Help, my laptop keeps shutting off

It happent to me a lot with a Compaq laptop. If is a heat problem, try a free motherboard monitor to see the temperatue : http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311 Look for the official web site of your computer to see what is your recommend temperature (CPU).

It's probably a heat problem. As computers get old dust gets inside computer and don't let the air flow as it should. A friend of mine put a piece of wood under one side of the laptop in order to create space to air flow.

It could be many things. Windows 98 has a patch for shutting down on its own that you can update your windows for, if you're running 98. If you're not plugged in it could be a bad battery, 3 years is not unusual for a battery to go bad in many models. Also, you could be overheating and that could be based upon where you have it at the time you're using it. If you can find something where it gets air under and around it that's best but if you're holding it on your body or on wood it can be holding the heat in and as a safety feature shutting down. You could also have a bad fan that is allowing it to overheat. You could have dust or dog/cat hair in it causing the overheating too. If you can't figure it out you're best bet is to take it in for service or find someone that is good with the hardware to check it out. But look yourself for those items listed above. 1. Make sure your windows is updated, no matter what version 2. If it's happening when you're NOT plugged in to an outlet, use it plugged in and without the battery to see if it continues to happen. If it does then you know it's not the battery. If it doesn't, then perhaps your battery is bad. 3. Check if it's overheating, place in an area where it won't conduct heat against other warm or heat conducting surfaces. Listen to the fans to see if they're turning on and off or if you can hear any difference in them. Vaccuum out any of the areas you can, including the keyboard and vents to get rid of any heat conducting or air blocking that may be occuring from dust and/or hair.

it always happen to me... but i just found out that my laptop will suddenly shut off when its hot.. so to prevent it to be hot, make sure put ur laptop on some hard surface such as table, wood, tiles etc.. and avoid putting in on top of something soft such as paper, cushions, sofas, bedsheets, etc... so i hope this will help u.. if it still shut off i think there is something wrong with ur system and the best thing is to format and reinstall ur OS....

probably a faulty conection from the PSU to the motherboard could also be a motherboard short or a number of things, either open it up and have look for loose conections hanging wires or take it to a specialist