topic Re: Laptop Issue in Electronics

Laptop Issue

FlowerBear — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 13:28:37 GMT

Laptop I have that is 6 years old keeps shutting down at random times. Sometimes not at all in a day and sometimes several times in an hour.

I cant decide if I should take it to the computer store for repair or just replace since it is that old,

Second thing is, if I replace how do I destroy the hard drive??

Re: Laptop Issue

jackthebear — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 13:36:09 GMT

@FlowerBear wrote:
Laptop I have that is 6 years old keeps shutting down at random times. Sometimes not at all in a day and sometimes several times in an hour.

I cant decide if I should take it to the computer store for repair or just replace since it is that old,

Second thing is, if I replace how do I destroy the hard drive??

ask you tube, it's easy to do so

Re: Laptop Issue

FlowerBear — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 13:43:31 GMT

@jackthebear Do you mean fixing the issue or destroying the hard drive if I replace the laptop ? Thank you!

Re: Laptop Issue

Bhvbum — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 13:57:37 GMT

Go to Google and ask both questions, with your make and model of laptop why it keeps shutting off, and also how to destroy the hard drive on that computer.

When you go to google you will get YouTube and a lot of other stuff too, and you will be surprised at how many people have the exact same question.

Re: Laptop Issue

jackthebear — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 14:19:03 GMT

Both

Re: Laptop Issue

jackthebear — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 14:20:40 GMT

Both

in the time to start the thread here you could be reading the answers

6 years is a good life for a laptop

Re: Laptop Issue

Nuttmeg — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 17:23:43 GMT

I would go shopping.

Re: Laptop Issue

gardenman — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 17:39:38 GMT

When I hear of a laptop randomly shutting down, overheating is the first big suspect. CPU's generate enough heat to literally melt the chip so thermal protection is built in. If the CPU overheats, the computer shuts down. Much of the time your CPU is just idling along and not generating much heat which is why the shutdowns seem random. Then the CPU will come under load, heat up, and shut down the computer. Can it be fixed? Generally speaking yes. Is it cost effective? Not if you put it into a shop. Can you fix it yourself? Probably, if you're a bit brave and willing to take the risk. If you look up your computer on YouTube you're apt to find lots of videos of people opening the case on the same model of laptop and poking around inside. Watch a few of them and see how comfortable you'd be doing it. Just getting to the CPU fan isn't typically very challenging. Then cleaning the area, checking to be sure the fan works, and putting everything back together may very well fix the issue.

As to destroying the hard, there are lots of options, but I tend to just take mine out and plop them down in a closet and don't bother destroying them or erasing them. If I destroyed one I'd discover later that there's a file I needed on the old drive. So I just file them away in case I need them later.

Re: Laptop Issue

bonnie f — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 21:03:41 GMT

same thing happens to mine... i have a hp chrome notebook... i love it.. and i'm definetely getting another one.. but mines 4 yrs old and this happens to me.. not all the time but i'd say maybe 3x a week... i use it alot.. so soon i know its time for a new one

Re: Laptop Issue

Marp — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 16:47:22 GMT

@FlowerBear wrote:
Laptop I have that is 6 years old keeps shutting down at random times. Sometimes not at all in a day and sometimes several times in an hour.

I cant decide if I should take it to the computer store for repair or just replace since it is that old,

Second thing is, if I replace how do I destroy the hard drive??

@FlowerBear, rather than destroy the old hard drive please consider removing it and keeping it available just in case something you want/need doesn't transfer to the new hard drive.

Re: Laptop Issue

jackthebear — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 13:30:13 GMT

battery is old???

my windows laptop battery old, I just removed it and relied on the power cord instead

Re: Laptop Issue

SilleeMee — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 15:35:27 GMT

If all you you do on a laptop is surf, shop and use the internet mostly (no gaming) then I would seriously consider a Chromebook. They are Google-based os, not Windows, and some Chromebooks offer Android apps from the Google Play so in essence those are a true hybrid offering both traditional web browsing as well as android. Chromebooks, generally speaking, cost less than most Windows laptops which offer the same features and you never have to worry about viruses or malware on Chromebooks either...it has built-in protection software. They are virtually maintenance free.

"Considering a Chromebook?

Check out this list of common questions to learn more about Chromebooks."

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/3265094?hl=en

Older laptops get over-heated more easily because of the modern-day software demands which older components cannot handle and so the laptop shuts down. Best to get something new and that way your security will be up to date as well. Old computers are not safe. They do not have the guts in them to accept and run security software which many websites use to protect their sites as well as their customers'.

@FlowerBear

Re: Laptop Issue

gardenman — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 14:06:31 GMT

@jackthebear wrote:
battery is old???

my windows laptop battery old, I just removed it and relied on the power cord instead

The randomness of the shutting down kind of precludes that. She says some days she can use it all day and other times it'll shut down a couple of times in an hour. A bad battery tends to stay a bad battery and just keeps getting worse. It's not generally random. Now if there's some corrosion or debris on the terminals, or a flaky connection, it could also be battery related, but that's less likely. If it was a desktop you'd really want to look at the power supply, but this is a laptop instead. If she's using it plugged in it could be a power brick issue with a bad connection there somewhere also.

It sounds to me more like an overheating issue. If you're doing stuff that's not CPU dependent, the CPU isn't heating up and can go all day without a hiccup. Suddenly throw some CPU dependent stuff at it and the CPU starts to cook and shuts down the computer every time it comes under a heavy load. It could be something else also, but my gut says overheating is the most likely culprit.

She could open up Task Manager and watch the CPU load to see if there's a correlation between the work the CPU is doing and the computer shutting down, or install software/apps like Core Temp to monitor the CPU temp, but without knowing more, my best guess would be it's overheating.

Re: Laptop Issue

FlowerBear — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:30:52 GMT

Thank you for all the replies. Laptop doesnt feel warm to the touch so not sure if overheating is the problem. I will look at you tube though, so thank you for that suggestion!!

Re: Laptop Issue

glb613 — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:46:48 GMT

@FlowerBear wrote:
Thank you for all the replies. Laptop doesnt feel warm to the touch so not sure if overheating is the problem. I will look at you tube though, so thank you for that suggestion!!

I had problems like you describe and it was the power supply/power cord.

Re: Laptop Issue

apple1964 — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 12:03:08 GMT

Computers nowadays last 4 years ....I would go shopping for a new one. a Chromebook is a good choice as one of the members has posted.

Re: Laptop Issue

FlowerBear — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 15:55:40 GMT

I ran the defrag on it and so far its been working and not shutting off. BUT will see if that lasts or not

*******************************************

WELL it did last 2 days then back to the same issue lol!

Re: Laptop Issue

DrummerMike — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 16:51:49 GMT

You could download and install Core Temp

It will tell you what temperature your processor cores are running at. It does sound like an overheating issue though. At 6 years you might be better off upgrading if possible. You could save the hard drive just in case as others have said. The only true way to completely destroy the data on it is to open it up and destroy the magnetic platters on the inside but this can be a process. If you do get a new one, look for one with a solid-state drive, they are much faster than the old HDD.

Re: Laptop Issue

depglass — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:07:41 GMT

Everything is available on You Tube, I guess that means we can just shut down the forum and not discuss anything. I like the personal advice you can get on here.

Re: Laptop Issue

Jordan2 — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 19:30:00 GMT

I can't tell you how to spend your money, but rather than spending money to repair a 6 year old laptop, I would rather put it towards a new one.