Laptop powering off.

[daniyagami]

It's not that we don't want to help you but this is not an exact science....it can be anything from the power supply ( including cables ) to the motherboard. It must be checked step by step excluding everything that works...sorry

Exactly.
Usually who does this is the professional from a computer shop because it requires a high level of expertise.
It's too hard to explain step by step how to check all hardware and system in a computer for a non-expert and you said yourself that computers are not your strong knowledgement.
You can have a simple case of bad electrical contact or power source or a very complicated system configuration clash. Only the technician can discover this.

[Munemasa Katagiri]

Is your notebook's cooler working well? Since it's noisy... my father had a similar problem with a Toshiba, the cooler was bad.

[KarumA]

pff if we all go thinking "Hurr hurr go to an expert" why do we even have this forum section. OP is just asking for help you either provide or get out and not make this a soap opera in the lines about thanking posts or omg I'm a noob I donno but ill just leave a useless message saying go somewhere else...

Also windows repair at the start up can only fix minimal program errors, not hardware. This problem is def hardware related.

several questions, how old is this laptop? When did this start, randomly or after you had the RAM replaced? How many RAM sticks did you replace are there still some old ones in there that weren't corrupt at the time?
The best way to test if it is your RAM and not only when using Memtest is to remove or replace one of your RAm sticks. See if it runs without shutting down afterward.
I think one of you RAM sticks needs to be replaced, head back to the shop if you do not trust doing it yourself and tell them to test your RAM sticks by taking them out in rounds and running the laptop.

Like you take one out and test if it still shuts down put it back in and take out another and repeat, if it improves and stops then the RAM stick is corrupt and needs a new one


sevral things can cause a laptop so suddenly switch off: either the battery needs replacement, it overheats but obviously you would notice since it would warm up and be VERY noisy due to dust in your van, if you cannot boot up properly anymore it is your motherboard, but since you said that your RAM had been replaced before due to overworking it is most likely the last.

[libertypo]

pff if we all go thinking "Hurr hurr go to an expert" why do we even have this forum section. OP is just asking for help you either provide or get out and not make this a soap opera in the lines about thanking posts or omg I'm a noob I donno but ill just leave a useless message saying go somewhere else...

I already told her what to do...I can't tell her how to download memtest and use it. For that Google exists. Let her do that first and then we'll proceed to the next step if she wants to try...Otherwise, as said before, off to repair shop.

[lexicdys]

As Munemasa mentioned, it could be just overheating and the system isn't recording it. I suggest getting a temperature recording software. I use Core Temp and it's completely free. Let me know if you want the link to their website to download it.
It tells you your computer's temperature at all times. If you notice that the temperature is high right before shutting off then you know the problem.
My laptop used to do that and now I know it was because I was blocking the fan and it overheated

[crisislover]

It's a 2GB RAM running with Windows Vista. I have it replaced a year ago when I busted the original one. I'll try to test it out, thanks for bringing up the attention! It shouldn't be the battery because when I run without the battery it still power off without warning.

Actually I encountered a similar problem with someone's laptop before. Personally I hate Windows Vista, I have the same thing on mine and it hates me. Well the point is that the person who told me to try and fix their laptop told me it shut off out of the blue sometimes and even froze and then shut down. I would have guessed overheating but it wasn't or else it would have ended up like mine. Maybe you're up to like 1% of memory right now? It seems to shut down and go very slow when the memory is low. Oh and you said it would say something about repair when you turned it on after it turned off? Did it then say that the repair was unsuccessful? Was the screen a light blue?

[daniyagami]

pff if we all go thinking "Hurr hurr go to an expert" why do we even have this forum section. OP is just asking for help you either provide or get out and not make this a soap opera in the lines about thanking posts or omg I'm a noob I donno but ill just leave a useless message saying go somewhere else...

Also windows repair at the start up can only fix minimal program errors, not hardware. This problem is def hardware related.

several questions, how old is this laptop? When did this start, randomly or after you had the RAM replaced? How many RAM sticks did you replace are there still some old ones in there that weren't corrupt at the time?
The best way to test if it is your RAM and not only when using Memtest is to remove or replace one of your RAm sticks. See if it runs without shutting down afterward.
I think one of you RAM sticks needs to be replaced, head back to the shop if you do not trust doing it yourself and tell them to test your RAM sticks by taking them out in rounds and running the laptop.

Like you take one out and test if it still shuts down put it back in and take out another and repeat, if it improves and stops then the RAM stick is corrupt and needs a new one


sevral things can cause a laptop so suddenly switch off: either the battery needs replacement, it overheats but obviously you would notice since it would warm up and be VERY noisy due to dust in your van, if you cannot boot up properly anymore it is your motherboard, but since you said that your RAM had been replaced before due to overworking it is most likely the last.

I reported you. It's agains to aarin rules to be rude as you are acting.

[aarinfantasy]

@daniyagami: Though KarumA may have worded his words in a better way to avoid conflict, but KarumA has a point too. If you are genuinely helping the threadstarter, then I am sure there it is not a must for a "Thank You" to be given to you, it is up to the person whether he/she find it useful and then give it or are you expecting it whenever you post a help in forum? In this post, eventhough you don't mean to ask for a "Thank You" but to anyone who read your post will think you are helping because of a "Thank You". It is not wrong for people like KarumA or even others to think so.

@KarumA: I can understand that answers should be the best possible and answering to the thread's problem. Though many people can say to bring it to the expert to solve in general, it is not wrong too. It is also a method of solution, like in those Help Column we see in magazines and newspaper, if the columnist/writer couldn't really help more... the columnist/writer usually directs that person to seek professional help rather than wait. You may find yourself to be right about what you said but there are others that will get offended too because they were trying to help too.

This thread has been reported by daniyagami and noted, and I am gonna give you both a friendly reminder here, instead of a forum warning:
Help others genuinely and not just asking for Thank You, or expecting something in return.
Be considerate to others and understand what the other people's view is.
The threadstarter has the right to give or not to give a Thank You in this case.
However, I am not encouraging everyone to go to each thread and tell ppl just to go seek expert help. If you can help and if you think that is the best possible solution, go ahead and write it up. I am sure that person will be grateful anyway even if it's isn't that useful or you are just trying to help.

Thanks for listening.

On-topic:
I used to have a noisy laptop too, and I took it to the manufacturer of the laptop, also Dell. The Dell in my country (Malaysia) will change whatever problem there is for their laptops when under warranty... even to the point of changing everything inside the laptop for free. My problem was: The noise is because of overheating and also the motherboard problem. Both of the parts were changed by Dell and now the laptop is working well. It is always best to check with Dell's technicians instead of any pc shop technicians.

[KarumA]

Thank you Aarin.
Also OP, to measure the temperature inside your laptop you can use SpeedFan
SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

You can also use it to change the fan speed but in this case we just want to use it to monitor the temperatures to see if anything is overheating

[xMyuuchanx]

Oh... wow. That's a lot of happenings when I'm out for school. I've read all the lovely replies, thank you, everyone, for even trying to help!

This problem is def hardware related.

Thank you very much, that is one of things that I would like to pinpoint.
If it was software/OS problems, I figured I could at least reformat my laptop myself, and that's the very LEAST I could do (and save my money, they do charge quite a lot for reformatting services here).

several questions, how old is this laptop? When did this start, randomly or after you had the RAM replaced? How many RAM sticks did you replace are there still some old ones in there that weren't corrupt at the time?
The best way to test if it is your RAM and not only when using Memtest is to remove or replace one of your RAm sticks. See if it runs without shutting down afterward.
I think one of you RAM sticks needs to be replaced, head back to the shop if you do not trust doing it yourself and tell them to test your RAM sticks by taking them out in rounds and running the laptop.

My laptop is only 1.5 years old.
This only started a few months ago, which is a long time after I had the RAM replaced.
It was last sent to the PC shop in December 2009, and it came back with the issue unresolved.

From the words of the technician himself, he told me that I had 2 RAMs (which I think he's talking about the memory sticks?) each with 1GB. He told me one of them was busted and helped me to replace. Everything worked fine after that for a year+ until this problem arised.

sevral things can cause a laptop so suddenly switch off: either the battery needs replacement, it overheats but obviously you would notice since it would warm up and be VERY noisy due to dust in your van, if you cannot boot up properly anymore it is your motherboard, but since you said that your RAM had been replaced before due to overworking it is most likely the last.

Oh the very first time the whole reason why I had my RAM problem was only a couple of WEEKS after I first purchased my laptop. It powers up but doesn't boot in. Initially I had thought that they sold me a laptop with defective motherboard and questioned them. Then the whole thing turned out that 'I overworked my one of my RAMs'. I'm pretty doubtful about the originality of my laptop since then. Luckily it was still under warranty back then.

I already told her what to do...I can't tell her how to download memtest and use it. For that Google exists. Let her do that first and then we'll proceed to the next step if she wants to try...Otherwise, as said before, off to repair shop.

Yes, thank you Libertypo-san, I have already visited MemTest homepage. I'll just research around more if I understand how to play with the program, if not, then yes, off to the repair shop indeed.

As Munemasa mentioned, it could be just overheating and the system isn't recording it. I suggest getting a temperature recording software. I use Core Temp and it's completely free. Let me know if you want the link to their website to download it.
It tells you your computer's temperature at all times. If you notice that the temperature is high right before shutting off then you know the problem.
My laptop used to do that and now I know it was because I was blocking the fan and it overheated

[COLOR="Red"]
Actually I encountered a similar problem with someone's laptop before. Personally I hate Windows Vista, I have the same thing on mine and it hates me. Well the point is that the person who told me to try and fix their laptop told me it shut off out of the blue sometimes and even froze and then shut down. I would have guessed overheating but it wasn't or else it would have ended up like mine. Maybe you're up to like 1% of memory right now? It seems to shut down and go very slow when the memory is low. Oh and you said it would say something about repair when you turned it on after it turned off? Did it then say that the repair was unsuccessful? Was the screen a light blue?

Hello there, yes I'm aware about the major concern about how Windows Vista takes up a lot of memories.
And yes, when it turns off unexpectedly and I reboot it again, sometimes I would get prompted to do a system repair. I let it run, and it told me that the repair was successful and Windows boot in normally after that. However this whole powering off issue still come bothering me from time to time.

I used to have a noisy laptop too, and I took it to the manufacturer of the laptop, also Dell. The Dell in my country (Malaysia) will change whatever problem there is for their laptops when under warranty... even to the point of changing everything inside the laptop for free. My problem was: The noise is because of overheating and also the motherboard problem. Both of the parts were changed by Dell and now the laptop is working well. It is always best to check with Dell's technicians instead of any pc shop technicians.

Thank you Aarin-san, yes, Dell (Brunei) does help us to change everything when it's under warranty. Sad thing is, my baby is not under warranty anymore... Thank you for bringing up about Dell's technicians, let me assure you that the technician I've been sending my laptop over till now is working under Dell =)

Uhm, a lot of you who posted up the overheating issue might be under the wrong impression regarding about the 'noise' that I talked of. This 'noise' is not the fan noise. The noise (which sounds like an echo) can only be heard at the moment when it powers off unexpectedly (and it can only be heard through speakers/headsets/any audio output devices). Other than that, my own fan is only noisy when I'm gaming or running 'big' programs.

Thank you Aarin.
Also OP, to measure the temperature inside your laptop you can use SpeedFan
SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

You can also use it to change the fan speed but in this case we just want to use it to monitor the temperatures to see if anything is overheating

Thank you KarumA-san, I have been using SpeedFan.
My readings is about:
HD0: constant 40C
Temp 1: 73C
Core 0: 72C
Core 1: 72C

And I read that 50~70 is normal for duo core processors?

Can anyone please correct me?