my laptop keeps shutting itself down

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
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for no reason... I'll have it on, open, fully juiced... walk away for a few minutes, and the "on" light has gone from bright blue to a blinking orangey yellow. screen dark, etc. touch the on button, it comes back on (as if out of hibernation, not back on from "off") and then it's fine.

I can sit here and type for hours and no issues. it's only when I walk away....

to my knowledge I haven't done anything to it but I also type really fast so maybe I changed a setting without knowing it...

thoughts? :dunno:
 
woodstock said:
for no reason... I'll have it on, open, fully juiced... walk away for a few minutes, and the "on" light has gone from bright blue to a blinking orangey yellow. screen dark, etc. touch the on button, it comes back on (as if out of hibernation, not back on from "off") and then it's fine.

I can sit here and type for hours and no issues. it's only when I walk away....

to my knowledge I haven't done anything to it but I also type really fast so maybe I changed a setting without knowing it...

thoughts? :dunno:
Click to expand...

sounds like it has some sort of power saving feature turned on. Here's the question:

If you leave a program open, such as Word or something, when it goes black, does the program close also?

If not, I suspect the computer is in powersave mode. There is a way to turn it off, but I need to know what version of what operating system you are running.
 
The default power settings for a XP laptop are fairly quick on going into standby. I'm assuming "fully juiced" means charged up but not plugged in? That's five minutes of walk-away time in the default config. I think it's fifteen minutes when plugged in (not sure).

Go to Control Panel...Performance and Maintenance...Power Options and adjust the settings in the Power Schemes tab.
 
two things to add to the list of rule outs that I have learned....
A Dell Inspiron that quits periodically due to defective chips on the motherboard.
A Toshiba Satellite that seems to get too hot. If the fan runs more than a few minutes, you know to start saving because its about to take a little rest.
 
There are also some viruses out there that result in computers shutting themselves down/off. Just something to think about. ;)
 
thanks everyone. I suspected powersave but I never purposely changed it. I do type really quickly and sometimes I'll trip things I didn't intend, though.

I am using windows XP ... and it's a Satellite M45
 
It could be a bad battery. I had that happen to my Dell. The battery would not hold a charge for more than 2 minutes. Turned out it was a software problem and I needed a BIOS upgrade (and a new battery). If it's plugged in you won't be seeing it die.
 
BobS said:
It could be a bad battery. I had that happen to my Dell. The battery would not hold a charge for more than 2 minutes. Turned out it was a software problem and I needed a BIOS upgrade (and a new battery). If it's plugged in you won't be seeing it die.
Click to expand...
If that was the case, she wouldn't be able to just turn it back on unless it was plugged in.
 
the settings were on "power saver" which shouldn't turn it off when plugged in... and 45 mins if unplugged. I changed it to laptop which will definitely shut the monitor off when unplugged, if I walk away for ten minutes. we'll see what happens...

it was "off" when I got home - desite being plugged in. but it came right back up again - didn't need to reboot.
 
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