Windows shuts down without warning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken
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K

Ken

I've XP Home on my Acer Aspire 3620 laptop computer - my main computer.
It has 512 MB of RAM.

In the middle of composing a weekly blog last night using my NVU 1.0
Web-publishing software program, the computer suddenly turned itself off
without warning. Re-booted okay but I lost an hour of time in
(imperfectly) re-composing unsaved material.

This has happened at least once before. Moreover, it seemed to happen
again last night while I was asleep. I leave my computer on overnight
but when I got up this morning it was turned off. Again it re-booted okay.

From the first time, and last night, I would say that the problem SEEMS
to be connected with a Windows Update. When I re-booted last night, a
Windows shield icon (signifying a Windows Update) was briefly in the
taskbar at the bottom of the screen. (It IS called the taskbar, isn't it?)

Pointers, please?

Thanks - Ken (in Oz)
 
Ken said:
I've XP Home on my Acer Aspire 3620 laptop computer - my main computer. It
has 512 MB of RAM.

In the middle of composing a weekly blog last night using my NVU 1.0
Web-publishing software program, the computer suddenly turned itself off
without warning. Re-booted okay but I lost an hour of time in
(imperfectly) re-composing unsaved material.
Click to expand...

You need to immediately develop a habit of compulsively saving.

You should consider that the laptop has developed overheating issues that
have damaged components, and is now unreliable.
This has happened at least once before. Moreover, it seemed to happen
again last night while I was asleep. I leave my computer on overnight but
when I got up this morning it was turned off. Again it re-booted okay.

From the first time, and last night, I would say that the problem SEEMS to
be connected with a Windows Update.
Click to expand...

This is more likely to be coincidental, though particular memory loads can
help trigger it.
When I re-booted last night, a Windows shield icon (signifying a Windows
Update) was briefly in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. (It IS
called the taskbar, isn't it?)

Pointers, please?

Thanks - Ken (in Oz)
Click to expand...

If the PC suddenly shuts off, and does *not* automatically try to restart,
this is often a sign of hardware failure, often due to overheating. In
particular, memory components - RAM and any supporting circuitry and the CPU
itself can be the culprit. It's very hard to tell inexpensively where the
problem really is, and it can be in more than one place.

Clean the vents and heat sinks, and ensure that the fans are running and are
unobstructed. Do NOT use a vaccuum to dust; use cans of compressed air.

If the problem persists, it will likely get worse. You may find that as
the problem worsens, immediate restarts are difficult, a symptom of failed
(cooked) components.

Unfortunately problems like this don't heal and can be expensive to
diagnose, and the only fix is component replacement. However, it's very
difficult to tell exactly what to replace, or where to stop. If the
problem is really in this area, you can not fix it in software.

HTH
-pk
 
Thanks very much for your full, and informed, response, Patrick.

I'll take the computer to be serviced, I'm thinking.

- Ken (in Oz)
 
Ken said:
Thanks very much for your full, and informed, response, Patrick.

I'll take the computer to be serviced, I'm thinking.

- Ken (in Oz)
Click to expand...

If you do that, be sure that you have backups first. It's not at all
unusual for service people to assume that they can just wipe the drive and
reinstall - and go ahead and do so. This is for their convenience, not
yours. You may find it inconvenient.

Fortunately, there's a really fast and easy way to back up the entire hard
disk if you have enough drive space on another system and a $20 drive
connector. Download cloning software - I have had great results with the
Acronis True Image trial, which works free for 15 days, but is a 100 meg
download. It's not expensive to get the full version, around US$50 if you
like the results. www.acronis.com There is other cloning software; I use
this the most.

Shut down your laptop and take the drive out. Attach the drive to the
connector, such as an external USB2 drive case.

Here's an example of what I mean, for illustration purposes:

http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_2732_VIBE_25_IDE_TO_USB_20_EXTERNAL_HDD_ENCLOSURE

http://www.vantecusa.com/p_nst_250u2.html


Two notes on this:
1) you must know if your drive is SATA or EIDE / IDE to get the right case;
the connectors are very different. Take the drive out and look at the
connector. If there are two rows of pins, it's IDE. If there are no
pins, it's SATA. You can also determine this from googling the hard disk
model number.

2) External drive cases for laptop drives use a special 3-headed USB cable,
because the power requirement is too great for a standard cable. At one
end, one of the connectors draws power from one USB port, while the other
draws power and is the data connection. Attach both of those *before*
connecting the drive to the far end of the cable.

Install the cloning software on the "host" system. This can require a
reboot. When done and restarted, attach the target hard disk. After
XP recognises the drive, you can proceed to make an image of the drive.
This is one large file. The process often takes around 15 - 40 minutes,
but in one case I have seen it take several hours (a drive from a specific
Thinkpad).

You can speed up the process and reduce the file size by removing the one or
two large (temporary) files in the root. hiberifil.sys and pagefile.sys.
For you, these will take about 1 gig. You can also, if you like, locate
the content.ie5 folders and temp folders and clear them out. Empty the
recycle bin and defragment the drive. If you think there is any possible
issue with drive damage, don't do this, just do a straight image.

When the image is done, mount the image as a drive and try opening various
files to be sure they are readable. If they are, you're done, and you can
put the drive back in and take the system for service.

Finally, for future reference, there are laptop cooling pads / [platforms.
These use fans powered by USB ports. Some also offer a USB hub, so that
you don't lose ports. However, be aware that these will all draw power
from the one port, and it is possible to overload.
Exxamples:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=355998#
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=3486

HTH
-pk
 
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