“Why is my Lenovo laptop shutting down after 5 to 10 minutes of working?”

(Answer requested by Chandrakant Godhani)

Assuming the battery is charged and OK, or the laptop is plugged in to a known-good power supply, the most common cause of “PC runs for a while and then stops” is heat buildup: Some component is running hot, and the PC is shutting itself down to prevent permanent damage to the hardware.

For conventional, fan-cooled laptops: Visually check the fan blades for encrusted dust and debris; use a cotton swab and a blast of dry, compressed air from a can (examples) to get the junk off the fan blades; and out of any laptop ducting, air passages, or grillwork. For some related how-to, see an old, still-relevant article I wrote for InformationWeek: Langa Letter: Curing Laptop Overheating. It contains text and photos that show how to de-dust a laptop’s fans and internal passages.

If your laptop has no fan or visible openings for airflow, then it relies on conduction for cooling. If such a device routinely overheats in normal, non-abusive operation, it suggests a fundamental, and maybe non-user-correctable problem. You best bet — especially if a warranty is involved — probably is to bring the device to a good repair shop.

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