Laptop powering off?

[Kooldino]

Ok, so I have a laptop here I'm trying to fix.

It won't boot into Windows (it will blue screen and reboot).

If I boot from a boot disk (DOS, Knoppix, etc etc), it will run fine for about 20 minutes or so, and then just shut off out of the blue.

It's a Sony VAIO.

Any ideas?

In the meantime, I found this...although the apparent solution is to replace the hardware.

http://www.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/cip/Vaio/indexeng.htm

[schmosef]

It could be overheating. Open it up and blow out the cpu/fan/heatsink with some compressed air.

[cjolley]

When Beckys Dell 600m laptop did that it took a main board replacement to fix it.
Though, I considered it a pretty graceful failure considering it allowed a backup before the work.
But that is just the way it acted.

You might check the cooling system first though.

[Kooldino]

Well, fwiw, it can sit here in the BIOS sccreen forever...still think it's heat?

[lowlifecat]

check all the screws are tight. inside and out.

[Jammrock]

Well, fwiw, it can sit here in the BIOS sccreen forever...still think it's heat?

Yes. Make sure you can hear the fan blowing on the laptop. Then put your hand by the exhaust right after it blue screens to gauge the temperature. Also put your hand under the laptop and see if any parts are too hot to touch.

If there doesn't seem to be any heat problems, more than likely something inside was damaged by a drop or a twist.

[DJ]

Take out the battery and run it on A/C power and see if that works.
DJ

[gt40]

I had a wireless etehernet card that would cause this (only on this particular laptop).
I swapped it out for a wired ethernet card and it worked fine.

Could be a harware problem as Jamm suggested.

[DJ]

Have you tried running it without the batteries? The reason I asked is because I had the exact same problem a few months ago with my VAIO PCG-K33 and found the same link you posted. However I noticed that it was the battery itself was overheating and just before it happened I would notice the the battery Icon in windows was always on and showing full even when it was plugged in. Taking out the battery and running on A/C did the trick. After a while I put back in the same battery and its still working up to now.

DJ

[Kooldino]

Tried running it sans batteries. It seems to last a little longer, but still ends up dying.