Posted by Mike Goodey on 6/20/12 1:27pm
Msg #424114

Has anyone had this happen?

Actually this isn't a notary question, but, my Dell Latitude is 4 years old...recently I purchased a battery and chill mat for it...but it has started to turn off by itself after a couple of hours. The battery is at 99% so it isn't that...No, don't say it...I don't want to hear "It's time for a new laptop!" It's been running fine for a long time, just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what action they took....thanks.

Reply by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 6/20/12 1:38pm
Msg #424119

Well if its any comfort, I have a Dell Inspirion 1420 laptop

still running fine...about 4 years now. I do think the life span of laptops are a bit longer than pc's...but not by much. I'm looking to upgrade to a larger screen soon...

Do you still have a warranty on yours?

I've not bought the additional stuff, too expensive and useless IMO, sorry. But do you think it could be the chill mat not working probably?

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 6/20/12 1:48pm
Msg #424123

Possibly overheating? Is the little fan inside clean

or clogged, causing the laptop to overheat. That's what was wrong with my Dell...clean the fan and presto...runs like a champ

Reply by Mike Goodey on 6/20/12 4:51pm
Msg #424144

Re: Possibly overheating? Is the little fan inside clean

Ive noticed that it does seem to overheat, that is why I purchased a chill mat and a dell battery because other battery wasn't holding a charge. I'll check the fans, thanks.

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 6/20/12 1:55pm
Msg #424124

Did you buy a Dell or an aftermarket battery?

Many aftermarket batteries do not work in the various computers, be they Dell, Toshiba, etc.

I had this issue when I bought an aftermarket battery and charger. I have an older Dell Inspiron 1500. There is a workaround in the BIOS, but I won't go into that here as if you make one little error, you can render the computer inoperative without professional help. A tech at a computer shop, if you know one, can do the workaround.

Clean it up and make sure all the cooling ports are open, as others have said. If it's clean and has plenty of ventilation, then sounds to me like it's you bought an aftermarket battery.

Reply by Jessica Ward on 6/20/12 5:29pm
Msg #424148

Re: Did you buy a Dell or an aftermarket battery?

We've had this problem sporadically with our two "twin" HP laptops.

The problem tends to fall into one of two categories:
1. "gunk" in the fan. (My daughter likes to let the cat sleep next to the computer as she works... needless to say, she's not allowed to touch my machines. The kid kills computers for sport.)

2. An electrical "memory."

We resolve "gunk" by opening up the computer and blowing it all out with compressed air.

We resolve the electrical memory problem by unplugging and removing the battery, and then hold down the power button for one full minute. This drains the backup memory. Then plug the computer in and power on. Once it's powered on (on the AC power) plug the battery in.

We get electrical memory problems every other year or so with each machine--I think it has to do with improper shutdown too frequently (for example, just shutting the "lid" rather than powering off the machine).

Hope that helps,
JW

Reply by JAM/CA on 6/20/12 9:14pm
Msg #424165

Yep! My HP Vista was turning itself off and on and bought a chill pad. This morning the laptop crashed completely. Ran out and bought a Windows 7. Then the internet went down in my area. I've been at this since 8 a.m. What a nightmare.

Reply by Teri Davis Newman on 6/21/12 10:33am
Msg #424209

Your cooling fan is full of dust and crap. Get it cleaned out and you can toss the cooling pad. Every time one of my laptops starts doing this it's because of dust and crap in the fan. No cooling or insufficient cooling causes the computer to shut down to protect itself. In a few more weeks it will stop running for more than 5 minutes at a time. You have to have the fans cleaned every 3 or so years or your puter is toast.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 6/21/12 12:46pm
Msg #424228

Yep..we have 2 dogs and 4 cats - that's why I spoke from

experience about this - the tech pulled the fan out of mine and said "here's your problem"..ugh

Reply by Jessica Ward on 6/21/12 2:32pm
Msg #424247

A little more on this--how to repair the heatsink.

I'm digging into the kids computer and throwing in some parts from one of my old ones. It's been doing the same thing and "puff it out with air" hasn't worked, also clearing the battery memory hasn't worked, so I've been digging into the heat sync. I found some documents on repairing/replacing the heatsink. You can add heatsink compound (must explore what this is) or replace the part alltogether if you're someone who isn't intimidated by dismantaling your machine.

If I can get into this machine far enough, I"ll pull the heatsink out and replace it with the one from my "parts" machine, which ran fine until some dust from my trip to Africa wrecked the video card.

Here's the link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01007591&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Reply by VT_Syrup on 6/21/12 3:02pm
Msg #424251

Re: A little more on this--how to repair the heatsink.

The heat sink itself, which is usually a piece of metal with lots of fins, does not go bad, it just gets dusty and covered with pet air, etc. It just needs cleaning. The heat sink compound is a special grease, usually white, that allows heat to flow well from the microprocessor to the heat sink.

The part(s) that might need to be replaced are the fan(s). If the fan is built into the heat sink and the computers are identical, then it might make sense to replace the heat sink.

The links to HP don't recommend taking the computer apart, just blowing canned air into the vents. I wouldn't take it apart unless it was out of warranty and canned air didn't work.

Reply by Clem/CA on 6/21/12 3:40pm
Msg #424254

Re: A little more on this--how to repair the heatsink.

If you do take the heat sink off,(probably not needed), you will need some of this stuff here

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=AS-CMQ2-27G&utm_source=GoogleProducts&utm_medium=ShoppingSites&utm_campaign=AS-CMQ2-27G