laptop shutting down issue

[luv1another]

My Toshiba laptop started taking about 4 attempts to start... it would get a little in to starting and restart get a bit further next time and restart. it took 4 times usually sometimes more sometimes less to actually get to the main screen.
then it would shut down randomly... one day I was an hour into doing things online and it shutdown. another time I was 3 hours into doing stuff and it shutdown. generally it was shutting down randomly once or twice a day.

The reason I am asking is my son decided he wants to try and fix it so he can use it.
he took it apart as much as he felt comfortable to and put a can of air onto it and cleaned it.
so it's not a dust issue as it is still doing the same thing.

any suggestions?

[Xru]

My Toshiba laptop started taking about 4 attempts to start... it would get a little in to starting and restart get a bit further next time and restart. it took 4 times usually sometimes more sometimes less to actually get to the main screen.
then it would shut down randomly... one day I was an hour into doing things online and it shutdown. another time I was 3 hours into doing stuff and it shutdown. generally it was shutting down randomly once or twice a day.

The reason I am asking is my son decided he wants to try and fix it so he can use it.
he took it apart as much as he felt comfortable to and put a can of air onto it and cleaned it.
so it's not a dust issue as it is still doing the same thing.

any suggestions?

Need more information:
Exactly what happen when it shuts down . . . messages, Blue screen of death, just turns off?
How old is the computer and what model is it . . . not just Toshiba but model number?
What Windows OS is installed?
What antivirus software do you have?
Firewall?
Automatic Windows updates?
How often do you defrag you hard drive and clean the registry?

[luv1another]

When it shuts down it just closes as if I had pushed the off button just straight closes....when it is starting it just keeps restarting until it gets to the desktop not actually shuts down.
my Toshiba is about 4 years old and it's running vista
Its a Toshiba Sattelleite TOS7837
antivirus is AVG
firewall AVG
windowa updates is turned on to automatic
I do a cleanup maybe every few weeks defrag when I think of it but it was done before I gave it to my son and the week before

[Xru]

When it shuts down it just closes as if I had pushed the off button just straight closes

Do you mean "Closes" like in "Windows is Shutting Down," or "Closes" like you turn the power switch off, ie, loss of power.

When you start your computer do you log in using user name and password? If so, do you log in under Administration Privileges, or as a General User? For reasons of security, you should always log in for everyday use in the General user account. Only, log the Administration Account, to do system work like installing drivers etc. This is a pain but necessary especially if you are using Windows because if you are always under Admin privileges malware has much easier time screwing with your computer.

I'm suspecting there may be a couple things going on here, unfortunately. There may be a problem with you MBR, Master Boot Record, or your file system, and a hardware problem.

There are a couple ways to repair your MBR using downloadable utilities, and Windows has a built in utility you can access via the "Console" using commands. It's been awhile since I've looked at them but I have a Windows OS on a partition of the MacBook Pro i'm writing this on so I'll go see what I can dig up.

What version of Vista do you have . . . home, Professional or what?

I'll check my Windows installation and be back to ya in a bit.

BTW, there are Forums on the Internet will lots of people who are real Experts and will help you. I'm glad to help if I can but there are better places to get tech advice that TW.

I just Google'd Vista advice Forum and came up with this link: http://forums.cnet.com/windows-vista-forum/

I also Google'd "windows vista continually reboots" and there are dozens and dozens of forums and Question Answer sites to look too.

Also, have you tried to do a "Restore" at a time and date that you know your computer was operation ok?

Did this start happening just after you tried to install a program?

Back in a bit.
Okay . . . Here's a link about how to use "Check Disk" in Vista:
http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-v...windows-vista/

Note that the scan time can be very, very long. Also, to decrease the time to scan you should defrag your hard drive first and empty your OS from clutter using ccleaner (ccleaner can be download free version . . just Google "download ccleaner," or the like . . . get rid of cached files in your browser and the like.

Here is a link to a free utility that will try and fix any errors in your MBR:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...s/MBRFix.shtml

You should do these tasks under Admin privileges . . . so be very, very careful as you could total you OS if you type in the wrong command.

Now if seems complicated . . . well it is. The alternative is for you to save the files you want, need to preserve onto a external media such as a thumb drive, dvd, cd rom, or the like and do a clean install of Vista. Better start thinking about that.

My experience with Windows OS when "Strange things start to happen," is that it's better to cut losses and do a clean install. It's a lot of work but it works out better in the long run.

After you have done all the above do the following after restarting your computer:

Okay . . . login under your admin account unless you log in automatically and its probably admin so . . .

Click on your start button, lower left corner of screen and open the control panel.
Open Administrative Tools and select Event Viewer. Look for errors in the log that comes up. It'll probably have a lot of stuff in it. If that's the case a Clean Install is probably your best bet.

To do that you'll need the Installation disk that came with your computer. Sometimes vendors get cheap and don't give you a disk but tell you to make one . . . if you didn't then you are up the creek. Sometimes vendors have a separate partition on the hard drive with the restore image there. You'll have to look around your menu or in your manual for your computer to see how to restore your computer with the restore image if that's what your computer has.

If all else fails and you don't want to shell out $200 for a DVD with Vista on it, or buy a new computer, you can try and install Ubuntu a free Linux distribution that is much better than any Windows OS.

If it comes to that we can talk about it.

[luv1another]

thanks...have shown my son and told him to follow what you said since it's in his possesion now and first thing he did was change the password LOL