Laptop boots, runs and then goes dead

Man, when one thing goes, everything goes. LOL!!!

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds. The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or so, then went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and shut it down. It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before restarting, started it up, same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious signs of trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

Man, when one thing goes, everything goes. LOL!!!

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds. The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or so, then went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and shut it down. It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before restarting, started it up, same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious signs of trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?

Does the laptop stay powered up when you use its A/C power adapter
connected from laptop to a live (non-switched) outlet?

How old is the battery?

Is it a NiCAD or LIthium battery?

Have you added a reminder to some program (i.e., issue you reminders) to
charge its battery every 3 months?

"VanguardLH" wrote in message ...
Sasquatch Jones wrote:

Man, when one thing goes, everything goes. LOL!!!

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds. The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or so, then went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and shut it down. It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before restarting, started it up, same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious signs of trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?



Does the laptop stay powered up when you use its A/C power adapter
connected from laptop to a live (non-switched) outlet?
Always runs on AC. Never use battery power.

How old is the battery?
Several years. Last month I ran it on the battery only to check and it ran for 30 minutes before going into standby.

Is it a NiCAD or LIthium battery?
No idea. Whatever came with the laptop - HP 5150.

Have you added a reminder to some program (i.e., issue you reminders) to
charge its battery every 3 months?
No. Only use it with AC adapter.

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

Man, when one thing goes, everything goes. LOL!!!

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds.
The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the
case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or so, then
went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and shut it down.
It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before restarting, started it up,
same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious signs of
trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?

Specifically? No. But some things to check. You running off battery
or A/C? Does the battery hold a charge? Does the laptop only run for 5
minutes or there abouts before powering off? Consistently? Windows is
notorious for changing configurations spontaneously between boots.
Check your Power Saving configuration. Particularly Hibernate. Might
as well check the screensaver settings, too. Is the CPU fan running?
Full time or intermittently? What does Task Manager say about CPU
usage? it should only be a few percent. If it's running over 50% full
time, something is wrong. What software has the high usage?

Other things. Failing power supply. Another part or chip that's
overheating.

I would also get some "canned air" and blow out the interior,
particularly where the CPU fan vents are.

Stef

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

Man, when one thing goes, everything goes. LOL!!!

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds.
The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the
case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or so,
then went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and shut it
down. It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before restarting, started
it up, same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious
signs of trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?

Specifically? No. But some things to check. You running off battery
or A/C? Does the battery hold a charge? Does the laptop only run for 5
minutes or there abouts before powering off? Consistently? Windows is
notorious for changing configurations spontaneously between boots.
Check your Power Saving configuration. Particularly Hibernate. Might
as well check the screensaver settings, too. Is the CPU fan running?
Full time or intermittently? What does Task Manager say about CPU
usage? it should only be a few percent. If it's running over 50% full
time, something is wrong. What software has the high usage?

Other things. Failing power supply. Another part or chip that's
overheating.

I would also get some "canned air" and blow out the interior,
particularly where the CPU fan vents are.

Stef

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

From your headers:

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

That is used for e-mails. It is not appropriate for Usenet posts which
should have *physical* line lengths of 76 characters, or less (like 72
to allow for indentation in quoting in replies). Quoted-Printable
formats content as paragraphs, not as lines.

Configure your NNTP client (Outlook Express) to NOT use 1 long line per
paragraph; i.e., set format to None. In the Options under the Send tab
and in the "News sending format" option, select "Plain text". Then
click on the "Plain Text Settings" button and select MIME and elect None
for formatting.


"VanguardLH" ...

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

I got out a laptop to connect at the Verizon box and check speeds.
The laptop has not been using in 6 months or so - put away in the
case, and no damage.

Today I powered it up, booted fine, then worked for 5 minutes or
so, then went dead, just like I had held the on/off switch in and
shut it down. It didn't feel hot, but I let it sit before
restarting, started it up, same thing.

So much for that idea.

Keys are not sticking, power connection is fine, no other obvious
signs of trouble...

Any idea what might be causing this?


Does the laptop stay powered up when you use its A/C power adapter
connected from laptop to a live (non-switched) outlet?

Always runs on AC. Never use battery power.

Okay, again but rephrased. You said the laptop goes dead after 5
minutes. Did that 5-minute death period occur while the laptop was
using the A/C power adapter or without it and running on the battery?

How old is the battery?

Several years. Last month I ran it on the battery only to check and
it ran for 30 minutes before going into standby.

If a NiCad battery, you have not power cycled it (drain and recharge).
NiCads have a memory that you have to eliminate by power cycling. If
not performed, the battery goes dead (capacity decreases) than the
normal lifecycle for a properly maintained battery.

Is it a NiCAD or LIthium battery?

No idea. Whatever came with the laptop - HP 5150.

Look at the battery. It will tell you. If NiCAD, you have left it
unattended (no power cycling) for way too long and it is useless now.

Have you added a reminder to some program (i.e., issue you reminders) to
charge its battery every 3 months?

No. Only use it with AC adapter.

So you haven't power cycled it ever. If a NiCad, you'll have to buy a
new battery or, as you say, always use it with the A/C adapter.

All batteries have a maximum lifetime. They all go dead eventually.
They're just chemical based and those degrade over time. "Several
years" doesn't give a specific response to "how old". Laptop batteries
seem to have a life expectancy of 3-4 years but during which capacity
wanes (up-time will diminish over the use and life of the battery) but a
lot shorter without proper maintenance.

You probably have to buy a new battery for the laptop or forego its
portability feature (like you only use it in one place) and always use
the A/C adapter.

"VanguardLH" wrote in message ...
Sasquatch Jones wrote:

All batteries have a maximum lifetime. They all go dead eventually.
They're just chemical based and those degrade over time. "Several
years" doesn't give a specific response to "how old". Laptop batteries
seem to have a life expectancy of 3-4 years but during which capacity
wanes (up-time will diminish over the use and life of the battery) but a
lot shorter without proper maintenance.

You probably have to buy a new battery for the laptop or forego its
portability feature (like you only use it in one place) and always use
the A/C adapter.

Thanks for the info about batteries. In this case, I only run this laptop off AC adapter. I never need to run it from the battery alone.

"VanguardLH" wrote in message ...
Sasquatch Jones wrote:
"VanguardLH" wrote in message news:m8cjp5
Does the laptop stay powered up when you use its A/C power adapter
connected from laptop to a live (non-switched) outlet?

Always runs on AC. Never use battery power.

Okay, again but rephrased. You said the laptop goes dead after 5
minutes. Did that 5-minute death period occur while the laptop was
using the A/C power adapter or without it and running on the battery?

Yes. The laptop 5-minute death period occured while using A/C power adapater. This laptop is never used on battery alone -- even during this test, the AC adapter is connected.

Sasquatch Jones wrote:

The laptop 5-minute death period occured while using A/C power adapater. This laptop is never used on battery alone -- even during this test, the AC adapter is connected.

Hmm, then it could be lint and dust have accumulated inside the laptop
case. The CPU is thermally protected. If the BIOS sees the CPU's
temperature rise too high, it can either throttle the CPU (reduce its
duty cycles to make it work less but slows the CPU) or shutdown the
computer to protect the CPU (and other components) from burning up. If
you don't feel much heat coming out the exhaust port in the case then
maybe there isn't much air coming out because of blockage by dust.

Dust is a heat insulator plus it will block air flow. Get a can of
compressed air and blow out the dust. Many folks just blow from the
intake port (often on the bottom of the case) to blow the dust out from
off the CPU and rotator fan and out the exhaust port. That might be
okay but a lot of dust will remain inside the case. To thoroughly blow
out the dust means having to take the bottomside of the case off so you
can direct the compressed air everywhere (although blowing off the
topside of the mobo may be a bit tough). When you have the case open,
be sure to blow out the fan. Hold the fan with a finger to keep it from
spinning when you blow the air at it. Rotate the fan manually (don't
let the compressed air spin the fan) to blow off each fin of the fan.
Then make sure to blow out any other accumulation of dust, like on the
CPU or its heatsink. It may require using a cotton swab to rub the dirt
(which can be sticky) off the fan blades plus any dirt sticking to the
fins puts the fan out of balance.

If you don't feel comfortable taking about the case to get inside to
blow off the dust, get a price quote from a local computer shop on how
much it will cost. Be sure to save a full backup saved onto external
media before taking the laptop to a shop. Accidents happen.