Recently my laptop began to shut down in the middle of operations. It just simply quits. No messages, no alarms, no nothing. It just turns off, as a light turns off, or a motor simply stops. No harm done, and it starts right up and behaves normally when I start it. It saves whatever may have been going on, although it doesn't stop to ask me if I want to save anything, or indicate that it is saving. It just plain stops. It may or may not happen again that day, and it may not happen for several days, or may happen three times in a day. The computer is just a year old. My guess was heat. I vacuumed the fans, which were dirty, and vacuumed other areas. I also have the machine elevated an inch or so off the desk. It does not seem to run particularly hot, but does seem to run cooler since I cleaned it. But all those ministrations did not stop the problem. Any other ideas? I am not particularly eager to take the bottom off and clean further, but maybe I should take it to someone who can do that better than I. I also recycled the battery even though I'm almost always on AC. Any ideas? Thanks.

It sounds like you did all the right things. Although that's probably little consolation. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

I back up obsessively. Unlikely I'm going to lose anything. It's just that it shouldn't be happening. Thanks.

I back up obsessively. Unlikely I'm going to lose anything. It's just that it shouldn't be happening. Thanks.

It really sounds like a hardware problem to me. I wonder if a bad battery might cause that, even though you are running on AC. You might want to try running without it for a while. But you never can tell, a clean install 'might' fix it. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

Does this problem happen when you're on AC, battery, or both? If it happens only on AC, you may have a faulty AC adapter. Regards Dark Shadow

Dark Shadow - Good thought. While the battery is installed, I never use it. So your idea is worth checking, although I have no idea how to test the adaptor. I'll check it out. Thanks.