Computer keeps shutting off?

Question

My daughter and I are both users on my Compaq laptop computer. When I am logged on as myself, I have no problems, but when my daughter logs on, it will shut down on her after a half hour or so. She mostly plays games on there, but I play some games as well and have no problems. This happens whether or not I am logged on.

I do not believe it is an overheating issue, since it only happens to her, and not to me.

I have Norton Antivirus running, as well as Spy Sweeper and Ad Aware. They run on both profiles.

I am hopeful that this problem can be solved without the infusion of large amounts of money, so I'm turning to all the techies out in Yahoo Land before I take it in somewhere to be diagnosed.

Thanks in advance for all your great answers.

Answer 1

this may be due to the following reasons,

1) the battery charge will go low sooner if you are playing 3d games (it needs more power compared to normal applications like office suits)

2)the processor will not get heated up, if you are working with some low end applications like office suits. but if you are playing games, the load on processor as well as graphics chip will be overwhelmingly high, so the chances of overheating is very high.

3) there can be some problems with your graphics driver, direct x or openGL.

4) while playing, your daughter may unknowingly press the power button, which may cause a shut down.

you may do the following things,

1) try to play yourself the same games your daughter playing and check whether it gets shut down or not, if it is yes, then it is definitely not the reason#4 mentioned above.

2)check the status of the battery after your laptop gets turned off automatically. If it shows a low charge, change your battery if possible, or keep the charger connected while your daughter is playing.

3) If that doesn't Now check the graphics driver, direct x and openGL and update it if necessary.

4)if nothing mentioned above works, you may go to your service centre and check for overheating while running high end graphical applications like games.

5) before all of these check the manual of the games and whether they are compatable with the hardware and software of your laptop

Answer 2

You laptop is overheating. Get a laptop cooler at your local store. Make sure to identify what area of the bottom of your laptop is overheating, so u get a cooler that will have a fan in that area, make sure...
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/default.php/cPath/33?ref=37&OVRAW=laptop%20cooler&OVKEY=laptop%20cooler&OVMTC=standard

It overheats only with her, beacuse games use a lot of processing and the video card too.

Answer 3

I had the same problem with my laptop. It would not stop shutting down. Maybe you should try making sure the charger is not broken. My charger was messed up and it would not charge. That was why my laptop wouldnt stop shutting off.

Answer 4

Do you get a message before it shuts down?
If so, it's a Remote Procedure Call worm (probably) updating Windows will fix it...

Also try shutdown -a in command prompt.

Answer 5

u can go to the event log, just do a search for it, or go to control panel admin tools, thats where it is on xp and it will tell u either in system or software whats the issue is

Answer 6

Disable the energy-options in the configuration.

Answer 7

corrupted profile, delete her profile ans create a new one. Create a new user name too

Answer 8

it sounds like you have some form of adware or something. run full scans with all your anti virus and spyware scanners

Answer 9

It could be something...with the Plugs...

Check them Out !!!

Answer 10

maybe she played with her profile settings or something.