pc shuts itself off after a short time

I have a laptop pc (gateway m1629) running vista home premium with an AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology TL-60 2.00Ghz Processor and 3GB RAM; 32 bit operating system.

Recently I have had a problem with the computer simply shutting itself off after about 2 hours (it all depends on what I have been doing online or on the computer as to how long before it just shuts itself off).

I keep the laptop elevated and the stand does have a fan that runs to help pull more air in to the bottom of the laptop. I know that the hard drive is fine since it is a new hard drive. Unless, I keep a small desktop fan behind the laptop and running it will simply shut off. I am guessing that since it does not happen if I keep that other little fan running to help keep it cool that there is some sort of overheating issue going on.

After it has simply shut down on me, when I turn the computer back on I am not getting any message that it was shut down improperly. It simply starts up normally again (which I thought was odd).

Anyway, I do take care to make sure that there are no obstructions of airflow to the underside of the laptop and I also make sure that air vents are clear. I am not sure what else to do to keep the unit cool. This has only recently started to happen on a regular basis. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks So Very Much

 

You need to check double check your power settings in Control Panel. They may be set to turn the machine off after two hours.

 

Anything under c:\windows\minidump?

If so, upload them here.

 

I did check all of my settings for the laptop and I don't have anything set to shut down after 2 hours or any other time period. But thanks for that suggestion.

I did go the C:/Windows/Minidump and that folder is empty.

I left the computer on yesterday afternoon for awhile without being online or having the little fan running behind the laptop to give it more air circulation and all went well yesterday.

It does not seem to be happening when I am doing one thing vs something else, but if I am not mistaken, it does seem to happen when I am online more often than when I am just doing working with my files and such. Thought that I would also start to jot down when it occurs and what I have been doing when it happens. I do know that it happened the other day while I was on facebook to check on my friends page and I did not have the little fan running.

Perhaps I should start to keep a notebook and jot down exactly when it is happening; how long the computer has been turned on and that sort of thing.

I do know that if I turn on the computer and that little fan it never occurs which is why I was concerned that there might be an overheating issue going on.

 

The past couple of days the computer did not shut itself off. That is until a few minutes ago. I turned it on around 9:30 - 10AM this morning and I did some stuff and then just left it one (without the fan running behind the laptop). I was logged into facebook, but was not doing anything while there. The darn thing shut off on me a few minutes ago. I waited a minute and then turned it back on and it started as if nothing had happened. When I went to go onto the internet, the browser did say that it had not shut down properly and did I want to restore those pages, so I did click yes, but the pc is not saying anything about not shutting down properly.

I went back to C:/Windows/Minidump and that folder is still empty.

Any suggestions as to why this is happening on an intermittent basis would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks