Laptop Reboots Or Shuts Off Randomly When Plugged In Or Running On Battery.

Hi.

I have a 2014 laptop. It's rarely used so I'm surprised that it's having issues.

This happens at any time - even when I'm just doing non-demanding tasks.

Has anyone an idea on what to do or the cause?

Thanks.

 

A 7 year old laptop probably needs 2 new batteries: the CMOS battery and the battery it runs off of when not plugged in.

 

Hi plodr. But would an old laptop battery and button battery actually cause random reboots and shutdowns (even when using the mains power)? I have another laptop, a 2008 Acer that still works fine.

 

I agree with plodr. You might also try removing the main battery and see if it runs and remains stable on the charger alone (this assumes your notebook supports running without a battery installed - not all do). If it runs fine on the charger alone, that verifies the battery needs replacing.

As far as rarely been used, electronics still age when not used (albeit, not as quickly) - though much depends on how it is stored when not in use. Was it plugged in the whole time? Stored in a cool, dry place?

Also, sudden reboots, freezes, and shut downs are also symptoms of heat related issues. Make sure the vents are free of heat trapping dust and that the fans are spinning. Note too that bearing lubricants in fan motors that have not been used for long periods of time can harden, seizing up the fan, creating a heat problem.

The CMOS (button) battery would not. A failing CMOS battery typically results in missing or corrupt BIOS settings (incorrect date and time, being common). But the main battery could if it developed an intermittent internal short - a fairly common problem with aging batteries.

 

Hi Digerati.

I ran it before from the mains with the battery removed - the random shutdowns still occurred. When the laptop was not used (which was most of the time as my main PC is a Desktop), it was stored in a laptop bag in a cool and dry location. I opened the laptop yesterday, no dust was noticed. The 'bearing lubricants' is a new one to me. The fans run alright.

 

Well, if it reboots while on charger only, you can try a new CMOS battery because they are only a couple $$ so no big deal. But I suspect another component has decided to fail and being 7 years old, it most likely is not economically feasible to have it repaired. If me, I would delete any personal data from the drive (you may need to remove it and attach it to another computer if it keeps rebooting) and recycle the computer. Best Buy will take it off your hands keeping the hazardous materials out of our landfills.

 

The next time it reboots, check the time. Then look in Event Viewer for a possible cause at that time if the computer's time is correct.

 

Yes, I too suspect there's something else at play. A repair probably wouldn't be worth it alright. Isn't Best Buy a USA based shop? I'm in Ireland.

 

Hi Eldon. I'm on Linux.

 

Oh, sorry. Yes, Best Buy is in the US. But I am sure there are recycle centers there too.

 

Yes.

 

Hi Philipp. The laptop model is a bit obscure (SCHENKER M704). I have Peppermint OS 10 on it.

 

The laptop can run fine for a long while - I ran a movie and it never had any issue for over an hour. The next time it does a random reboot or shutdown, I'll check the system logs.
It previously had Debian 10 Stable when the issue started. I thought the random reboots may have been caused by a corrupt/incomplete update so I then installed Peppermint OS. That likely rules out a corrupt OS.

 

I replaced the old HDD and installed Debian 11 onto an SSD. The random reboots still happen.

I've yet to try a new button battery (CMOS/BIOS) -- but I can't see how that could cause the random reboots.

 

I tried a Hard Reset:

1) Turn off laptop.
2) Remove power, hard drives, battery, and any attached peripheral devices.
3) Press and hold power button for 60 seconds and release.
4) Put battery back in and plug in charger.
5) Boot laptop and see if it fixed the randomly shutting down issue.

I let the laptop run for 1.5 hours - no issue. I let a movie play for most of the time.
The odd thing is, when the reboots did occur in the past - they seems to come one after another. In other words, once they started it was pointless using the laptop at that time.

 

I entered the BIOS and the correct date & time is kept. So the CR2032 battery doesn't seem to be a cause.

 

And it's happened again.

 

Hi Philipp. Would that still be relevant since I've installed a new distro on a new drive? I did run it anyway but the list is enormous.

One such line reads:

Code:

Sep  9 12:50:00 MY_PC_NAME kernel: [   16.025122] EXT4-fs (dm-1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro

 

It could definitely be an overheating issue. Install a utility like Core Temp or similar, and see if it's running hot. I had to recently solve a similar issue, disassembled the laptop & replace the dried out thermal paste on the CPU with Arctic Silver, now works like a charm.

 

@Philipp
@Wavetar

The temperature look ok (I ran the 'sensors' terminal command):

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +37.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +35.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +33.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

nouveau-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
GPU core: N/A (min = +0.60 V, max = +1.20 V)
temp1: N/A (high = +95.0°C, hyst = +3.0°C)
(crit = +105.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)
(emerg = +135.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +14.0°C (crit = +120.0°C)

BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0: 11.86 V
curr1: N/A

 

Hi Philipp. I may well do that some time. I must add though that I've used the nouveau drivers for a long time in the past and there were no random reboot issues.

 

Hmmm. Is anything showing in Windows event viewer at the times of the reboots? If not, then it's likely a hardware issue with the power supply.

 

See posts 7 & 9.

 

Cheers, Eldon.

 

I was using the laptop for about 4 hours recently, no issues at all. Hmm.

 

I rarely use the laptop. It hasn't shut down since so I can't post any new error messages yet.
I ran bpytop and it shows the CPU temperature + the 4 cores. When doing little, they were in the 30s (Celsius). When I launched Firefox (with a good few tabs), the cores shot up into the 60s, then went down into the 30s again. The fans kicked in when I launched Firefox. Are those temperature changes about normal?

 

Thank you, Philipp.

 

The laptop is too temperamental to be usable. I could turn it on and it can run fine for hours. The next day, I can hit the power button and it starts, then shuts off immediately. There must be some physical damage somewhere - which is odd as it was never dropped or roughed around.

 

The last time I could not boot up. I pressed the power button, then the laptop started for a few seconds and then shuts off. I doubt it's a driver issue. I had the nouveau driver on that laptop for many years and this shutdown/reboot behavior never occurred.

 

I think I tried that a while back with Memtest86+. I can try again by removing a stick of RAM at a time and try to boot.

 

I booted with 2 RAM sticks in and ran Memtest86+. The program ran briefly and then froze.

Then I ran each RAM stick separately, one for 3.5 hours and the other for 1h. I'm not sure how long a full Memtest86+ test actually takes but surely if something was wrong, it would have shown in that time. Both sticks showed no errors.

It's odd how they run fine separately but not together.

The CPU temp was about 58~67 degrees Celsius while Memtest86+ was running. Is that ok?

I wonder if one of the 2 RAM slots could be bad? But then why would the RAM be good when tested on their own (in their own slots)?

I think I'll leave the RAM stick that ran for 3.5 hours in on it's own and see how it fares regarding the random reboot issue. I have Debian 11 with Xfce on it so it will still run fine on just 4GB instead of the usual 8GB.

 

I've now run the laptop for a fair while. No more random reboots. Somehow, both RAM sticks in together must have been conflicting.

 

Lo and behold - the issue has returned. I switched on the laptop today and it turns on and then almost immediately goes into a reboot loop.

I removed the RAM stick and switched slots - it again did more rapid reboots.

 

I took out the original button battery (KTS). I put in a new button battery (Kodak). The mains and battery lights were on but pressing the power button did nothing. Then I tried starting up with no button battery - it briefly started, then shut off (the same as with the KTS battery).
Perhaps there's some issue with the CMOS battery?

 

I've ordered a new laptop. I may just put this 2014 laptop into retirement.

 

It sounds like it has served you well.

You probably should pull the drive out of it and temporarily install it in, or attach it to another computer, then purge the drive of any personal data you don't need anyone else to see.

 

Hi Digerati. Unfortunately even though it's almost 8 yo, I didn't actually use it a whole lot. The drive will be re-used elsewhere alright.

 

This reminds me of an HP laptop I dealt with years ago. Random issues with laptop not starting, oddly shutting down or rebooting, and when cold it would often not boot at all. All you would get with the latter was the screen powered on.

Turns out it was poor quality solder on the system board which required a reflow of the board, which is somewhat advanced.

 

Hi TM. Alas, that's beyond my ability. Thanks for the info.

 

I tried this: "Removed power cable, removed CMOS battery, then held in PC power button for 30 seconds."

I then re-connected every. The laptop booted and I was at the desktop screen for less than a minute. Then it went into a continuous reboot loop.

 

Is this with the HDD in your original post? Or a fresh install?

 

Hi. No, but I've tried many different drives since -- the issue persists.