Why does my laptop turn off randomly?

Why does my laptop turn off abruptly when being used?

• This has been happening for about three weeeks now. Before then, i didn't use it for three weeks, so it was off that whole time. The problem now is that It turns off ...shut down suddenly when i'm using it, or sometimes when i move or slide it. Sometimes it wouldn't even turn on at all or i would have to keep pressing the power button and after a few minutes i would get lucky and it would turn on; sometimes it wouldn't. I did notice it would get hot underneath too. I took it to a shop last week and one of the first questions i was asked was if i place it on my bed, which i have been doing for the past three weeks. I told the guy yes. He said that was the problem because the bed prevents air from getting into it. I asked him to still check it because i had a feelign there was likely something else wrong with it, but he said that was likely the problem since i had answered yes and there was no need to check it. That was last week. I have been using it like i have been the past three weeks (but placing a newspaper underneath and not directly on the bed now), sometimes i woild still have to be pressing the power button froever before it turns on and when it does turn on i would make sure not to move it, for fear of it shutting off and it would stay on and work ...as long as i dont move or slide it. But this morning, it wouldn't turn on at all. I placed it on my hand and then it finally did, but once i tried to move it back onto the newspaper it shut off. I tried it again. I tried tunning it on when it was on the newspaper and it wouldn't turn it, so i placed it on my hand and then it did, when i tried moving it back on top of thje newspaper to sit, it would turn off. This happened three times in total because i tried it once more and the same thing happened. What could be the problem? It turned on on my hand, but only shut down as i tried placing it back on the newspaper. I've been thinking about buying a laptop pad or a laptop cooling pad to place underneath. Maybe the newspaper's bad for it? This's a 6 year old laptop ...so it is old and my first time having this problem with it. What could be wrong? Why does it turn off when i slide it or even just move it a little? Why wouldn't it turn on at all now?

• Answer:

  As a last resort you might need to fdisk, reformat your laptop hard disk clean and reinstall OS. Before going that route, try following simple fixes to see if the problem goes away. Remove the battery and charger/ac adapter/power cord from your laptop, press and hold the power button for 20 seconds to discharge any residual current inside the laptop. This clears your RAM and is like a hardware reset. Replace the battery and charger/ac adapter/power cord and turn your laptop on. Boot in "safe mode". As it starts up press F8, the computer ask you if you'd like to start in safe mode. Highlight "safe mode" and press enter. See if your laptop works normal. If it runs normal now, do the following maintenance and tune up, Uninstall unnecessary programs and applications. Scan with a antivirus program Scan with a spyware/malware program DEFRAG C: CHKDSK C: Clean up and repair registry problems. Use external harddrive for all your future downloads. If the problem persists, did you check if it could be your laptop power cord or power source problem? Defective or insufficient power supply might cause error messages that are misleading. Take the battery out and power on your laptop with the charger only. Make sure your laptop power jack and charger plug tip are securely connected. Did you notice the power jack loose? You can find laptop power jack on ebay. Fixing and soldering the power jack requires professional skill though. The charger green/blue LED should be on. If not, replace the defective charger. laptop battery charger has its own limited lifespan and does not last forever, consider buying a lifetime warranty charger online from company like topmic.com