Laptop shutting down when I move it

Kingthlayer

Well, the thread title pretty much says it. My laptop shuts itself down if I try to hold it on my lap or if I move it around too much. I'm not moving it too roughly -- I handle it as if it were a newborn child. It's getting to be pretty old and I read somewhere that it's possibly a corroded connection inside the computer itself. These problems started when I uninstalled Windows Vista and installed Ubuntu, but I doubt that's the problem. The warranty is void and I can't afford to take it to a technician. Any repairs being done will have to be done by me.

Has anyone got any insight for me here? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

ddahcmai

Likely your RAM is poorly connected. Open it up, find your RAM card(s), disconnect them, and reconnect them. See if that works.

eternalbl

Is the warranty void only because you've installed ubuntu?

Does the laptop work on battery or only on AC?

runethomas

yeah I was going to say if your batt is bad and your only using power then you could have a bad connection on the power jack that is cutting power when you move it. If your batt is good then it could be the system board. What type of laptop is it?

Kingthlayer

I'll try the RAM thing tomorrow when I wake up.

The warranty is void because I've had this guy for three or four years.

The battery is there, but I only get three or four minutes of life when it's not on AC power so I leave it plugged in all the time. My charger is a piece, too, but I've noticed that it shuts down even when the little blue connection light on the front is shining.

The model is a Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422

runethomas

I took a look around and your model has a lot of overheating issues. Check to see if it's hot to the touch when it shuts off, put your ear against the case and see if you can hear the fan running. the fan blades could be flexing when you move it and are getting stuck. just an idea.

Kingthlayer

You know, it does overheat pretty badly. I have to keep a fan pointed on it. It is hot to the touch when it shuts off. You think it could be an overheating issue? What are my options here?

runethomas

If its overheating the system fan could be bad. When it overheats it usually does not turn back on right away, it might take a few seconds to a min, thats a good indicator.

Kingthlayer

Hm, it doesn't tend to take any time to turn back on like that.

What I'm gonna do is put it in the position where it shuts itself off and see what happens then. I'll report back.

Edit: The bottom is cool to the touch right now. It's been sitting on a milk crate with a fan pointing directly at its bottom. If it shuts itself off soon then I don't think the problem is heat.

Kingthlayer

Steadily getting hotter but it hasn't shut itself off yet. I think you may be on to something with the overheating thing.

runethomas

If you have a can of compressed air, try and clean out the fan vent/fan. Use bursts you don't want to damage the fan by spinning it too quickly.

Kingthlayer

Well, it shut itself off and wouldn't turn itself back on again for a little bit. I had to put it back on the fan because it was hot to the touch. I think we've narrowed it down. I've got just enough money to get a can of compressed air, so I'll do that tomorrow. How big of a bitch is it to open up a laptop? I'd rather get in there and clean it out completely than just spray it in the vent hole and hope I get lucky.

If cleaning it out doesn't work I'm going to assume it's the connection, which I assume will be a bit trickier to fix.

runethomas

I couldn't find a guide for a complete disassemble, but if you have to replace the fan you can check out this guide, it gets you down to the fan at least.
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-a215/disassemble-display-panel-1.htm

( A great tip is when you start pulling this apart, put the screws flat side down on a table exactly in the place you pulled it from, otherwise you'll have a hard time putting it back together. )

You can try the net/ebay to see if someone has a heatsink & fan. You might luck out, you could spend anywhere from 50 - 70$ for one though.

ronya

Don't move your laptop when it's on, anyway, especially if you have a hard disk drive instead of a solid state drive. The disk platters are subject to precession and moving it while the platters are spinning is asking for hard drive failure.

Kingthlayer

Hey, thanks for all your help. I'll post in this thread with the results of my little foray into the guts of my machine.

Tonight it stays on the fan, though. I'm tired.

runethomas

Kingthlayer wrote: »

If cleaning it out doesn't work I'm going to assume it's the connection, which I assume will be a bit trickier to fix.

If the fan isn't spinning then the fan is probably bad, they are attached to a heatsink assembly
if you check out that guide I showed you on page 2 step 12 you can see the fan/heatsink assembly on the upper left hand side.

runethomas

cool, keep us posted. hope you have some luck.

darkmayo

sounds like a few issues, overheating more than likely is the root cause of the shutdown problem (too much heat, expanding metal causing incomplete connections... etc.

You said you move your machine and it shuts down, do a little testing.

power it on, pick it up and slowly tilt the machine around, try this when the machine is cool and hasnt been on for awhile, if it shuts down while its still cool and you move it I would lean towards an actual loose or potentially broken connection inside the unit itself.

Since your battery seems to be toast anyways remove it and plug in ac power and see if that is any better (it should power on without the battery attached)

Taking apart laptops isnt too hard and likely removing the keyboard will allow you to take a better look at the MB, fan and heatsink.

Kingthlayer

Yeah, the fan is completely fucked. We had a storm two weeks ago or so, I guess a power surge got it. I'm lucky it still runs at all.

Didn't know it would still work without a battery, I'm gonna take it out and see if that at least helps with the heating problems.

Thanks again for all the help, guys.

Sojorn

*If* you decide to replace, here are some links for DIY.

a215 Fans on ebay

Almost FULL disassemble steps for a Toshiba Satellite 210 or 215 w/ pics

Notes on the above, the fans on ebay are relatively inexpensive, and that guide can get you to the point where you can remove the old fan around step #12.