Laptop shutdowns are often caused by the thermal paste/heatsink becoming separated. This is common due to the flex and mobile nature of the beast. This does not explain your Ubuntu problem, unless the hard drive/data suffered from the abrupt shutdown. Unfortunately most laptop BIOS's don't record the thermal shutdown-event in the log.
I have also seen where a bad connection at the DC jack can cause the shutdown, when coupled with a weak battery. Of course the MOBO or even the CPU can cause this issue. What is the make and model? On Sun, 2011-03-13 at 08:47 -0400, Mark Wallace wrote: > My lap shuts down in the middle of an operation. Ubuntu doesn't fully > boot up when I restart. Sometimes the task bar appears and sometimes it > doesn't. In any case, I can't use it. > > Can anybody suggest what might be wrong. I think that I have a > hardware problem. I tried to kill disk the hard drive but it shut > down in the middle of the operation. > > Mark Wallace > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6 May 4 - Inkscape Jun 1 - Zimbra
