Does your laptop turn off when starting a game or during another time-consuming task? There may be several reasons for this problem. The first thing they will tell you at any computer service center is that you need to clean your laptop from dust. Dust and dirt cause overheating, which causes the computer to shut down.
Shutting down during overheating is a kind of protective reaction of the device. Thus, the laptop tries to preserve the internal elements of the system. Usually, after cooling, the device turns on and works. True, in some cases it will take several hours to cool down.
The main reasons for overheating laptops
The main reason why a laptop turns off during a game and does not turn on is overheating. Let's talk about what exactly causes a laptop computer to heat up.
Why does the laptop get hot?
- The cooling system is not up to the task
- improper use of the laptop (closed ventilation holes during operation, for example, while playing, the device is on your knees, on a blanket, etc.)
- It's time to clean the laptop from dust and perform preventive maintenance of the cooling system
The first signs of overheating: braking, freezing, noisy operation and, accordingly, a complete shutdown to cool the system.
How to prevent overheating
The first rule is the correct use of technology. When playing games or working on a laptop, place it on a flat, hard surface, ideally a table. It is also recommended to use special cooling pads if the cooling system cannot cope with the load on its own.
Don’t forget about preventative cleaning of your laptop from dust, replacing thermal paste and thermal pads. Such simple and inexpensive manipulations will protect the system from serious damage and expensive repairs. Most service centers will carry out the procedure quickly and inexpensively.
Laptop turns off during gameplay: not overheating
Overheating and dust contamination are not always the reasons why equipment turns off. Other reasons include:
- battery failure
- virus infection of the system
- motherboard damage
- driver mismatch.
It is better to solve all these problems in a service center, especially if you are not an advanced user and do not have extensive knowledge of laptop architecture. Any service center will quickly find the reason for the laptop turning off, and will also offer the most cost-effective solution to the problem.
A gamer's laptop turns off while launching his favorite game, what should he do? How to solve this problem? Usually, when you buy a laptop, everything works fine, but after a couple of months of active use, spontaneous shutdowns begin. In fact, the solution is quite simple, and now you will find out.
There may be several options:
- Manufacturing defects.
- Overheating (poor ventilation).
- Software glitch.
Why does the laptop turn off when playing (factory defect)
This happens quite rarely, but remember: if the laptop is new and under warranty, you should not open it or try to solve the problem of random shutdown yourself. At best, you will lose your warranty, at worst, you will completely break your laptop, and no one will replace it or fix it for free. So, if the laptop turns off immediately after purchase, then most likely you have a defective model; the best solution would be to send it in for repairs, especially since it is still under warranty.
Every self-respecting store has a service center. Find out his address and drop off your laptop there. After the examination, if the breakdown is not your fault, then your laptop will be repaired free of charge. If it breaks down again, you have every right to demand that the laptop be replaced with another model or the money returned for it.
Important! Even if the laptop breakdown is your fault, for example, you accidentally dropped it, hit it on a door frame, plugged it into an outlet with unstable voltage, etc., you don’t have to admit anything. The service center will not always be able to determine the exact cause of the breakdown; there is a possibility that everything will be attributed to a factory defect or a system failure.
Why does the laptop turn itself off during operation (dust)
It is important to know that laptops need to be cleaned of dust every six months. I am very surprised when people say that they haven’t done this at all for five years, and then complain: “My laptop is buggy (slows, lags, freezes, etc.), how can I fix it?”
When was the last time you cleaned your laptop? If the answer is: a very, very long time, then, most likely, the laptop is simply “choking” from dust, and when starting games due to the load (games are very resource-intensive) it gets very hot and, for the purpose of self-defense, turns off safely. The HWMonitor program will help you check the temperature of all components; you can download it below.
- HWMonitor free download
Give the laptop a load (turn on a game for a couple of minutes or an HD video). If the processor temperature is more than 60 °C, and is getting closer to 70 °C, or the video card is already heating up to 70–85 °C, and the laptop is very noisy - this is overheating.
To solve this problem, you need to completely clean the laptop from dust and replace the old thermal paste. Again, service centers will help you if you are not an advanced computer user or do not intend to become one.
Cleaning instructions can be found on YouTube or google Videos for this request are in first place.
Software failure or driver “curves”
This option is also possible, but its probability is minimal, let’s not dance with a tambourine, it’s easier to find a computer guy you know who will reinstall Windows for you and update the drivers (if the problem is with them). The DriverPack Solution program will help you completely update all the drivers yourself; its size is more than 7 gigabytes, but the assembly contains all possible drivers for any laptop model.
- Download DriverPack Solution from the official website
As mentioned earlier, this happens very rarely, but I still recommend updating the drivers in any case. Drivers are about stability, speed and performance; the version of the drivers (the newer the better) determines how well the laptop works.
A couple more tips:
- The laptop heats up less on a hard surface than on a soft surface (sofa, etc.)
- You can also put something under the laptop, for example, I have a very old laptop (it gets very hot), for it to work properly, I have to put two books under it, so that the ventilation hole is open.
- You can also buy a special laptop stand that will further cool it.
Who knows why the laptop still turns off during the game?
Probably everyone has wondered: “What to do if the laptop turns off by itself while playing.”
According to statistics, every second owner of a computer or laptop is a gamer. Let us introduce you to some amazing facts about them!
- Most computer game players have few friends. Usually their number is two or three, and they also have a mania for games.
- The friendship between gamers is stronger than that of ordinary people. This is because in multiplayer games mutual understanding of each other is important.
- Gamers rarely forget the names of their friends. And the nicknames that belong to them too!
- As a rule, gamers are avid technophiles! They always have the latest gadgets at home.
- About a third of multiplayer game players are women! Don't believe it? Play Dota 2 and see for yourself!
- Gamers are good at exact sciences. This is not surprising, because they have extensive experience in calculating damage, mana and MMR.
- Computer game players are big music lovers. According to statistics, their favorite genre of music is electronic and rock.
- Usually, they buy computers and laptops for gaming.
By the way, speaking of the last point, every user has encountered such a problem when the laptop “cuts off” spontaneously. We invite you to look into this issue!
What to do if the laptop turns off by itself while playing
Spontaneous shutdown of a laptop is a serious problem! Of course, any person will be upset or even furious if, during the successful completion of a difficult and almost impassable level in the game, the laptop turns off.
And what a shame it will be if it’s not passing the game, but writing a coursework, and even more so, a diploma... It’s incredibly sad, because the future career, and therefore life too, depends on this important work.
How far we have strayed from the topic. It's time to solve your problem! First, you need to identify the root of the problem! There are a large number of reasons for laptop failure, let’s look at them point by point.
- Dust . Perhaps the “insides” of your laptop are covered in dust. Remove the cover of the device, use a keyboard vacuum cleaner and carefully remove dust from the parts.
- Malware . Check your computer for viruses. In our opinion, good antiviruses are Kaspersky and Avast. If threats were identified during the scan, send virus files to quarantine and restart your computer.
- Laptop location . For proper operation, place the laptop on a hard and smooth surface. Pay attention to the ventilation slots. Typically, they are located on the side of the case. The correct position of the device promotes continuous air circulation inside the laptop.
- Programs . It is likely that the reason for the shutdown lies precisely in games that are incompatible with the operating system. Try reinstalling the game and lowering the graphics and FPS the next time you play.
- Overheat . If you often use resource-intensive programs and play “heavy” games, then we recommend that you purchase a cooling pad (popularly known as a “laptop fan”).
- BIOS . The laptop may shut down if the BIOS version is incorrect. There is only one way out - remove the old version and install it again.
- Defect on the motherboard . This is perhaps the rarest reason for shutdown. Contact the store where you purchased the computer and describe the situation. Store employees will take your laptop for examination; if the defect is confirmed, they will replace your motherboard.
Popular games for your laptop to keep it running
Conclusion
It's time to summarize the article! Firstly, our readers learned what to do if the laptop turns off by itself. This failure is a serious problem that can lead to great consequences.
Our advice: do not ignore this defect and do not delay in diagnosing the system, because later this can lead to more serious breakdowns.
In addition to all sorts of reasons and ways to fix a laptop, we learned about some amazing facts from the inhabitants of virtual reality - computer game players. We will be pleased if you liked the article!
Battery malfunction (if the laptop turns off when running on battery power)
If the laptop works fine from the network, does not turn off, does not reboot, but while running on battery power, suddenly turns off, then most likely there are problems with the battery or charge level controller.
You can try to check the contacts on the battery, maybe something got there, but in 99% of cases it is a problem with the battery and you cannot do without a service center.
Problems with HDD
If before shutting down you heard strange sounds under the keyboard, squeaks or clicking noises, then most likely your hard drive is slowly dying. This is especially common with old laptops that are more than 5 years old.
Laptop is full of dust
The laptop shutdown may also occur due to your laptop being clogged. The internal temperature rises, which triggers the overheating protection. The laptop needs to be cleaned.
Read how to clean your laptop at home.
What can a sudden shutdown of a laptop cause?
- If the laptop turns off due to problems with the processor, this can lead to its failure, the same applies to the video card.
- During any emergency shutdown of the laptop, the HDD suffers; systematic shutdown can lead to failure of the HDD and subsequent replacement.
- If the laptop is clogged with dust, this leads to an increase in the temperature of the processor, video card and internal temperature of the laptop due to the fact that the cooling system is not working at full capacity. In turn, due to the increase in temperature, any part of the laptop can fail.
- Shutting down your laptop suddenly can result in a black screen or blue screen of death.
- If your laptop turns off and won’t turn on again, the article “Laptop won’t turn on: causes and solutions” describes in great detail common situations and provides actions that can help you.
It is believed that laptops are intended exclusively for work, despite the fact that many people buy them at home as a stationary multifunctional computer. They watch movies on laptops, explore websites, work with office applications and do much more, including playing games. A standard problem that almost any laptop user may encounter is spontaneous shutdown while playing games. In this article, we will look at why a laptop turns off during a game, as well as how to avoid it.
Why does my laptop turn off while playing?
Laptops differ from standard computers in their relatively compact size. One of the most difficult problems that laptop manufacturers have to deal with when designing a model is cooling. It is difficult to fit a large number of coolers into a compact case, as well as allow hot air to escape quickly to keep the elements cool.
When running productive games and applications, the laptop connects additional cooling power. This is accompanied by a characteristic noise, as well as an accelerated exit of a hot air stream from the holes designated for this purpose on the body. If even emergency cooling measures do not help reduce the temperature of the main components to operating temperature, overheating protection is triggered and the laptop turns off during the game.
Typically, before the computer shuts down due to overheating, the user may notice that the system performance has decreased. In-game, this can lead to frame rate drops, artifacts, and other problems. This is due to the fact that the computer tries to cool the processor by skipping clock cycles, but if this fails, it goes into emergency shutdown mode.
You can make sure that your laptop turns off during a game due to overheating using special applications that measure the temperature of computer components. There are a huge variety of such applications; often built-in programs from AMD or Nvidia are capable of measuring the temperature of the processor and video card, which overheat under high loads.
If you do not have applications installed on your computer to check the temperature of elements, you can use the free Open Hardware Monitor program. Download the application from the official website of the developers and run it to control the temperature of system components, as well as the rotation speed of coolers. Next, turn on the game that previously had a problem with the laptop turning off, and see after a few minutes of playing how much the heating of the computer components has changed.
What to do if your laptop turns off while playing?
Having established that the computer turns off due to overheating under heavy loads, you need to solve this problem. Most often, it is enough to do 3 simple things:
It should be noted that turning off the laptop in emergency mode due to overheating negatively affects the operation of the computer. Over time, this can lead to damage to system files or failure of one of the components, such as the hard drive.
