# power problems with Toshiba Satellite A205-S5855, randomly shuts off



## elmer91

About a week ago my laptop starting randomly shutting off. at first i didnt think anything of it, but the last few days it has gotten really bad. i am not doing anything that could cause it, it has good airflow, it is fairly level, and i am not beating on it or anything. it shuts off sometimes when i set it down, when i am typing. one time it shut off when my wrist was barely resting on the left side under the keyboard. any ideas on what the problem is?


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## Zatharus

That sounds like you have a bad connection or short internally, either to the power systems or to a component (RAM, CPU, etc...).


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## elmer91

Zatharus said:


> That sounds like you have a bad connection or short internally, either to the power systems or to a component (RAM, CPU, etc...).



ok. i checked to power supply, the battery, and everything seemed fine. is this something i should send in for the warranty? (im not to good with computers, joined this forum to get help)


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## Zatharus

I would definitely call Toshiba tech support for this.  How new is the laptop?


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## elmer91

Zatharus said:


> I would definitely call Toshiba tech support for this.  How new is the laptop?



i bought it june 2008.


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## Zatharus

Yeah, call warranty services.  You most likely have a hardware problem if it is just powering off abruptly.

In the mean time, grab SpeedFan and run Prime95 on it.  Monitor the laptop for sudden spikes in temperature.  It could be a thermal shutdown, too.


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## elmer91

both of those free to download?


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## Zatharus

Yes, SpeedFan here.  Prime95 here.


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## elmer91

got them both now. but no idea what i am doing with them. speedfan says core 0 is at :48,  and core 1 is at 1:48


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## Zatharus

That's normal.  Watch those number while running a long session of Prime95.  See if they spike right before a shutdown or just note what the highest numbers you see are.


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## elmer91

what do i need to have everything set on to run prime95?

and what numbers would be considered a high temp number?


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## Zatharus

Just launch both programs.  In Prime95, go to the options menu and choose "Torture Test" and then the second option, In-place large FFTs.


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## elmer91

thanks for the help. i will run that tomorrow when i have the time to. and what numbers should i be looking for when the temp gets high?


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## Zatharus

My pleasure! 

Too high for this model is going to be in the 70's plus I believe.  The main thing to watch for though is a sudden spike temperature or a constantly rising temperature and then crash.


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## elmer91

i am starting to think it is a short somewhere. the highest number i have seen with normal usage is 52, and i was experimenting, seeing if there was a certain spot that would trigger the shutdown, and it does it all around at random times. the average number i am seeing is 47-48


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## Zatharus

That is quite possible.  I had that happen to some of my machines in the past.  Either a short or a loose CPU (happened on one of my old machines).


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## elmer91

my brother mentioned that it could be a faulty temp. sensor. he said that the laptops at his school were doing the same thing, and that was the problem.


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## Zatharus

elmer91 said:


> my brother mentioned that it could be a faulty temp. sensor. he said that the laptops at his school were doing the same thing, and that was the problem.



Yeah, that's what I was getting at when I was suggesting to look for sudden spikes in the temp.  I have had this happen before on desktops where the motherboard's sensor freaks out and causes a thermal shutdown without legitimate cause.


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## gregboyd

I am having the same issue, as is another person on another forum.  The A205-57464 has recently started shutting off.  My wife, who now has lost faith in my ability to purchase her a decent laptop will be working on something and the Toshiba will just shut off, sometimes 3-4 times a day.  For a while I blamed Vista, but being an Electrical Engineer, I can see this is a bigger problem.  It is frustrating because I paid an additional $400 to get what I thought was a "better" model.

According to this other forum, the issue is the Mother Board and it will run approx. $500.
Yikes.  That is not what I signed up for with Toshiba.


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## elmer91

wow.... glad mine is still under warranty. this is one of the first problems i have heard of with toshiba.


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## elmer91

sorry to bring up an older thread, but the problem went away on its own, about 2 months ago. and well, today, the day after the warranty ran out, it starts shutting itself off again. the only thing i did today was re activate photoshop. why would it stop for 2 months and come back again?


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## Carlos Benitez

I have a different type of problem w/ my Toshiba A205 S5855. It repeatedly enter the letter t if, for example, I am in a word processor or email prog (which is often). Then, when it is done with t (usually for about a page to three pages), it will not enter t at all for another few minutes before repeatedly entering t a little later. It usually happens when the machine has been running a while and is hot - even tho I always keep the machine on a fan. I have done all kinds of virus scans (found nothing), disk cleanups, etc... to no avail. Then yesterday, I was talking to a friend who has a similar Toshiba model, and his does the same thing, except with the letter L. Has any one else had a similar problem with Toshiba Satellite A205s?


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