G40 Powers Off Without Warning

[shfawaz]

A buddy of mine has a G40 he brought to me that turns on, runs for about 10 minutes or so, then suddenly shuts off. Battery is fully charged, and the laptop appears to charge it just fine. Once it shuts down, the only way to power back on is to remove the battery and power cord for a second then replace either one or both, and it works for another 10 minutes or so before shutting off again without warning.

Any ideas as to cause?

[makai]

Sounds like a motherboard problem. However, you might try checking the Power Settings.. Display Properties>Screen Saver tab>Power and see that it's not set up to hibernate, or shut down after 10 minutes. I would also monitor the temp of the laptop while it's running. Download Mobile Meter from > http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/ if you don't already have it and monitor the temp. Maybe it's running hot and the fan just needs to be cleaned or replaced.

[shfawaz]

It looks like all it took was to update the bios is and all is well. I've been putting this machine thru the wringer since updating to the latest bios version and the G40 is yet to hiccup once. Amazing!

[makai]

Bios update? That's strange. However, I guess you got lucky in that the bios didn't just totally corrupt before you were able to reflash it. Good going!

[frankiepankie]

It could be that it was a thermal problem, and that the BIOS update fixed something with the fan.

You can check with MobileMeter what the temperatures are.

[vanaya]

Depending on which version the OP had prior to Bios update

Symptom corrected by version 1TET99WW (1.14)
(Fix) This BIOS update contains an Intel errata patch for the microprocessor firmware. It addresses a potential issue which might cause a system to exhibit erratic behavior such as a system hang, reboot, blue screen or Kernel Panic (Linux), and may also cause in-progress system operations (e.g. file, I/O) to fail. The possibility of this behavior is believed to be limited, but it is strongly recommended that customers install this update as soon as possible to prevent the possibility of the issues listed above.

[shfawaz]

I think the bios version I updated his laptop from was 1.12, so this very well may have been the fix that he needed. 24 hours later, not a single reboot or unrequested shutdown.