Laptop shuts down with no warning every 15-20 minutes

xreva

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Jul 24, 2012
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I have a 6 year old laptop from iBuyPower but I have no idea what model it is. I put an SSD in it a year ago so these abrupt shutdowns thankfully aren't doing as much damage as they would if I still had an HDD.

I don't have the battery in the laptop, I just use the power cable. Sometimes if the power cable accidentally bends a certain way it will come loose and the computer will shut down. However, starting about an hour ago, the laptop abruptly shuts down just sitting here on my desk with no pressure or movement being placed on the power cable. My guess is the power socket or the power cable is starting to die; it is 6 years old after all. This is just really strange and I have no idea what could be causing it.
 

mcnumpty23

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Jul 15, 2011
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well from what you said i would think you want to try a new power adapter first

the power socket is trickier to fix--some laptops now follow ibm/lenovo and use ones that dont need soldering to replace but a 6 year old one may be soldered on

if you are up to a little diy the power adapter can be tested with a 12v led
 

xreva

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Jul 24, 2012
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Adapters are cheap enough, if that is the issue I wouldn't mind just buying one. I'm at the office now but I will see if this continues at home, too.

The problem is, even though this is an iBuyPower laptop (which is a relatively wellknown brand), the laptop itself is pretty much a no-name brand. The model name is BLB2... and I believe it uses a 19v charger, but past that it's really difficult for me to find any information about this laptop to troubleshoot. If I were to buy a new charger, would this one work? My adapter says 19v, and this one says 15-20. I just don't want to buy one only to find out it does not fit in the jack.
 

mcnumpty23

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i am not a fan of universal chargers other than for testing laptops--some of them are really cheaply made and get very hot and even give of a buzzing sound

even if you cant get info about the laptop the charger should have a model number on it i would use that model number to find a replacement personally
 

xreva

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Jul 24, 2012
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The charger model number is nb-90b19 made by Asian Power Devices. I did some googling and could not find one for sale anywhere. I think my only recourse here is a cheap third party adapter off Amazon. I'm not very knowledgeable about this and it seems like a lot of factors play in to buying the correct charger.

The AC Input is 100-240v 1.5a 50-60hz
The DC Output is 19v 4.74a

So do I have to look for a charging cable that has exactly these specifications? I see a lot on amazon that say they are for specific models of laptops. Would those work on mine so long as the voltage and input are correct?

edit: I found one on eBay that even has the iBuyPower logo on it but it's $30 :/ would you recommend buying it anyway and avoiding all the $10 adapters on amazon?
 

mcnumpty23

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if buying from ebay read some of their feedback to make sure no one saying it went on fire etc theres plenty fake ones out there

$30 seems excessive unless they are selling it as the original/genuine replacement part
 

xreva

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Jul 24, 2012
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Ok that makes things easier. I see plenty that may work for sale on amazon but the tip is a concern. My charger does not give a measurement for the tip and barring a manual measurement I really have no way of finding out. I guess I should just compare it with the tips I see in the pictures?
 

ronpar

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If Your laptop shuts off without going through the shutdown cycle, chances are it is telling You Your battery is dying. This can also make it act strange at times. You can check this by removing the battery, and just use wall outlet power, if it stays running then There is nothing wrong with the power source. Some people says they can hear strange nosies coming from laptop after it dies, those nosies are the laptop shutting off. You see when You power down Your laptop, You are not shutting it off, You are only putting it in stand by, That way it will load up faster the next time in use. You can try cleaning the battery leads where it connects to laptop on both laptop and battery, and see if that will help, but I WOULD SAY IT IS TIME TO REPLACE THE BATTERY. In doing so You need to replace it with one from You laptops manufacture! Because these fly by night cheap replacement batteries are sometimes very unsafe and can cause fires.