Laptop question

[Bungleau]

Inactivity may be measured by keystroke or mouse movement, and not by CPU activity. Otherwise, a screen saver would keep something alive forever.

When I do system work on my machines, I go into Power Management and use an always-on setting. Nothing ever turns off (monitor, drives, power) under that setting. I've done that because when one of those kicks in (or maybe it was a screen saver), it restarted the defrag I was trying to do... fourteen times... [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

I would definitely contact support, though, especially on such a new machine. My laptop provider (Fujitsu) has on-line web chat for problem resolution... it has been very useful both times I've used it

[dplax]

But IIRC when music plays on windows media player then that is considered as a period of acticity. Correct me if I am wrong.

[Stormymystic]

let me know if that works

[dplax]

I will let you know. I'll do some experimenting with it tonight.

[Wysardry]

Originally posted by dplax: But IIRC when music plays on windows media player then that is considered as a period of acticity. Correct me if I am wrong.

It's user interaction that determines the activity level, not what programs are running. If you aren't using the mouse or keyboard, that's a period of inactivity as far as power saving features are concerned.

That's why most laptops have separate settings for when they're running on mains power or battery. If running on mains power you generally want to leave a longer delay so that you can watch videos, listen to music etc. without needing to move the mouse at regular intervals to keep the screen/drive/system "alive".

[dplax]

OK I checked several things. I ran the laptop several hours on external power and then a few hours on battery and no problems showed up.

I checked the windows power settings: when running on external power everything is set to full use, so no standby, no switch off monitor and no switching off hard disks. And the laptop was running from external power when the problem happened.

Could it be that while I was doing the disc cleanup it somehow overheated something and the computer shut itself down as a security measure? I can't reasonably think of anything else.

@Wisardry: But while playing a film with windows media player the screen saver won't switch on even if you are inactive.

[Sir Kenyth]

This is almost surely a sleep or suspend occurring.

Power conservation modes usually have numerous levels. First, the screen turns off, then the drives. Then it goes into suspend mode, where a keystroke or mouse movement will bring it on. After this, it goes to sleep or suspend mode. This effectively turns off the PC. Your info is stored in RAM so only a partial boot is needed. You generally need to hit the power button to come back from this mode. The PC may also completely shut itself off. There are settings in both the BIOS and OS that control these functions.

[Timber Loftis]

For standby purposes, if you are not pressing the keyboard or moving the mouse/touchpad it is considered "inactive." Period.

Your power settings are likely NOT controlled by the windows power settings. I have owned 5 laptops to date (3 Toshibas) and every one of them had a different power management program installed by the company which will either override or work in conjunction with the Windblows power management settings. I know it's stupid, but I just use the machines, I don't make them.

Sounds to me like you may have had power surges or brief outages. If you were operating off your power cord and the battery was not installed, a brief outage in the power could case the machine to just power off immediately. You'd know though, because it would do a self-test once you started it back up.

Last time I checked, Toshiba had good telephone assistance available if you'd like to call them.

[ 05-18-2004, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[dplax]

Did some looking around on the Toshiba forums and it seems that others have had the same problem. Here is what the reply was:

Update your BIOS from www.ts.toshiba.com If that doesn't help, then I would suspect a overheating problem. One way to decide if it is a overheating problem is if the machine does NOT want to startup immediately after it has shutdown. That would pretty much diagnose a overheating problem Another thing you can try is to back up your data files, then use your Recovery CD to restore the machine to factory fresh. If the problem continues immediately after restoring the system, it is most likely a hardware problem http://pcrepair.toshiba.com has worldwide service provider (ASP\PASP) information/locations.

The description pretty much fits what had happened to me.

and another reply:

Could be a plugged cooling module. The cooling fan and module for the A series is on the bottom where dust and lint are sucked into the fan and usually plug up the radiator type of cooling module. A good servicer can remove the cooling module and not damage the CPU and then clean out the cooling module's vents.

I shall try what they have suggested. Thanks for your help and input everyone.

[Wysardry]

Toshiba also provide online support, including .pdf versions of manuals for a wide range of machines.

Just visit www.computers.toshiba-europe.com

Edit: It looks as if you've already discovered one of their sites.

[ 05-18-2004, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Wysardry ]