“Fred, I have a three-and-a-half-year-old laptop (Dell Inspiron 13”, i7, 12 GB RAM, 1TB M.2 SSD, Windows 10) that has recently begun to periodically shut down during use.
“Suspecting CPU overheat, I downloaded the CoreTemp program and verified that that is the problem.
“I opened up the laptop and cleaned the fan and vents as best I could (although there did not seem to be much dust or debris), but still the computer shuts down intermittently.
“The CPU temperature seems to vary widely from about 110 degrees to 205 (Fahrenheit) or so when it shuts down. I do hear the fan operate at times.
“Any suggestions as to how I can get the laptop to operate reliably?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That’s excellent troubleshooting so far! In fact, I think he’s almost solved the problem — there are just a few more steps to a successful completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to track down and correct even stubborn, subtle, or indirect causes of potentially-damaging, heat-related PC crashes is the topic of my column in this week’s AskWoody Plus<\/strong> newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also in this week’s AskWoody Plus<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n AskWoody Free<\/em><\/strong><\/a> edition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click here for the Askwoody Free<\/a><\/strong> signup; 100% free!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click here for the AskWoody Plus<\/strong><\/a> signup; no set price — pay what you think it’s worth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Permalink:<\/em><\/strong> https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=5126<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n COMMENT \/ QUESTION<\/strong> on THIS ITEM?<\/strong> See the<\/em> Comment box<\/strong> at bottom of this page!<\/em> AskWoody subscriber John Mackin’s laptop was badly malfunctioning, and the problem remained unresolved even after some top-notch troubleshooting and maintenance. “Fred, I have a three-and-a-half-year-old laptop (Dell Inspiron 13”, i7, 12 GB RAM, 1TB M.2 SSD, Windows 10) that has recently begun to periodically shut down during use. “Suspecting CPU overheat, I downloaded the CoreTemp…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-askwoody-plus","category-langa-com-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-1lA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5184,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/sudden-uncommanded-shutdowns-plague-win10-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":0},"title":"Sudden, uncommanded shutdowns plague Win10 laptop","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-06-15","format":false,"excerpt":"AskWoody subscriber John Mackin's laptop was badly malfunctioning, and the problem remained unresolved even after some top-notch troubleshooting and maintenance. \"Fred, I have a three-and-a-half-year-old laptop (Dell Inspiron 13\", i7, 12 GB RAM, 1TB M.2 SSD, Windows 10) that has recently begun to periodically shut down during use.\"Suspecting CPU overheat,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2570,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/10\/a-reader-asks-my-laptop-intermittently-shuts-down-on-its-own-whats-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: “My laptop intermittently shuts down on its own. What’s wrong?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-04-10","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Janet Ybarra wrote: \"I have a laptop which intermittently shuts down on its own, apparently from overheating. What would be the problem and what can I do?\" For conventional, fan-cooled laptops: Visually check the fan blades for\u00a0encrusted\u00a0dust and debris; use a\u00a0cotton swab and a blast of dry, compressed air\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5553,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/25\/excess-cpu-heat-during-laptop-recharging\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":2},"title":"Excess CPU heat during laptop recharging?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2021-01-25","format":false,"excerpt":"A\u00a0reader is concerned: His laptop\u2019s CPU temperature rises during battery-charging sessions. Why would the CPU heat up from battery charging? Relatedly, what are normal CPU temperatures, anyway? What\u2019s a safe temperature rise? Plus:\u00a0A tiny freeware app that\u00a0prevents\u00a0PC overheating! Read the full story in\u00a0AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.3.0\u00a0(2021-01-25). Also in this issue:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5953,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/inaccessible-backups-and-a-dead-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":3},"title":"Inaccessible backups, and a dead laptop","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2022-01-24","format":false,"excerpt":"How can you repair what you can\u2019t get at? Today\u2019s column covers two problems caused by very different access issues. In one case, a subscriber is locked out of her old, obsolete backup files; she can neither access nor delete them and thus cannot recover the huge chunk of disk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5099,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/28\/what-is-the-difference-between-sleep-hybrid-sleep-and-hibernate-on-a-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":4},"title":"“What is the difference between sleep, hybrid sleep, and hibernate on a laptop?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-05-28","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Shreya Mehta) In\u00a0sleep mode\u00a0(sometimes called\u00a0suspend), your PC goes into a low-power state, consuming just enough electricity to keep the RAM contents intact; to monitor for system events (such as a key- or mouse-click, or closing the lid on a laptop); and to run similar low-power processes. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/sleep-hybrid-hibernate.jpg?fit=404%2C442&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/03\/a-reader-asks-why-wont-my-laptop-charge-when-its-running-it-only-charges-when-its-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":5182,"position":5},"title":"A reader asks: Why won’t my laptop charge when it’s running? It only charges when it’s off.","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-03","format":false,"excerpt":"Q*: \"How do I fix my laptop? When it is turned on and I plug it in, it will not charge, and will only charge when it is plugged in while turned off. What's going on?\" A: The most common cause for this is an aging battery that draws too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5190,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions\/5190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Fred](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=110%2C110\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"[seperator]\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/SEPERATOR-short-grey.png?resize=104%2C6\")
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