Laptop shutdown diagnostic

[scoopd]

Had my laptop shutdown for the first time ever at a gig on Saturday.Could somebody please remind me what the diagnostic tool is to find the root of the problem?


Cheers

[lazersounds]

might just be a case of it overheating and shutting its self down, seen it loads of times at peoples functions becuase they don't provide the laptop with proper ventalation :)

[weekender45]

Had my laptop shutdown for the first time ever at a gig on Saturday.Could somebody please remind me what the diagnostic tool is to find the root of the problem?


Cheers

Yes This has happened to me too, in windows 7 I always used to put in hibernate mode if I wasnt using it. Unfortunately when I started using it for a gig after about an hour, microsoft updates started to install automatically, and this took a while and it restarted itself also.
Fortunately the tune I was playing at the time , I also had the cd - so not exactly seamless but at least there was some continuity.

I now check for all updates before a gig.
:)

[digga]

Did it suddenly just turn off, or did it freeze (crash) with something on the screen?

If it suddenly turned off, this is overheating, and as lasersounds said, you need to give it plenty of air around the base. Also, make sure the vents aren't clogged up with dust.

Just out of curiosity, is it a HP or Compaq laptop?

[scoopd]

Did it suddenly just turn off, or did it freeze (crash) with something on the screen?

If it suddenly turned off, this is overheating, and as lasersounds said, you need to give it plenty of air around the base. Also, make sure the vents aren't clogged up with dust.

Just out of curiosity, is it a HP or Compaq laptop?



It just suddenly turned off.I always make sure there's plenty room but I'll check for dust.

It's an Acer

[Alchemy]

Just a thought, have you checked the power options in control panel to see if any of the schemes have been changed?

[lazersounds]

standard laptop fans arn't usually enough for a 5 hour gig, espically in a warm venue, most people use extra cooling platforms. I personally have a micro Acer Pc, have never trusted laptops after seeing so many go down at other peoples gigs :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

standard laptop fans arn't usually enough for a 5 hour gig, espically in a warm venue, most people use extra cooling platforms. I personally have a micro Acer Pc, have never trusted laptops after seeing so many go down at other peoples gigs :)

Not sure how you have seen so many laptops go down at other people's gigs..? :confused:

Totally disagree. Modern laptops are fine as long as you keep the fans clean and leave a bit of space round the fan area.

I have never had an issue and have been using laptops for 9 years to DJ with.

[lazersounds]

well thats just in my experience down here, though i'll admit its usually 16 year old bedroom DJ's that do friends partys that have problems, though have seen it happen to pros too that forget to keep vents clean :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

well thats just in my experience down here, though i'll admit its usually 16 year old bedroom DJ's that do friends partys that have problems, though have seen it happen to pros too that forget to keep vents clean :)

It depends on how old the laptop is too as components start to heat up a lot quicker as they get older. I must admit I used a cooling pad years ago, but as laptops get faster and better spec'd, there was no need. I've even run video several times without problems.

[DazzyD]

I agree with Darren. However, the heat that my laptop generates seems to have caused my battery to deteriorate quicker than it should have which resulted in my having to buy a new battery last week. I also bought a new Belkin Cooling Pad at the same time for less than £12 from Amazon (incl delivery!) and the laptops temperatures have dropped quite dramatically. I don't use them now but I've noticed my previous two Acer laptops tended to get hotter than my other laptops and my last Acer actually fried from a hardware fault. Maybe this is relevant to the OP.

Anyway, going back to OP. The diagnostic tool could be just about anything. I would recommend looking at the Event Log Viewer first as this might give you some clues as to why the computer shut down. More info here. (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/What-information-appears-in-event-logs-Event-Viewer)

[katman]

If the shutdown was due to overheating there wont be anything in the event log.

A proper graceful shutdown should have an event "Event Log Service was stopped"

In the event of overheating the shutdown is a hardware initiated action and it doesnt close anything down nicely it just kills the power.

with some brands, noticably Dell, you cant restart the computer until all mains and battery power has been removed first.

When you restart you will most likely get a warning that windows did not shut down properly.

[Gary]

Whilst I dont generally run a lappy for music, (although that might be sorta changing in a couple of months) I do run one for lighting/dmx. I had a show a few months ago where I used black table cloths over the flightcase that I rest the lappy on, even though the flightcase is hidden behind the starcloth booth anyway.

The lappy did the same sudden/instant/no warning shutdown after a couple of hours - and there's no way that DMX control was as taxing on the poor lappy as "DJ" software. Thankfully, the moving heads saw the DMX signal disappear and simply shrugged and dropped onto their built-in programs for the next few minutes.

As the only thing I'd done differently lappy-wise at that gig was the black cloth, I lifted up the lappy, and sure enough both the underside of the lappy and the centre of the black cloth were very hot, and whilst the lappy had lots of side and read air vents - they appeared to be just the intakes, sucking the cool air in. The vents underneath the where the lappy would normally try to push the hot air out.

I removed the black cloth, left the lappy off for about 45 mins, with it lifted up at the front (a couple of wooden door wedges), then re-booted the lappy. It resumed working, and did so for the rest of the night.

Now, I do use the black cloth still, but with the lappy sitting up on 2 strips of wood, lifting it a couple of cm's clear of the surface.

Id suggest that you check your lappy vents, if you havent done so already. Workout which ones are intakes, which ones are exhausts and...with the lappy "off" try clearing any dust from the whole in/out route - epecially from fans.

[Larry B Entertainment]

It depends on how old the laptop is too as components start to heat up a lot quicker as they get older. I must admit I used a cooling pad years ago, but as laptops get faster and better spec'd, there was no need. I've even run video several times without problems.

:like:

I use a cooling tray but only because I like the angle it sets the laptop at, I dont even need to plug it in as the laptop cools itself enough on its own.


standard laptop fans arn't usually enough for a 5 hour gig, espically in a warm venue, most people use extra cooling platforms. I personally have a micro Acer Pc, have never trusted laptops after seeing so many go down at other peoples gigs :)

Wow, you must have been to a LOT of gigs.

I have only ever seen one laptop fail gig wise and that was a Mac book pro.

[scoopd]

Just did it again before tonights gig.In event viewer it says source vmc servie and description conflict manager type value.It seems to be a conflict between my vodafone dongle(that I've never had a problem with before) and something else!

[Corabar Steve]

If that's the case, I think I see a simple solution.


Don't connect to the internet while you're gigging

[scoopd]

If that's the case, I think I see a simple solution.


Don't connect to the internet while you're gigging

The irony is that I'm at home and the dongle is in the van so no issue there anyway.Unless it's a more powerful wireless dongle that I thought!
I have removed it from the system to see if that does the trick