Why does my laptop keep shutiing down

[chrism1680]

I have an Acer Extensa 5420 that recently has decided to shut down for no apparent reason. At first I thought the power cable had gone bad, however it still shuts down running on a full battery without being plugged in. I was told it might be my hard drive going out. Can anyone help me?
Thanks

 

[takenra]

I suspect this question would get more attention in a different part of the forum but my best guess is the machine is overheating. Are the cooling fans working? and have you cleaned them recently? (can of compressed air often works well). If the fans aren't working, a powered cooler pad may work for you (easy to find in newegg or tigerdirect)
If the hard drive is starting to die, more likely the computer would crash rather than shut I would have thought - although if I'm wrong please correct me!

hope that is some use

 

[csperkins1970]

I just got one of these to start working. I removed the rear cover and took the silvery cushions off of the cover/internal compenents. I'm guessing that the metal mesh coverings caused some kind of short because, once I removed the cushions, it worked perfectly.