Laptop randomly shuts down

The_Ogre

The_Ogre

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So I bought this cheap i-Life N3350 laptop from someone just to connect to my office VPN and then to various PC's in the office that does builds etc. It's a Celeron, but I was pleasantly surprised that Celerons have come a long way! The thing is by no means a donkey, as those of yonder year were.

Anyway, my aim was never for it to do any heavy lifting, as I have another laptop which does all the lifting locally.

One thing that annoys me is this thing randomly shuts down without warning and I have no idea why. Take today for instance, it hasn't shut down once.

I doubt it's because of something I had installed because one time it shut down while I was fiddling in the BIOS to see if I cannot spot anything funny among the settings - so before drivers were even loaded.

Any ideas? Could it be that it's overheating?
 
Usually when a laptop shuts down due to overheating, it will inform you turn it back on. Though this may not be the case for the "no name" laptops,

Are you using your laptop on the bed by chance?
 
Try the simple things first like updating your bios (although i have to give fair warning that if it powers off during the update then your laptop will essentially be bricked. I would recommend using a bios programmer such as the Ch431a with the clip to flash directly to the chip if you have the technical knowledge)

Try loading eventveiwer in windows to see if there are any reoccurring events related to ACPI

Use a hardware monitoring tool such as HWinfo to have a look at temps and if they seem to high try reapplying new thermal paste.

Also have a look at task manager to see if there arent any processes or startup items that are behaving erratically.

Further than that could be a deeper hardware issue that will be hard to isolate if it's intermittent like your problem.
 
The_Ogre said:
So I bought this cheap i-Life N3350 laptop from someone just to connect to my office VPN and then to various PC's in the office that does builds etc. It's a Celeron, but I was pleasantly surprised that Celerons have come a long way! The thing is by no means a donkey, as those of yonder year were.

Anyway, my aim was never for it to do any heavy lifting, as I have another laptop which does all the lifting locally.

One thing that annoys me is this thing randomly shuts down without warning and I have no idea why. Take today for instance, it hasn't shut down once.

I doubt it's because of something I had installed because one time it shut down while I was fiddling in the BIOS to see if I cannot spot anything funny among the settings - so before drivers were even loaded.

Any ideas? Could it be that it's overheating?
Click to expand...
Run Prime95 on Heat and Power settings separately and see when it goes nightnight
 
Polymathic said:
Usually when a laptop shuts down due to overheating, it will inform you turn it back on. Though this may not be the case for the "no name" laptops,

Are you using your laptop on the bed by chance?
Click to expand...
No, on a desk.

The reason why I'm thinking of overheating is this thing has absolutely no air vents. I have never, ever seen a laptop without vents.
 
Is the someone you purchased the laptop from a prankster?

If so, check task scheduler.
 
Update. And also a mini review... :)

I did a whole gamut of tests and all came out clear.

Then out of pure luck, I realised it only happens when I have something connected to USB. A mouse is fine, but as soon as I plug something more power hungry in like my phone or power bank, it shuts down after 2 - 5 minutes.

The laptop only consumes 24w (2a at 12v), which is remarkable for a machine with a FHD display. Considering the Celeron CPU draws 6w according to Intel, that leaves 18w for the rest of the components. I think they've cut it too fine since the USB ports now appears to be underpowered.

So, just a heads-up in case anybody buys one of these things. I paid R1 200 (second hand, as mentioned earlier) and apart from the USB issue, it really isn't a bad piece of kit. I need more RAM though so if any of you have an 8GB stick of DDR4L lying around, please drop me a line.

Oh, and before any of you go out and buy this thing, remember, its cheap for a reason. It contains no battery, something which I only realised after I bought it! That being said, I still think this is great value for money for a student or if you're short on cash and need a machine urgently - all you need is more RAM and a SATA SSD. As it is, though, it rums o365 just fine, compared to my i5, 10th gen.

1658305011133.png

The fact that CPU-Z is not displaying anything under the SPD settings leads me to believe the 4GB is soldered onto the motherboard and both slots are free.

1658305155034.png

For the hardcore geeks out there, calculating Pi to 1 million decimal places takes 37.8s:

1658305882215.png
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, the multiplier of the CPU is unlocked, so I'm going to have some fun later on :love:
 
UrBaN963 said:
Buys worst laptop ever made.

I surprised when it's a piece of ****.
Click to expand...
Well, if you're broke and just need something for email and to connect to the office network, spending loads of money would be dumb, don't you think, Mr. McMidget? :)
 
The_Ogre said:
Well, if you're broke and just need something for email and to connect to the office network, spending loads of money would be dumb, don't you think, Mr. McMidget? :)
Click to expand...
I think spending money multiple times to replace the cheap kak is a waste of money, don't you think, Mr. Dronkie?
 
  1. Check temps before doing anything. If high service cooling fans make sure they are free from dust.
  2. Check if it can run on battery only without mains power. If not check if your charger connector or cable isn't faulty shutting down when moving your laptop. Also if this happens on battery only battery maybe at the end of its life.
  3. Also check for viruses and malware using Malwarebytes if clean no infections you can rule it out.
  4. Check that windows is updated and graphic drivers if it has dedicated gpu.
  5. Check that the power button releases properly maybe it's getting stuck or gets pushed in some situations like franticly ESC'ing or something lol :ROFL:
 
The_Ogre said:
Well, if you're broke and just need something for email and to connect to the office network, spending loads of money would be dumb, don't you think, Mr. McMidget? :)
Click to expand...
You should have gone begging in the pay it forward thread.
 
Soulware Technology said:
  1. Check temps before doing anything. If high service cooling fans make sure they are free from dust.
  2. Check if it can run on battery only without mains power. If not check if your charger connector or cable isn't faulty shutting down when moving your laptop. Also if this happens on battery only battery maybe at the end of its life.
  3. Also check for viruses and malware using Malwarebytes if clean no infections you can rule it out.
  4. Check that windows is updated and graphic drivers if it has dedicated gpu.
  5. Check that the power button releases properly maybe it's getting stuck or gets pushed in some situations like franticly ESC'ing or something lol :ROFL:
Click to expand...
Maybe read the entire thread :)
 
Yettika said:
i can help you... go to Control Panel on your windows pc. open power options open balanced Recommended Click on change plan options go to change advanced power options go to Maximum processor State and it should be on default 100% change it to 90% and see if that stops Overheating BUT DO NOT!! Mess with the settings or your pc will continue to shut down. then you will have to re install windows to fix the mess with the setting :giggle::D

Hope i helped. please try it and let me know. i had a Gigabyte Q1742N Gaming laptop and i used it to play GTA V and it would turn off after 3 hours and then i changed that setting and i played GTA V on normal graphics for 6 hours Straight and the shutting down stopped from overheating :D
Click to expand...
Thanks, I've got nothing to lose!
 
The_Ogre said:
No, on a desk.

The reason why I'm thinking of overheating is this thing has absolutely no air vents. I have never, ever seen a laptop without vents.
[/QUOTE

These types of laptops have a very different build to traditional ones. Usually a single pcb, eMMC chip as hard disk and processor soldered onto pcb with just a metal shield that acts as a heat sink. No fans and ventilation.
Take off the back cover or drill holes into it and put it on a laptop cooling stand?
Click to expand...
 
The_Ogre said:
No, on a desk.

The reason why I'm thinking of overheating is this thing has absolutely no air vents. I have never, ever seen a laptop without vents.
Click to expand...
There's your issue. Clearly it's built for the Arctic where heat isn't an issue.
 
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