Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech my Laptop keeps switching......

when the Jack port was fixed the bloke cleaned it all
the vent feels warm but not hot

I have a HP which became very hot and switched itself off constantly about 6 months after I bought it so I sent it back under guarantee and they replaced the motherboard. It worked fine for about another 6 months then started to overheat again, now it's outside the guarantee and I'm stuffed. It switches off all the time, no warnings. this sounds like what you are experiencing Tilly.

In the BIOS
the Temprature settings may be set too low.
And there for shutting it down too soon.

70 - 85c

You may not have those settings not all do.
But could help you manage the problem if its over heating and shutting down.

A few years ago I had a work laptop that kept doing this. I bought a cooling tray (the kind you put your cakes on to cool when they come out of the oven) and put my laptop on that - the air could then circulate under it and keep it cool.

Just start by cleanin the innards. That will resolve any overheating problems, full stop (unless you have a faulty fan or component of course).

I wouldnt recommend playing with the BIOS settings, as under normal circumstances, they will be setup correctly - you should only experience a problem if you have a problem (ie. overheating - its happening for a reason). Get to the source of the problem rather removing the warning signals, its like seeing the oil pressure light come on your car's dashboard, you would not keep driving (certainly not for long) and just remove the bulb, you would get the problem fixed, as ignoring it will just cause you more serious damage in the long-run (if a processor core is reguarly overheating or forcibly running hotter than is within safe limits, it will fail much quicker than under normal circumstances, I had this happen to me many a time, and at great expense, back in my overclocking days). If its turning off you laptop because the core is overheating, it's not doing it for a laugh etc, its doing this to protect your system from more serious damage.

A good clean of the innards every 6 months or so on a laptop is strongly recommended, the heatsinks get clogged up with dust over time, and unfortunately, unlike desktops, there is such little space, that when they do get clogged, they become unable to breath, so the fan cannot circulate enough/any air to actually cool the heatsink.

Btw, I once had the same thing happen on my old Pentium 4 NW laptop, and that was restarting every 15 minutes. A 5 minute clean of the system (during which I removed a carpet of dust), and all was resolved.

I bought a laptop cooling tray it has a fan and usb connection for £10 at netto. done the trick

I have to agree with everyone that the most likely cause of all this heat. and/or dust, the problem is that now it has alreay got hot you have to solve another problem.
Between the heatsink and the CPU you will have a thermal compound (paste) this helps to transfer the heat away from the CPU onto the heatsink and the fan blows the air across to keep it cool. The problem is that once your CPU has got hot a few times the paste tends to dry out and becomes more of an insulator than a conductor, some CPU's (Intel especially) then begin to slow down by reducing their clock speed or even turn themselves off to protect themselves from damage.
What needs to be done is the heatsink/fan removed, the paste cleaned off (Tim cleaner is good for this) and a good quality high conductivity paste applied (you MUST use a good one with a laptop as the haetsink/fan are so much smaller than a desktop). This solves the problem in most cases (although a tray with a fan is a good way of preventing it in the first place).
If you can't do it yourself then I know which shop I would recommend you take it to, but as advertising is not allowed, and I own it, you might want to pm me if you get stuck.

Laptop batteries can be expensive, I priced one for my HP and it was just over £60.00, Depending on the age of laptop you might be better getting a new one!