Laptop Randomly shutting off

[Cronic]

About an hour ago, my fan in my laptop started acting up, seemed to be spinning a bit fast, then stopped, and a few minutes later the computer shut down. Now, during boot it is shutting down at random spots. I thought it may be a power issue, but when it got to the desktop its still reading the battery and charger input, so now im at a loss for whats causing it. Model is a Sony Vaio E series laptop.

 

[AsRock]

Fan still working ?.. Maybe dust blocking the vents so it not cooling enough ?. Any chance it under warranty still ?.

You checked the temps on it ?.

 

[Cronic]

Update on that, im thinking it may be a problem with the fan, as it doesnt appear to be going when it starts up, and that may be causing the system to shut itself down. Just another thought, but i think that may be it. are there any hotfixes i could put in to get it running again, assuming im right

 

[Cronic]

On the temps, i cant get it started up long enough to get the temp readings. Im going to try and put my cooling pad below and see if that will get it further.

 

[brandonwh64]

take a old wall adapter for some random device you no longer have and a 80MM fan and wire it up to blow inside the laptop and see if it will boot. i had to do this once

 

[Widjaja]

Most likely a failed CPU fan plus fur ball in between the exhaust and copper fins.
I don't know what brand and model it is but some laptops have an easy access panel in which you can get to the cooler very easily.

Only issue is finding another fan to replace it with.
Brand new laptop parts cost a fortune and finding someone who is willing to sell just the fan is not easy.

 

[kenkickr]

Unplug it from the AC adapter and take the battery out. Use some compressed air to blow the dust collecting at the heatsinks fins and then use a vacuum cleaner to get as much of the loose dust as possible. Plug her in and try it out.

 

[Cronic]

Thx for the info. So far ive tried the booting with a fan cooler blowing in, which worked...but was a pain to hold lol. Im looking for some compressed air right now try the blowing out idea, and hopefully that may do it. I currently have 2 other laptops with me, and dell and hp. Would i be able to replace the fan in the vaio e series with either of those?

 

[kenkickr]

Probably not. The fans usually are not that expensive..though it is a sony.

 

[Cronic]

lol. Also, is there a program i could to try and Force my fan into action, so to say?

 

[kenkickr]

I would highly recommend UBCD and run memtest.

 

[Cronic]

Kk, thx. Im going to jimmy rig it and download that program now, once its finished ill let you know the results..hopefully there positive. Its under waranty, but since i bought it in another country, i have a feeling sony will give me issues with the warranty

 

[Cronic]

Well i used this http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. It gave me the core temp of my cpu, which seems to be about 54 deg. Celcius (assuming i read that right). It detects that i do have a fan, but it is unable to show my rps, ect. Is there a program like this that can override, or better control a fan. The main issue im working on now is wether or not my fan is screwed, and if i can somehow stabilize it without opening up the laptop

 

[brandonwh64]

Is the fan spinning inside of the laptop? if you cannot see, stick your ear to the fan port and see if u hear it spin.

 

[kenkickr]

If 54 Celcius is correct then even that is fine for AMD mobile procs let alone Intel. Run that memtest tool I mentioned. if it doesn't shutdown during that then there is nothing wrong with the fan.

Some laptops will not start spinning the fan until the temp reaches a certain temp.

 

[Cronic]

Its hard to tell, i think it is, just not very fast. But i cant be certain yet, but from that program, it doesnt appear to have any fan speeds that it can detect, so i think its the fan. Im guessing when the fan made that odd noise earlier, it was the cause of all the problems, so im going to open up my laptop and see if i can get something fixed. Thanks for the help guys, if you have any ideas on any other solutions, id be glad to hear them.

 

[Widjaja]

Personally once the fan is gone that's it.
You could try applying some sewing machine oil into the fan after giving it a thorough clean.

 

[Cronic]

Amazingly...easiest laptop ive ever opened. It seemed the fan somehow was "grinding" on the top, thought im not sure how. The fan is running again, so im starting it up and doing some test runs. Lol i really expected that to take much longer than it did to open the laptop up, but Hopefully its all good now. *crosses fingers*

 

[Cronic]

Tests are good, core temp for the processor is back to normal, and the fan is functioning again. Once again thanks for the help guys....i just cant belive it was so simple to fix once i opened it up...but any of you with laptops know thats a pain in the ass in itself lol

 

[brandonwh64]

Tests are good, core temp for the processor is back to normal, and the fan is functioning again. Once again thanks for the help guys....i just cant belive it was so simple to fix once i opened it up...but any of you with laptops know thats a pain in the ass in itself lol

If you have a good tube of thermal paste, i would have replaced it while it was apart

 

[kenkickr]

Tests are good, core temp for the processor is back to normal, and the fan is functioning again. Once again thanks for the help guys....i just cant belive it was so simple to fix once i opened it up...but any of you with laptops know thats a pain in the ass in itself lol

Just be thankful it wasn't a Toshiba. Biggest pain in the dick to get to the fan most of the time:shadedshu

 

[Cronic]

lol i have very few supplies on hand, but it seems with the fan unstuck its doing fine. If the problem persists, i can easily open it back up and apply some, but i think it should be good now

 

[brandonwh64]

A friend of mine has this issue on his hardwood floor (he gamed on the floor) and a piece of a broom (the straw part) got stuck in the fan and it started randomly shutting off and then finally never came back on so he brings it to me and i took it apart to find the stick holding the fan and then i reset the cmos on the motherboard and put it back together and it worked once again!