What Keeps Causing my Computer to Power Off? Hard Drive Tested and Seems Fine.

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ocman47

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Mar 18, 2018
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Hi,

My laptop computer keeps powering off as if someone just pulled the electrical plug. It used to happen every few weeks, but now it is happening every few days. And it never happens just once. It will power off about 4-5 times over the course of a few hours. Then it will work fine for a few days. My fear is this will get progressively worse.

The first thing I checked was the hard drive. I ran a Crystal Disk Info scan and every line came back at 100%. Power On Hours = 3840 hours. Power On Count = 837 Count. Temperature = 51 degrees celsius. The final grade was Good 100%.

Next I ran a Check Disk, and it came back fine. I also did a Disk Defragmentation.

So I don't think the cause of the computer powering off is my hard drive.
It would be a shame if I purchased another hard drive thinking that would solve the problem. And yet it still persisted.

But I don't know what to look at next? Or how to test another component to determine if it is the cause.

What steps should I take next? I appreciate your input.
 
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ocman47

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Mar 18, 2018
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Hi, I thoroughly checked the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and I did not see any visible loose wiring. All connections are secure. Is there anything else to check regarding the wiring?

To further verify and conclude whether the PSU is causing the problem, I do not see any way around buying (borrowing, etc.) another PSU and testing it to see if the problem still persists. Do you agree? Please let me know if I am missing anything.
 
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ocman47

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Mar 18, 2018
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I just thought of something else that may eliminate the PSU as the culprit. The onboard laptop battery is fully charged when the computer powers off. Shouldn't the power source automatically switch from the electrical wall outlet to the onboard laptop battery when the electrical wall outlet connection fails? With no interruption in power? Your thoughts?
 
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ocman47

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Mar 18, 2018
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Hi,
That I have not yet tried. I just pulled out the onboard laptop battery and powered up the laptop. I will see how it goes and report back.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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M0j0jojo

M0j0jojo

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Jan 2, 2014
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Okay, one other thing you can do is check the battery health. Put the battery back in, and remove the charger. Visit this site http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows7/Check-your-laptop-battery-health-in-Windows-7.html

It will explain step by step on how to report the battery health.
if your Last full charge is much less than the design capacity, it is possible your battery is gone bad, and you may need a replacement. But they are usually cheap.
 
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ocman47

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Mar 18, 2018
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Hi,

Replacing the Thermal Paste on the Heat Sink solved the problem. It immediately lowered the Max Temp by 20 degrees Celsius. And there is no longer any Thermal Throttling (as monitored by HWiNFO). I am certainly no expert with computer hardware, but I watched a few You Tube vidoes and was able to follow along to replace the Thermal Paste.

Considering the Laptop is over 10 years old it is no surprise that the Thermal Paste needed replacement.

Also, a friend of mine who is a professional computer repair technician told me that it cannot be the power supply cable if it successfully powers up the computer. He said power supply cables either work or do not work. They do not work intermittently. Anyway, that was his two cents. Not my area of expertise.

CPUs Master I do appreciate your input as it motivated me to keep searching until I found the solution.
 
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