I've been hurting for several days because of things i've been doing, but you all knew that. last night the new used laptop started acting up. It will work fine then just click, shuts itself off, no warning no nothing. The battery was bad when I bought it so I knew that was a problem. It has to be either the power supply is bad or the motherboard is bad. I have a new battery coming in the mail (which will be useless if the motherboard is bad), so when it comes and the problem goes away it's just a bad power supply and all I have to do it get another one for $10. If it keeps shutting off then it's the mother board and we have to start the process of getting our money back from Ebay. This is really disappointing.

Sometimes the battery can cause flackyness with the system supply GMS. I don't really recommend this if you are doing critical work, but, you could try to remove the battery and just run on supply power and see if you issue goes away. Hopefully, your new battery will come in soon enough. If your battery isn't to blame, then it possibly could be the supply itself (hope not; definitely hope it's not a MB issue).

Yes i did that and it still acts up. What worries me is that this morning I just turned it on and let it set for 3 hours and it ran fine but when i used it this evening (ie, loaded the system down) it started messing up. That in itself makes me think it might be a mother board. This evening I ran it with no battery in it, thinking the battery being bad might overload the power supply. Whatever I do doesn't seem to help.

That sounds just like an overheating issue. The fan that vents the case could have stopped working or maybe it's just dusty. if I were you, I'd open the case, check the fan and clean everything up.

If there is a setting in the BIOS that sets the upper limit of the CPU temp, you might want to bump that up just to see if that helps.

But yeah, if you've ruled out overheating, then the PS or MB is next on the list.

I doubt very seriously it has anything to do with the battery.

Hope you can get it figured out and not have to return it.

What Tux says sounds likely. I was the PC guy and my boss was the laptop guy (just not Mechanically incline, that's why I became an Electrical Enginneer; lol), but he regularly took laptops complete apart to clean the fan and things like that; would take a significant amount of time to do this complete breakdown but it may be necessary to clean the gunk in the fan exhaust. If this issue continues, you may need to take it to the local repair shop for cleaning (and if may cost an hour or more in labor; it's all labor unfortunately). Again, I never broke down a laptop to this level (only simple things like replace HD/CDRoms, and memory modules and batteries). Really need someone experienced to do this so again, if this issue continues, I doubt a new battery will be of help after you told me you removed the battery and it still is doing this. You pretty much are left with a defective supply or your systems heat exchange needs cleaning; based on the fact that you can set it aside and then it will work again for a little while, if pretty much rules out a supply issue. You need to get it clean. I know you recently purchased it from another individual and that may unfortunately be a buyer beware situation. Hope not.

Make sure you do not wait too long to get refund. Most Ebay sellers have at least a seven-day DOA return policy unless they explicitly specify otherwise in their description (in this case the description should have specified the item as intended for "parts only"). I also would not recommend opening the unit if there is a chance of you getting a refund.

Sorry to hear you are going through this GMS.I know you were very excited to get your new laptop.Sucks when things aren't what they seem to be.

someone else had the same thought, but it doesn't feel hot, doesn't even feel warm and it looks pretty clean inside. Maybe I'll blow it out, even if it's not the immediate problem it's a good idea. the worst enemy for a computer, aside from stupid people is dust. I'm still betting on the battery, it's completely dead and if the power dropped out for even a fraction of a second it would shut off with no warnings. The dust issue is also possible although it feel cool. I'll look into that too.

My wife feels really bad about it all because she suggested we get one on Ebay. losing two laptops is really stressful to me but for it to bother her is more painful. She wants to get our money back on this and save up a little more and get me a new one. I was hoping to use this one for 6 months or so and give it to her and get me a new one because she's wanted one for a long time. Ebay has a buyer protection program, which covers this issue for 45 days, one way or the other it will be resolved in much less than that. Once i get the new battery in it I'll know for sure if it's power supply or motherboard/dust problems.

Now it is really sounding like the power supply. If you laptop is indeed cool, then I doubt it is over heating unless somehow the CPU heatsink is not working properly (and really do doubt that). A good battery would filter any power glitching from the supply so hopefully you'll get your new battery soon and at least see if that is the case.

I've used laptops for years with the battery removed and have had no problems doing so. But yeah, even a tiny intermittent short in the PS or the power cable will shut you down. This is starting to sound like it's going to be a hassle to troubleshoot.

What make and model?

The battery being removed doesn't affect it because the battery is worn out. What I question is the power supply. Firstly because it's a generic one that's been replaced at least once because it isn't an IBM supply, it's off brand from china. Secondly, most of the supplies I saw on Ebay were 20 v @ 4.5 amps, this one is 20v @ 3.5 amps. There were some listed that were 20v @ 3.5 amps too on Ebay but that 1 amp could make all the difference in the world for a laptop. When i get the new battery and put it in I'll know what's the culprit. If the power supply drops out for an instant with a battery in it it won't shut anything down. if however if it does it with a new charged battery then it HAS to be the computer. I blew it out and got a little cloud of dust which might have been enough but I put a vane anemometer which I use to measure air flow on AC systems on the intake and the outlet and they were pretty much the same, which tells me there were no obstructions to air flow. I'm going to turn it on and run something power intensive like electric sheep after blowing it out and just let it run and see what happens. it's possible that that little bit of dust COULD have been enough to cause it to overheat and i couldn't feel it from the outside of the shell. I have serious doubts that it's just dust but it would be good if I was wrong. And Saul, it's This one. I checked USPS tracking and the new battery should be here Monday or Tuesday. More news as it develops

It looks like the laptop might be ok. I wish I would have put my anemometer on it before I blew it out but I didn't. Anyway after getting that tiny poof of dust I turned it on and let it just sit and play some of the most horrible movies I could find in netflix for 3 hours and it ran ok. Then last night I did some research and apparently it's common for that model to shut down easily if it gets too hot. I started up a little utility that I sometimes use to fix other people's computers, it just monitors the system and system temps. I also ran across a complete maintenance manual for it with all the service data available. I always run a cooler pad on my old one and will on this one too. the temps were fine all night and i was downloading and playing youtube vids continuously for 4 hours. I'll just have to keep in mind that it's very sensitive to dust, more than some other models.