything works and will continue to.

Laptops are notorious for many issues because of their portability. Thats why I prefer a desktop, but I use a laptop for school purposes.

i dont know much about labtops either, but you can also try taking and talking with a computer guy at office depot or radio shack that may offer solutions as well, and i would like to echo that i feel it was the battery all this time, you may need to get another one just in case.
i will talk to a co worker at work tomarrow and let you know what they say that it could be. Hang in there and we will work together in helping you out with your situation.

red feather

Thank you Red Feather. It is fixed now and working great, like nothing ever happened. But, if you can find out what your co-workers opinion is of what it might have been, that would be great.
Maybe perhaps between the running down the battery and then having to blow out all the dust, the computer couldn't register things correctly internally.
It should run without a battery right? I mean when it is plugged in?Other than the time that they happened to hit the power strip button, it has been plugged in and on total ac power.

Anyway, other than having information for next time, I am just happy that I managed to do something to make it work again.