Help with laptop shutting down

[frozentundra123456]

Hi, all.
Hope someone has some ideas about a problem a friend is having with his laptop. Occasionally the laptop spontaneoulsy shuts down totally. After waiting a few minutes, he can restart it and use it again, but the problem keeps recurring. There are no error messages or blue screens.

The computer is a couple of year old Asus gaming laptop with an E7450 or something like that, win 7, 4gb of ram and a GTX 260M.

I know it sounds like an overheating issue, but he says the machine is cool and not overheating when the problem occurs. He lives in another city, so I cannot physically look at the machine myself.

He wanted to know if this could be related to the battery, but I said no. Is this correct?? He keeps the comp plugged in all the time. I think he should be able to use it without the battery at all if it is plugged in, right?

So, does anyone else have any suggestions?? Motherboard, memory, bad drivers or some spyware/program that he has downloaded?? He tends to download a lot of games, mods, texture packs, etc.

Any ideas or advice would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

If he's truly leaving it plugged in all the time he may have damaged the battery. Have your friend inspect the battery and make sure it isn't bulging.

 

[Puppies04]

Some laptops will operate without the battery and some won't. If it will run without the battery installed then you can safely assume that it isn't the battery at fault. What is he doing when it shuts down? He can get the nvidia gpu temp gadget and run something like 3dmark06 to check it isn't an overheating problem.

Anonymouseuser do laptop batterys really bulge? I have never seen one do that and I assumed that the plastic case was robust enough to prevent it from being noticible externally.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Anonymouseuser do laptop batterys really bulge? I have never seen one do that and I assumed that the plastic case was robust enough to prevent it from being noticible externally.

Rechargeable batteries can be damaged and/or bulge when left charging for extended periods without use. I did that to an LG mobile phone when I left it plugged in for a couple of months without use. There are some examples online, though most are Macbooks, and I'm not sure if they are bulging for that reason or not. Regardless, you should never leave a rechargeable device plugged in for extended periods.

 

[corkyg]

Remove the battery and run on A/C. If the problem persists, it is not the battery. BTW - I only put my battery in when I travel. At home it is always removed and stored at about 50% charge.

A heat problem does not necessarily extend out to the case. It can be a circuit or component and the system shuts down to protect the laptop. Could be the GPU. Anything OC'd?

 

[spherrod]

As well as the above, can you have him check the temperature etc with a utility just to verify it's not overheating?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Thanks for all the replies. I will pass along the information about not keeping it plugged in too much with the battery installed.
I do think it probably was overheating, and it just did not feel hot outside the case.

What programs can he use to check the GPU and CPU temps??

GPUz and CPUz??

 

[spherrod]

There are some Windows 7/Vista gadgets available which check the temps - I use these

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/addons.html

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

when he has this problem, where is the laptop? make sure its not on a bed or someplace where the air intake is blocked.

 

[spherrod]

when he has this problem, where is the laptop? make sure its not on a bed or someplace where the air intake is blocked.

good shout - that will soon cause the temperature to spiral and he wouldn't necessarily feel it either.

 

[corkyg]

Laptop air flow for cooling also uses the keyboard. Air is drawn in from the keyboard as well as the bottom. It exhausts out of a side vent - you can feel that. Point here is, sometimes closing the lid while the laptop is running can cause a quick uptick in temperature, and if the bottom is on a pillow or something soft, it can really cause an uptick.

 

[paul878]

Some laptops will operate without the battery and some won't. If it will run without the battery installed then you can safely assume that it isn't the battery at fault. What is he doing when it shuts down? He can get the nvidia gpu temp gadget and run something like 3dmark06 to check it isn't an overheating problem.

Anonymouseuser do laptop batterys really bulge? I have never seen one do that and I assumed that the plastic case was robust enough to prevent it from being noticible externally.

All laptop will operate without the battery pack if it is plug into AC.

The shut down problem sounds like the cooling system is clog up with dust.
It is very common with laptop. use a compressor and blast out all the vents. You might have to take the unit apart to clean out the dust, they cake up sometimes.

 

[frozentundra123456]

All laptop will operate without the battery pack if it is plug into AC.

The shut down problem sounds like the cooling system is clog up with dust.
It is very common with laptop. use a compressor and blast out all the vents. You might have to take the unit apart to clean out the dust, they cake up sometimes.

This was my thought too. I did look at the vents and try to blow them out with compressed air. They did not look that dirty, and the cleaning did not seem to help much.
I was reluctant to actually open up the laptop, since it was a relatively expensive one, and it was not my own.

 

[paul878]

Are there any panel on the bottom of the laptop that you can remove and expose the cpu and heatsink? What model is this laptop?

 

[Matt1970]

It more than likely is a cooling issue or an issue where the power jack is loose and starts running off the battery since it lost connection. Battery dies and shuts down the laptop.