Computer shutting down

[irishcrazy2005]

This is completely unrelated to trading, but I figured that I might be able to find help here. I am running an emachines M6811 notebook with Windows XP SP2. The problem that I am having has occured three times over the last week or so (once last week and twice today). Basically, I am doing something and the computer just turns off randomly. All three times I have been doing something that is at least slightly computationally heavy. Twice it was decoding FLAC files to WAV, and once it was running an antivirus scan. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe the laptop is overheating. The vents are clear, but the bottom of the computer is very very hot. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

-Phil

[Cruzweb]

could be overheating, the fan capping out or something. If you got bad RAM it can make the PC restart, don't know about shutting down though

[toys]

How much space is available on your hard drive, and when was the last time you did a defrag? A little while back I was getting PC shutdowns, and freeing up some space on my drive and doing a defrag solved the problem.

[U2Lynne]

Someone had posted a url to a handy little utility that would keep track of your PC temperature. Maybe that would help if you think it has to do with overheating. Try reading this thread: http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1657&highlight=temperature

[Punkishlyevil]

My guess is it is over heating. For a long time, my computer would completly randomly restart, then it got to just shutting down. I got Motherboard Monitor 5 to keep track of temperatures, and it turned out I was running around 70+ degrees Celcius. My computer had an auto shut down at 75 degrees Celsius so I'd check that out.

[toys]

:) i still think that the motherboard monitor program is very very cool

[TheMamba]

Heat and disk space are the 2 easiest to figure out, eliminate, or fix. If things start randomly shutting down, etc. it is probably one of those.

Read thru the link that Lynn posted and see if that helps.

[Evan811]

:) i still think that the motherboard monitor program is very very cool

where can i get one of these?

[irishcrazy2005]

Well I don't think it is the hard drive, as I have plenty of disk space and it has been defragged recently. Thus, I am going to chock it up to heat. If it continues to be a problem, maybe I will have to get an external cooler. I tried installing that motherboard monitoring program, but I do not know what the model of my motherboard is. Does anyone know how to figure this out? I looked on Google, and the only thing I found was:
Motherboard:
CPU Type Mobile AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3400+
Motherboard Name eMachine Shadow-K8
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8383/5 Apollo K8T800(M), AMD Hammer
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Phoenix (07/28/04)

This does not appear to be supported by the program. Thanks for all the help, and any help on this issue would also be appreciated.

-Phil

[feralicious]

You should get yourself a laptop cooler if you're running it a lot and it's getting that hot. If you haven't heard of them, they're like little platforms you set your laptop on and they have fans in them that keep it cool. Some of them also have usb ports in the back so you get a "hub" with it.

Try coolerguys or xtremepc, they seem to have good prices.

[h_vargas]

i'll add in a couple of extra pennies for thought...

first off, a good hardware monitoring program is AIDA32. doing a quick google search (keywords "aida32" and "download") should give you a page to DL it from. this is a fantastic FREEWARE program, that will give you lots of info about *all* of the hardware/functioning of your PC.

second, as previously stated, it is likely overheating. i had this issue with a PC recently. want to know the solution that worked for me? i took off the side panel of the computer, got a can of O2 (compressed air), and thoroughly blew off the CPU and heatsink fan. there was A LOT of heavy dust/dirt caked on it, which was keeping the heatsink from running properly (and hence, overheating came into play).

other possible causes of the random rebooting:

- do you have ZoneAlarm? if so, the "True Vector Service" error may appear multiple times in the Event Manager. check that out. if an error with the True Vector Service has happened a lot, shut down ZoneAlarm (temporarily) and delete the ZoneAlarm files with the extension .RDB, and reboot.

- your video card driver may not be fully compatible. it doesn't matter if WinXP says "the device is working properly" in Device Manager. sometimes, a video card drive *appears* to work okay, but for whatever reason, it isn't working right. and this video driver issue can easily come into play if you never installed a driver for your video card and it's an AGP, for instance, and you just let WinXP use its own built-in driver for the video card.

- bad RAM, as has already been mentioned. you might want to google for a program (freeware) called "memtest 86." copy it to a floppy or a CDR(W) disc, and run it overnight. if no errors pop up, your RAM should be fine.

hope this info is of some use.

oh, p.s. AIDA32 will tell you the exact name/model of your Motherboard. :)

p.p.s. i just re-read the original post, and since there's a laptop involved. it could VERY WELL be, and probably is, an overheating issue. a friend of mine had a laptop (that was 8 months old at the time) that he was about to literally throw away. after some quick research online about the problem (random rebooting, and sometimes the computer not booting up AT ALL), i suggested he open it up and blow it out with compressed air. he didn't feel confident doing that, so he took it to a local computer shop where he lives, and they did it for free. for whatever reason, laptops seem more prone to overheating with a little dust than desktops... my guess is that it's because a laptop doesn't have as much room in the case to begin with, which would mean less space for heat to disperse itself to (and so it hovers around the CPU with nowhere to go).

[feralicious]

Check these out:

http://store.coolerguys.com/noco.html

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=laptop+cooler&image1.x=0&image1.y=0

[Evan811]

from coolerguys, which one of those is the best u think? my lap top gets so hot, i cant even keep it on my legs....

[feralicious]

from coolerguys, which one of those is the best u think? my lap top gets so hot, i cant even keep it on my legs....Evan you better read this (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1369&highlight=careful). ;)

[U2Lynne]

Evan you better read this (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1369&highlight=careful). ;):roflol:

[Evan811]

Evan you better read this (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1369&highlight=careful). ;)
:eek:

[animekenji]

This is most likely a heat issue. My M6811 recently started exhibiting the same behavior. The problem is the two vents on the rear of the machine. They become clogged with dust very easily. Blowing them out from the outside, is only a temporary fix as all the dust trapped in the vents will get blown inside and eventually make it's way back to where it was and cause the machine to overheat again. You need to get inside and blow the dust out, not in. Don't try this if your machine is still under warranty. There are plenty of guides posted on the net about opening an M6811, so I won't go into the details here. You just have to get in there with an air compressor or a can of compressed air and blow on the inside of those vents until they shine and no longer have hairy, powdery build up on them anymore. I keep my machine on my lap, so I noticed a huge drop in the case temperature, and my fans hardly ever go anymore since I unblocked the vents. I also picked up about 25 minutes of additional battery life because the fans aren't struggling all the time to keep the thing cool. Just a warning, though. If you plan on blowing the vents from the outside using your breath, be prepared for an eyeful of dust from each one. It may take 3-4 really good blows to clear them enough to bring the temperature down. When I first checked mine, I felt NO airflow coming from the smaller vent at all. After blowing, a warm draft was definitely noticeable. Hope this helps.

[quibbs0]

I know mine has shut off like that too....sometimes in the middle of a burn or a heavy conversion (grrrrr)...

I noticed the fan is on the bottom and the coffee table I keep it on was really warm. I added some rubber feet to the bottom which keeps it up just another half inch or so and found it gives much better ventilation and doesn't do that much anymore.

Also if I am going to do something intensive (like a conversion in tmpgenc), I'll sorta leave the spot where the fan is to hang a little off the edge of the coffee table so the air is definately getting in there.

Worth a shot