Help! Toshiba laptop shuts down by itself (crashes)

[neil_ski]

Hi all
I did a search but couldn't find anything.
I have a Toshiba Satellite that's about 4-5 years old. I'm running XP home edition.
I've done a sytem restore twice now on my Toshiba laptop. But it crashes/totally shuts down a week after I did it.

I've loaded all the updates,
I'm running the internet through a cable modem and a Belkin pre-n wireless router. I'm told both work as a firewall. Plus I activated the Explorer firewall. I had tried Zone alarm on the first try.
When it started dying I tried all the spyware programs, AVG antivirus and hijack this.
It almost seems to happen after I load a few programs.

It seems to happen when it's warm. I've tried blowing canned air into the vents in case there is a dirt buildup. But it didn't help the first time.

I'm stumped! Anyone have any ideas?
I'm getting married next week and need my computer for the planning stuff.

HELP!
Tnx
Neil

 

[kitty500cat]

It seems to me you might be getting a heat problem, that it shuts itself down to prevent damage. I don't know how to fix it, but you may need to get a new one or get it serviced (unless you know how to take it apart).
Hoping to help
kitty500cat

 

[Ididmyc600]

Hi all
I did a search but couldn't find anything.
I have a Toshiba Satellite that's about 4-5 years old. I'm running XP home edition.
I've done a sytem restore twice now on my Toshiba laptop. But it crashes/totally shuts down a week after I did it.

I've loaded all the updates,
I'm running the internet through a cable modem and a Belkin pre-n wireless router. I'm told both work as a firewall. Plus I activated the Explorer firewall. I had tried Zone alarm on the first try.
When it started dying I tried all the spyware programs, AVG antivirus and hijack this.
It almost seems to happen after I load a few programs.

It seems to happen when it's warm. I've tried blowing canned air into the vents in case there is a dirt buildup. But it didn't help the first time.

I'm stumped! Anyone have any ideas?
I'm getting married next week and need my computer for the planning stuff.

HELP!
Tnx
Neil

When it crashes, does it blue screen, freeze, just shut down, if it just freezes when its warm then I would agree that it may be a heat issue and to follow the above advice,
If it blue screens then post the minidump and we can analyze it.
If it just shuts down then it could be some kind if safety device on the laptop to prevent heat damage and again follow the above advice.

 

[neil_ski]

When it crashes, does it blue screen, freeze, just shut down, if it just freezes when its warm then I would agree that it may be a heat issue and to follow the above advice,
If it blue screens then post the minidump and we can analyze it.
If it just shuts down then it could be some kind if safety device on the laptop to prevent heat damage and again follow the above advice.

I have it sitting on a wire rack right now. It hasn't done it yet. Seems to help keep it cool.
But to answer your question,
It just basically shuts completely off. No blue screen, no nothing. It's there, and then it's gone.

I suspect my cat's and their lovely fur has something to do with it.
Time to pull it apart and clean it?
Thanks!

 

[rev_olie]

a if u say u have cats then you may have gad the same experiance as me. sometimes the dust and fur gets into the fan and then along with the worm air heatrs up and cloggs the fan so less of the heat gets out. The best method i used was a can of pressurised air it works a treat.

 

[Amabio]

I'm having the same trouble...the poster above mentioned that it was due to overheating...I believe this to be the case. I'm going to crack my laptop and clean it with some compressed air (do not touch unless you ground yourself!). I will probably have to remove and clean my vents and fans because I am a smoker and it causes 'sticky' build up....if your computer continues to overheat then you might try slowing the clock speed of the CPU. Call Toshiba customer service if you have to.

 

[Tedster]

I smoke also (cigars) - but I never smoke around computers. Smoke of any kind is bad for computer systems.

 

[neil_ski]

I cleaned it but it didn't look to bad.
My brother suggested that I might have a faulty ram card.
I pulled the card out that I bought last year, and sure enough, no more shutdowns!
Surprisingly it runs ok on 256Meg of ram.
Thanks for the help!