Laptop Keeps Shutting Down - Already tried a couple things...

[Confused00]

Dear experts
I need your help !!

What I have :
Toshiba Satellite P305D-S8828
Windows Vista
AMD Turion X2

We started having issues here and there for the past 2 weeks.
It started acting "weird" and being a little hot once in a while.
The battery icon would turn RED once in a while and go back to the regular white.

At first, the laptop would shut down without any warning at any giving moment just once in a great while.
2 days ago, it shut down and wouldn't stay on for several hours, but then acted correctly for the rest of the day.

Since yesterday, every single time we try to start it, we can't even try to do anything on it.
Even before everything loads properly at start up, it shuts down.

I did try to clean the fan this morning with a Large Rocket Air Blaster.
Since we are actually in a snowstorm right now (and no car), I don't have any "Air Power Duster Can".
A little dust came out, but not much...

I can't download that "Speed Fan" to know the temperature since it won't let me do anything... just keeps shutting down...
And since it hasn't been on for less than a minute at the time for a couple days, the laptop is totally cool.

We don't do any game and don't download anything on this laptop beside little stuff with emails.

I also tried to start the laptop with only the battery without the charger plugged in.
As well as trying with just the charger without the battery in (and the "remove and re-install" the battery).

Of course, it's out of warranty...

Sorry if this is a little hard to understand... My English isn't the greatest...

If someone answer back, I would REALLY appreciate no abbreviation as far as computer language and easy to understand steps.

Thanks for reading and thanks to whoever is gonna reply and try to help me !!

[Raptor]

You should remove the covers and gain access to the fan. Clean it properly.

Look here: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Satellite-P305/take-apart-notebook-1.htm

If that does not solve the shutting down, boot into safe mode and see if that makes it run more stable. If it does, the problem is with Windows and then we can continue to diagnose.

[Raptor]

Actually, try it the other way around. Safe mode first.

[Confused00]

And what should I actually try to do in Safe Mode

[Confused00]

Okay... just tried to start the laptop on Safe Mode just to see what it will do...
It automatically shut down right after the screen went into that Safe Mode.
I tried with the charger plugged (which shows as a Battery Icon RED on laptop) again.
And then I tried again without the charger plugged and it didn't even go to any screen of Safe Mode... just shut down.

Thanks Raptor ! Hope you can find something for me. Didn't back up a business program in 2 weeks and now I'm f......

[Raptor]

Well, first of all if the program carries an important database you will want to remove the hard drive and store it in an ESD-safe bag as all the shutting down and turning it on again is very harmful to the hard drive. The data can be recovered from another computer if necessary. Assuming the banking program stores its database in a separate file, that is.

You'll have to open up the laptop and inspect the fan. Is it clean and is it functioning?

[Confused00]

Thank you very much Raptor for such a quick answer back to my question 2 weeks ago.
Sorry for the delay of writing back. I was out of the country and just came back.


I did try to start the unit into Safe Mode, but I couldn’t get that far. It started loading and just shut down.


My boyfriend did try a few things on the laptop while I was gone.
Here's what he did:


1. Took the laptop apart to look at the fan

2. Removed the battery, the memory and the hard drive as per instructions found online.

3. Reinstalled the battery (without reinstalling the memory and the hard drive) so he could see if the fan was working.

4. Turned the laptop on. When he did, the laptop sounded a series of 2 or 3 beeps and the fan wasn’t spinning.

5. He shut the laptop again, removed the battery, completely disassembled the laptop and removed the fan from motherboard.

6. Cleaned the fan & reassembled the laptop.

7. Turned the laptop back on and nothing came up on the screen (black screen).
**The fan in now turning and the unit does not shut itself off like it was doing before.

8. He disassembled the laptop again to make sure that the lcd screen was plugged in (it was) and then put the laptop back together and turned it on.

9. Again a blank screen and the fan is turning without shutting down.

10. It appears that the laptop is trying to boot itself up, the cd/dvd rom turns on and off with the light turning on and off.  Not sure but it sounds like the HD drive is turning on and off.  It is as if the motherboard lost its BIOS and can not boot.  Not really sure what to do now.

11. Did a little more research this morning and found some info on “ACPI Flash Bios” for our Satellite. He tried to make a bootable BIOS cd with version 1.40 –2008-06-03 ( Initial Production BIOS).

12. The unit didn’t boot when turned on with the inserted cd. (still have the black screen).

13. Not sure if it’s the right version to use and if the “how to” steps found are exact and complete.


Any suggestions ??

Thanks again for your help !!!!!!

[Confused00]

I had a reply from someone in my "ComputerHope Inbox" the day that I first posted.
Since I can't send a personal message to the specific person, I'm replying here.

Plus, I got the identical answer back again today from someone else.... to do a system restore...

I'm really REALLY confused with that answer though...

I thought I had been kind of clear on my message and the fact that I CAN'T access anything.
I have a black screen... how would I possibly be able to do a system restore

I don't know what I might have not explain correctly and I'm very far from being a genius with computer,
but I know I can't definitely can't do a system restore at this point.

I apologize for my English and that my message might also be a little hard to understand.

Thanks

[patio]

I had a reply from someone in my "ComputerHope Inbox" the day that I first posted.
Since I can't send a personal message to the specific person, I'm replying here.

Plus, I got the identical answer back again today from someone else.... to do a system restore...

Please reply with both User names from those messages as that's not how we conduct assistance here...
Normally all issues are kept within the Forun atmosphere and you may be recieving good advice...or most likely bad advice.