Notebook Computer Just Crashes

[29dinosaur]

G'day wise computer boffins. I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook computer which seems so power hungry that the fan is always working hard and if I run too many programs-tasks at once will crash. Notebook just switches off. This also occurs when on net and I want to play a youtube video. Video will start and once into it and obvious power consumption going up, computer will just die (read switch off). Notebook is Toshiba satellite about 3-4yo. Windows XP home pentium 4 2.7gHz, 736M RAM.

Any ideas? I've had it 2 two ordinary PC techos who can't see why...
I'm presuming that overheating and some safety switch kicks in...??

[incisor]

my order of attack would be along these lines i think

is it a fan equiped model?

do you own any hairy pets or are you a hairy sort of guy or does it live in a fluffy environment (shag pile carpet etc etc) or do you smoke when using it?

is it used in an environment where dust is a problem ?

if so then have it serviced and cleaned by someone that will actually pull it apart. i have pulled truly amazing amounts of hair/fluff from laptops that had been previously "cleaned".

power supply, low power (low voltage, high voltage, right voltage but low current)= heat and unreliable behaviour just like you describe.

hard drive, some hard drives generate a lot of heat as they get older and esp if they get a "write" bad sector, which windows has absolutely no concept of handling properly. this will cause it to just shutdown for no apparent reason. use a util to do a safe write sector check, (eg pc-check or microscope)

does it affect your tv or anything else sensitive to RF like an am transistor nearby? (eg lines or noises) when running or shutting down? if so it will be an electronic component breaking down, causing voltage drop, which in turn causes heat, again hard drive is often the cause.

hope it helps

[abaddonxi]

Sounds like an internal fan is stuffed. P4s run pretty hot, particularly in the confined space of a laptop case. There are lots of instructions for pulling apart a laptop on the net. Some sites have step-by-step with pictures. CPU fan might be Toshiba proprietary part, but just as likely to be found at Jaycar or similar. Expect about an hour to pull apart and another to reassemble.

Or dodgy motherboard, some Toshibas have motherboard power supplies that start to go funny. If that's the case new motherboard or new laptop.

Cheers
Simon

[tracker]

try a external laptop fan.they work well .