Lappy switched itself off this evening.

[giraffescantdancethetango]

Have an Esystems laptop, about 14 months old. It will switch itself off when it over heats, this is especially true if I have it sat on my knee (probably blockingt he fan bit?) Bit if I leave it until the back is cool then its fine again.

This evening it felt cool but switched itself off. Left it for 6 hours and come back to it and wouldn't go on. I took net&power wires out but still showed a green light as if they were connected. I ended up taking the battery out, blowing away some dust and putting it back. Seems to be ok now. ANy ideas?

Two things. Firstly sounds like the fan really isn't working properly and the motherboard got overheated. Watch out as it can fry. You can buy special laptop trays with built in fans - that will probably help you. Cheaper than getting it fixed unless you know someone who can do it for you. Fans themselves are cheap to buy but it's the fitting that's the killer.

Dust can also stop a computer working.

Secondly, the only other thing I can think of is that the charger may not be working properly and the battery thought it was out of "juice" and hence switching off and then not switching on again without you removing the battery. Check that it's charging when on!

Have you tried to clean the fan?

You can get a can of air to spray at it but HOLD THE FAN in place so that it doesn't spin around really fast. Mine collects a lot of dust. This might mean you have to take the back off the computer but that is easy to do.

Do you have anti-virus installed? Check that it is up to date.