cats-eye

Hi,

Random shut down. No reboot, no blue screen, just shut down. No error message or anything on startup. Can go for days without happening, then it'll start happening every ten minutes. Then days again.

First thought was memory. Had a memory problem a year ago but with completely different symptoms, and was solved with new card.

Second thought - pcmcia card slot has broken roughly at same time (card no longer functions, eject button doesn't work) so maybe something physical loose causing sudden shut down?

Any ideas gratefully received.

usasma

Have you blown the vents out with canned air? (don't use a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor as this can damage the components).

Have you verified that the fans are working?
Can you look inside the PMCIA slot (with a flashlight) to see if there is anything loose in there?

cats-eye

Hi, thanks for response. The pcmcia eject arm was loose, but I've removed that now, but problem still persists. Nothing obviously loose in there. All pins seem intact.

Problem gets worse after laptop's been on for a while, so maybe it is temperature related, although the laptop certainly doesn't feel hot, and fans seem to be working normally.

Could some component have become oversensitive to heat changes?

usasma

It depends on what happened when the PMCIA slot got broken (or another impact?) This is the most likely cause of the problem since it seems to have occurred around the same time.

Most problems that I see in the shop are due to dust clogging the vents/fans over time. If so, you'll see a lot of dust come out when blowing it with the canned air.

Next most common is fan failure, followed by dirt inside that can't be blown out, followed by all sorts of interior problems (we don't do that in my shop - we send them to a service center).

cats-eye

Thanks. I've cleaned out the vents, which were a bit dusty, but I've seen worse. Also, the temperature of the laptop is nowhere (on the upper or lower casing) getting any hotter than normal.

There hasn't been any impact on the laptop.

However, the last time I cleaned the vents, I discovered the heatsink had welded to the cpu, which I believe is not uncommon. This time the heatsink wasn't welded at all, which is strange. I wondered if some of the heat conductive paste might have gone, and that might account for the cpu overheating?

What do you think?

cats-eye

Help anyone?

usasma

If there's nothing securing the cooler to the CPU - this is the most likely reason for your problems.

Thermal paste (such as Arctic Silver) is necessary to ensure that there's good heat transfer once the cooler is secured against the CPU