Laptop shuts down while playing. Laptop turns off while playing and working
Both an active and a novice user can face the problem of arbitrary shutdown of a laptop. The laptop turns off unexpectedly, so you may not be able to save important work or school data. Why does my laptop turn off by itself? If it is not possible to return the computer for repair in service center, it is worth trying to determine the root of the problem yourself.
Possible reasons for turning off the laptop
Why does the laptop turn off by itself? It can perform a reboot when the chips get very hot. Turning the computer on and then immediately shutting it down indicates a possible power problem. Shutdown during the game is a consequence of dust accumulated on the fan or driver mismatch. Sometimes the shutdown occurs only when running on battery, which indicates a malfunction of the latter.
Laptop is overheating
The laptop heats up and the system turns off due to the following factors:
- Natural dusting. Through the holes in the cooling system, particles enter the fan. This slows down the rotation of the blades, which is the answer to the question why the laptop is heating up.
- Thermal paste drying out. This process does not affect the operation of the cooler. The processor begins to overheat due to a violation of the transfer of heat to it.
- Cooling failure. The axes of the fan get knocked off after a while, and it ceases to function normally.
- Too soft surface on which the device stands. This disrupts the process of natural ventilation of the case from below.
- Possible infection with virus programs, due to which the laptop heats up and turns off.
Turns on and off immediately
Sometimes the device ends its work at the stage of loading the operating system, i.e. without overheating. The problem here is nutrition. Associate it with a breakdown of the battery, power supply or charging socket. If the laptop turns on and immediately turns off, these are hardware failures, i.e. violation of the BIOS firmware. The program is a repository of all settings and system data of the computer. In addition to these reasons, there are several more:
- short circuit in the motherboard;
- malfunction ;
- bridge failures.
During the game
The laptop is in excellent condition while running normal programs, but why does it suddenly turn off when playing games? Here are a few reasons for this problem:
- fan dusting and insufficient processor cooling;
- discrepancy between device model drivers;
- software failure with increased load on the video card and processor.
When running on battery
The device can work fine from the network, but turn off during operation from the mains. charger. This is indicated by the incorrect display of the percentage of charge. At the same time, the battery indicator does not detect it, and when the power is pulled out, the device simply suddenly turns off. There are reasons for this:
- battery failure;
- end of battery life;
- failures in the charge level controller.
When disconnected from the network
If the device connected to the network works without interruptions, and when the power plug is pulled out, it abruptly turns off - this indicates problems with the battery. It is rather discharged, defective, or its resources have already been exhausted due to prolonged use. The battery life of the device ranges from 2 to 3 years. If the computer is still new, then this is a factory defect. Incorrect instrument power settings affect its status. If you disconnect the “laptop” from the mains, the screen on the laptop goes blank and the device goes into sleep mode.
What to do if the laptop turns off by itself
Whatever reason led to the shutdown of the PC, it has its own solution:
- Cleaning. In case of overheating, special programs. If it exceeds 90°C, then clean the cooling system from dust. Noise and temperature will then decrease.
- Antivirus. If there are viruses in the system, update their database and perform a comprehensive scan with programs - Kaspersky or Cureit.
- Update or reinstall drivers. The problem lies in the discrepancy between these programs and the laptop model. For example, you cannot install drivers from toshiba or acer on lenovo and vice versa. For this reason, remove all old hardware software drivers, download them from your manufacturer's official website and install them again.
- Firmware rollback. To fix the problem, restore the firmware version that was in stable operation. If that doesn't work, update the BIOS completely.
- Reinstalling the operating system. You can fix unstable system behavior by completely reinstalling Windows. This will help get rid of viruses that the antivirus program did not detect.
- Power check. If the problem is with a defective battery, replace it. Before you panic, check if the power supply is connected, if the cord and plug are not damaged. Why is my laptop screen turning off? Make sure that the power settings are set correctly so that the computer does not "sleep" when disconnected from the network.
A mobile computer is a capricious device. He worked for himself, worked, and suddenly once - turned off, abruptly, as if the power was gone. Sudden shutdowns of the laptop (provided that after that it turns on and works again) is the first call of emerging problems. If you do not remove the cause, very soon your "iron friend" will need expensive repairs. Some of the problems leading to blackouts can be fixed at home, but in some cases it is better to immediately take the “pet” to specialists.
There are only two direct reasons that the laptop turns off by itself, but there are a lot of indirect reasons. Let's talk about how to understand them and solve the problem on your own, when possible.
Reason one: overheating
Behind the temperature of the processor and critical components motherboard(chipset, video chip) is monitored by a special system - hardware monitoring (HWM), consisting of measuring sensors and a controller. The task of the latter is to process the received signals and, in case of exceeding the permissible values, immediately turn off the computer in order to prevent thermal damage.
Most often, overheating occurs due to the inefficient operation of the laptop cooling system (CO) due to dust pollution, as well as due to improper operation: placing the device on a pillow or other soft surface that blocks ventilation and interferes with heat dissipation.
Other prerequisites for the problem include:
- Excessive load, especially games. Especially for games, only gaming and some multimedia laptop models with enhanced heat dissipation are designed. The cooling system of office-class laptops and netbooks is designed only for medium and light loads.
- Cooling system failure. When a crack forms at the junction of the heat sink (the area that is in contact with the chip) and the thermotube or the blower (fan) starts to work intermittently, you can not count on good cooling.
- Incorrect installation of the cooling system after home cleaning. The heat sink worsens too thick or, on the contrary, insufficient layer of thermal paste, as well as loose contact of the heat sink with the chip surface (due to weak or incorrect fixation of the first one). In addition, laptop owners sometimes replace silicone gaskets with thermal paste during self-cleaning (technical manufacturers use them instead of thermal paste when the cooled chips have different heights - to fill the gaps between the chips and heat sinks). The result is a laptop shutdown a few minutes after being turned on. Or even seconds.
- Poor design solution. There are laptops that are more prone to overheating than others initially, due to poor chassis design, CO or close proximity of hot elements to each other.
- Overclocking the processor and video card. Mobile computers are not designed for overclocking, but in life you will not meet anything.
Symptoms of overheating
Cooling inefficiency is indicated by the following:
- The laptop turns off only under heavy load - when watching a video or while playing a game.
- The laptop case and the airflow from the vent are tactilely hot.
- The case is hot, but almost no air comes out of the vent (the grate is clogged with dust).
- The case is hot and the air coming out of the vent is barely warm (the cooling system is incorrectly installed or defective).
- Before turning off, the fan hummed strongly (the cooling system is working at its limit).
- The fan works jerky (faulty).
- Monitoring programs (Aida64, HWiNFO, Sandra, etc.) detect the high temperature of components (the maximum allowable processor temperature, depending on the model, is 85-105 0 С, video cards - 90-110 0 С, chipset - 80-100 0 С) . The screenshot shows the current and maximum core temperatures of the mobile Intel Core i3 under medium and high load. The values correspond to the norm.
Sometimes the only manifestation of overheating is instability while the laptop is running. This happens with poor cooling of nodes that are not controlled by hardware monitoring (for example, one of the bridges).
Consequences of overheating
As a result of prolonged operation under thermal stress conditions, the solder contact between the chip and the chip base or between the chip and the board is destroyed, followed by degradation of the chip itself. We are talking about microcircuits in the BGA package, which are attached to the board with an array of balls located on the underside of the microcircuit. In such cases, video chips, system logic (north and south bridges, hybrid bridges - hubs) and part of central processors for laptops are produced.
Most often, video cards fail from overheating, least often - processors. When a critical temperature threshold is reached, the latter, in order to cool down, reduce the frequency (this is how clock throttling technology or throttling works). And some video chips, especially on budget platforms, either lack such protection, or it is ineffective.
How to solve a problem
The answer is obvious - by normalizing cooling. If the ventilation holes are dirty, it is necessary to disassemble and clean the device with the replacement of thermal paste and thermal pads (the latter are changed only when they dry). Please note that due to low thermal conductivity, KPT-8 paste is not suitable for laptops.
If the cooling system is out of order, it is changed. In case of minor defects (a wire has come off, etc.), repairs are possible.
For games, as well as for normal work on laptops that are structurally prone to overheating, it is advisable to buy a cooling pad.
False overheating
It happens that hardware monitoring is wrong - it perceives normal temperature as prohibitively high and turns off the device. In simple cases, this is treated by resetting BIOS settings by default (see below for how to do this) or by updating it. However, if the machine shuts down during a BIOS update, there will be even more problems. If you are not sure that you can restore the firmware yourself, it is better not to risk it.
In difficult cases, you will have to contact a service center for repairs.
Reason two: the output of the most important supply voltages beyond the permissible limits
The correct operation of the laptop is possible only if the supply voltages fully comply with a certain level. A small deviation leads to instability - lags, freezes, reboots, and a significant one - either to burnout of the board elements (if the nominal value is exceeded), or to a failure to work ("dead" freeze, self-shutdown, etc.).
The level of supply voltages is also monitored by hardware monitoring. If the voltage sensors show a deviation, it also shuts down the computer immediately to prevent electrical damage.
The prerequisites for the problem may be:
- Faulty feeders - power supply (including cord and plug, and with them the connection socket) and / or battery.
- Motherboard defects (multicontroller, bridges, strapping, CMOS memory chip, PWM power controllers, or something else).
- BIOS failure.
- Other devices - processor, RAM, video card, display, etc.
Symptoms of eating problems
- The laptop suddenly shut down and won't turn back on.
- The laptop turns off immediately after being turned on.
- After a sudden shutdown, the device does not turn on on the first try, it works for a short time and turns off again.
- The device turns on and after a few seconds turns off. There are no signs of overheating.
- The laptop normally works from the power supply and immediately turns off when it is disconnected (the battery has failed). Or it works normally on battery power, but turns off when the power supply is connected (the power supply is faulty).
Diagnosis at home
There is very little you can do on your own in such cases. Perhaps only:
- Test the machine with a known-good processor and RAM (if any) by disconnecting the peripherals and display and connecting an external monitor. Perhaps the problem node is among them. This will be handled by someone who has experience disassembling and assembling their laptop.
In all other cases, you will have to carry the "pet" to the service.
Tracking voltage indicators using programs like HWiNFO, Aida64, etc. is not informative. The signals from the sensors on the way to the HWM controller pass through resistive dividers (they lower their level with an accuracy error), and the programs take this indicator and try to “restore” the original signal from it. The result is therefore approximate.
Can a laptop turn off due to viruses, drivers, Windows errors and programs?
Yes and no. Yes - because some viruses and faulty drivers load resources so intensively that they cause the computer to overheat and, as a result, shut down. There are also programs that can change the clock frequency of the processor and control the supply voltage of its core. No - because any impact of the software is not a direct, but an indirect cause, leading either to overheating or to voltage instability.
Some users call laptop shutdown an unexpected shutdown of the operating system (found on Windows 7, 8, 10, XP). The problem is usually caused by malfunctions in the system itself, application errors, drivers, or the same viruses. Reinstalling or removing faulty drivers and programs, antivirus scanning, and in the most extreme case, reinstalling Windows will help.
There are also unclear situations, for example, when a shutdown occurs every time Windows boots. Both software and hardware can be to blame for such problems. To figure it out, boot the laptop from another medium (flash drives, DVD). If the startup goes well, the reason lies in the system on the hard disk or in what "dwells" in it. If not, in iron.
Sometimes the problem occurs only in certain cases, for example, when closing the lid (if the action is assigned not to turn off, but to go to sleep). To fix the crash, click on the battery icon in the system tray, go to "Power and sleep settings"
and switch to a different power plan.
If there is no result, reset the BIOS to default (update if possible), reinstall the ACPI driver downloaded from the website of your laptop model, or do a system restore to a day when the problem did not exist yet.
AT recent times most users choose a laptop for work or entertainment, because using this device is much easier, more convenient and practical. However, even with such compactness and modern power, there are problems when using it, the most common and urgent problem that users have is turning off the laptop during the game.
There are several reasons why the laptop turns off during the game:
- If the laptop has old drivers, then they may not work correctly with many games and, as a result, the system may shut down. Also, weaker machines, due to the rather high requirements of games, may not withstand the load and turn off. Solving this problem is quite simple - update the drivers or purchase a more powerful laptop.
- Viruses and unlicensed products are bad enough for any computer and can cause the system to shut down. Solving the problem is also quite simple - check the system for viruses, install curing programs and applications: Dr.WebCureIt, Avast, Advanced System and more. This will not only help solve the shutdown problem, but also improve the entire system, increase performance and solve other problems.
- Laptop overheating. This reason is the main one and it is necessary to approach it more thoroughly, because there are many reasons for overheating, and they can lead to very serious consequences in the future. Therefore, this item must be considered separately. After all, even the simplest games of balls on Multigames can lead to overheating of the laptop.
Causes of overheating
The main reason for shutting down a laptop while playing is overheating. Overheating can be determined for several reasons:
- Very loud fan operation, while the sound can be distorted and become many times more intense.
- Drawdown and freezing of games, as well as errors in the system and games.
- Heating of the case, as well as the release of hot air from the laptop.
- Turn off or restart your laptop while gaming or working.
- System slowdown and poor performance of the laptop.
In order to accurately establish whether overheating is the reason for shutting down the laptop, you need to use special programs and utilities that will help determine the temperature of the system, monitor all indicators and data. You can do this with the help of Open HardwareMonitor or any other similar applications.
This program visually shows all indicators of the system, temperature and some information. Thanks to it, you can clearly see the overheating of the system and verify this by looking at all the indicators.
The main causes of overheating can be such factors:
Solution
There are various ways to solve the overheating problem, the main ones are:
These methods will help any user to avoid overheating of the laptop, as well as improve its performance and increase power.
Outcome
Problems with turning off the laptop during the game occur for many users, so it is necessary to look for the cause and solutions as soon as possible. As you can see, the main reason is overheating of the system and laptop. This problem can be solved at home, the main thing is to choose the right and right methods that will help avoid overheating and improve the performance of the laptop.
The laptop itself began to turn off during work or play. Learn more about what causes the device to turn off randomly.
The laptop may turn off by itself for several reasons. This is due to scheduled system shutdown settings, overheating, virus infection, OS malfunction, or mechanical damage.
Sleep setting
For example, Windows 10 puts a laptop to sleep when not used for a long time, especially when running on battery power. The settings are in the "Power Options" section. It happens that the manufacturer to increase the time battery life from baratea sets the transition to sleep mode even after 10 minutes. This period can be increased or it is better to turn off the sleep mode completely.
Open the Settings tab, go to System - Power and sleep. Set Sleep to Never.
Mechanical damage
The laptop may turn off by itself or just the screen while tilting the display. The reason is a break in the video signal transmission bus, and only the service will help here.
When the laptop turns off without any notification - just a black screen, or a blue screen appears with an error message, then we can deal with overheating or a malfunction in device drivers.
The most common reasons:
- contamination or malfunction of the cooling system;
- the power button is mechanically damaged (it can turn off through poor contact at any time);
- battery is defective;
- malfunctions of RAM or hard drive (sometimes tapping is heard);
- motherboard is defective.
What to do if the laptop turns off spontaneously?
Try to identify some of the reasons yourself.
If the laptop does not show signs of overheating, save your documents, personal photos, videos, and other data first. Create an image backup or simply transfer them individually to an external drive or over the network to another computer. Then run antivirus or format HDD and reinstall Windows again.
If the laptop was expanded RAM, added another memory stick, or replaced with new ones, the cause may be incompatible RAM modules or poor contact. To check, reinstall the old original strips.
When a laptop shuts down on its own during prolonged use or under heavy load when playing games or editing videos, we can deal with overheating, especially on hot days.
How to tell if your laptop is overheating
- The first sign is an increased case temperature at the installation sites of heating components.
- The second symptom is when the fans start to run louder and louder, the increased noise continues for a long time until the laptop turns off by itself.
- The third symptom is when the cooling fan is not heard at all
In the last two cases, check the processor temperature through a program such as Core Temp.
If the temperature exceeds 80°C, then there is a malfunction in the removal of heat from the case.
- the cooling system is heavily contaminated;
- the fan is faulty;
- poorly fitting heatsink on the processor.
The cooling system becomes contaminated with dust over time, which greatly reduces its efficiency.
Carry your laptop around with you often, an accidental drop or impact can cause the cooler to fail, causing the processor or graphics card chipset to overheat.
What should I do if my laptop overheats?
Cleaning the cooling system
If the laptop overheats and turns off by itself during high load, then before taking it to a service center, clean the cooling system.
Cleaning is carried out with compressed air through the ventilation holes or with the cover removed.
To improve heat dissipation, especially if the processor or graphics card is under heavy load, especially during games, install additional cooling. To do this, a cooling pad is placed under the device.
Reducing the frequency of the processor
With a good supply of power, try lowering the processor frequency and thereby heating. If you are sure that the laptop turns off after too high temperature processor, try in the advanced settings of the power plan in the "Maximum processor state" item to reduce the frequency by 10-20%.
Do I need to change the thermal paste
Sometimes users claim that when a laptop overheats often turns off, then you need to change the thermal paste, but this is not so. The cooling system in laptops is designed differently than in desktop computers, and rarely needs to be replaced.
The need for replacement can only be determined in the service. At home, such an operation is not recommended.
If the computer suddenly turns off while playing video games or demanding programs, then most likely this is due to severe overheating of the processor and / or video card. In this article, you will find the answer to the question of what to do if the laptop turns off during the game.
Why does my laptop turn off while playing?
Time does not stand still, and each new laptop model is released with more powerful stuffing than its predecessors, while under the influence of the trend, the dimensions of laptops are becoming smaller and smaller. But the problem is that for this reason, the laptop becomes more difficult to cool during increased load. In addition, the situation is aggravated by the improper use of the laptop, as well as the lack of preventive cleaning from dust. Therefore, when the microprocessor and / or video card heats up to the limit values, the system automatically turns off the laptop in order to prevent burnout of the loaded components.
Problem Diagnosis
Typically, overheating of the system is signaled by such signs as loud cooler noise, braking and freezing. But to really make sure that the laptop turns off during the game precisely because of the strong heating of individual components, you need to check the system temperature under load (read how to do this). If the CPU temperature rises above 65°C and the graphics cards rise above 80°C, it indicates overheating.
How to deal with the problem
Use the methods below to troubleshoot.
Dust cleaning
If you have been using a laptop for more than a year and have never done preventive cleaning, then it's time to think about it. Read the article to find out all the nuances of the process.
In some cases, overheating problems can be caused by wear of the thermal pad, which is located between the cooling system plate and the processor cover, so be sure to check its condition during cleaning and replace if necessary.
Using the Cooling Pad
In addition, to facilitate the operation of the cooling system during increased load, it is recommended to use a special cooling pad with one or more built-in coolers.
Proper operation
Also, keep in mind that the ventilation holes of the device must always have access to air, so do not place the laptop on a soft or uneven surface while working.
Reducing the maximum power of the microprocessor
Another way to prevent the laptop from shutting down while playing is to lower the maximum CPU power from 100% to 70%. To implement it, do the following:
- right-click on the "Start" icon and select "Power Management";
- in the window that appears, click on the line "Configuring power schemes";
- then select "Change advanced power settings";
- in a new window, open the "Processor Power Management" section;
- select "Maximum Processor State";
- change the value from 100 to 70%;
- Finally, don't forget to click the "Apply" button.