Laptop keeps shutting down suddenly minutes after startup

Ryansoto:

I don't know what a "diagnosist CD" is. Do you mean the XP system disk?
And wouldn't I probably run into the same sort of crash if I tried to run from there?

Xcon:
That sounds like a possibility. I just rebooted and listened for the fan and barely heard any at all. Does the machine overheat *that* quick in the absence of a fan?

I'm pretty butterfingers and don't know my way around laptop inner organs anyway, so I probably don't want to open it up myself. Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot/diagnose the problem without physically going inside?

I'll probably have to take it to somebody. My goal at this point is to get whatever info I can to to limit the scope (and cost) of any help that I purchase.

Thanks.

A diagnistic CD is helpful because it doesn't load the same drivers as the installed O/S does, and if the crash doesn't appear, it's depending on the O/S and not on hardware. If the unit still crashes, it's hardware-related.

Good diagnostic CDs can be found to download, perhaps one of the best is Knoppix (www.knoppix.org), which is a Linux based O/S that runs only from the CD - no installation required.

A heat issue can appear quickly, even if the fan works OK, if the heatsink isn't tight on the CPU chip for some reason.

Try entering BIOS setup and leave the unit there for a few minutes. If the crash happens there, it's hardware- or heat-related.
/RID

Rid is also right -

Boot into bios and let it sit does the crsh still happen?  If not then we know its not heat related.
A diag disk normally comes with the laptop or can be downloaded from their site.  RID mentions a 3rd party disk, give it a shot I have never used that one before.
Basically a diag disk will help troubleshoot hardware issues by testing the components

Refund points original poster never posted back about our suggestions

Well, my only objection would be that I'd hate to see it abandoned - I am having the same problem with TWO brand new Lenovo 3000 n200 notebooks.

I have left the worst of the two running in BIOS and it dos not shut down when in BIOS. If I try to run utilities it fails within a minute - same with the Windows XP Pro OS.

Thinking of reimaging at this point. The only modifications were the addition of 2 gigs of RAM (now removed, still failing) and MS Office 2000 Pro (THAT could be the problem as I put it on BOTH system, which are now shutting down.)

Well, food for thought - I'll report back on the results. OH - IBM Lenovo support had nothing to offer and said they'd never seen the problem...   :-\

Forced accept.

Computer101
EE Admin

Thanks for the help and sorry for not replying promptly. Things are really hectiic on my end.

IBM is replacing the motherboard. Says they had some Lenovo 3000 units with defective or cracked boards causing this.

I too have this problem with a Lenovo N200. I purchased 3 fior my kids last December. 2 are OK but 1 failed about 2 weeks ago refusing to boot. I t would not do a system restore from the recovery partition so I removed the disk, formated the main partition and did a restore back to factory condition. Several times upon rebooting it gets to the "Microsoft" scrolling display, there is a sharp click and it turns off. Switch on again and you get the Windows didn't start properly message. If you try a normal start it just clicks off again but if you do a repair it sorts it out until the next time. It is NOT an over heating problem & it is NOT a Harddisk problem - I have run it for several hours using Spinrite. i've just succeeded in restoring and updating Vista after the last "windows repair" and will see what happens. If anyone needs a recovery disk they are available from the Lenovo website provided your machine is less then 12 months old.