Overheating

This is an easy fix if you're comfortable with taking your laptop apart. What has happened is the thermal grease in between the cpu and the heatsink has dried out, and is not conducting the cpu's heat properly. The machine is shutting down to protect itself. My best advice is go to any computer store, and get a tube of thermal paste, and find the disassembly instructions online. Clean both surfaces (the heatsink and cpu) with rubbing alcohol. Re-apply a thin layer of new thermal grease, and reassemble. Be sure to clean the crud out of the heatsink while you have it out.

Check for BIOS updates at the Compaq support web page. I have a similar V2555US model and there was a BIOS update to fix a problem where the cooling fan wasn't coming on when it was supposed to. After the BIOS update, the fan works perfectly.

The cooling fan should automatically kick in before the laptop shuts down.

If the fan is turning on then you should feel a warm breeze of air being forced out of the bottom left hand part of the laptop. If the fan is on but no air is felt then you might have a dust blockage. You can try blowing it clean with canned air but you will probably have to disassemble and clean.

If the fan isn't coming on or the blades move very slowly or stop then your fan is probably defective or clogged badly. Again try cleaning or if that doesn't work replacing the fan.

Looks like the fans run about $50 to $70, however, don't attempt disassembly unless you are confident you are up to the task. This isn't a particularly hard job but you will need to remove screws and mess around with fragile plastic parts, not a task for the typical computer user.

Good luck and let us know the outcome.

yes its probably the fan but it could also be the screen brightness. replacing the fan and turning down the brightness will cool the laptop. but i agree try a new fan first.

I have a toshiba laptop which was unexpectedly switching off. The laptop was 2 years old. I did lots of searching online to discover this is a VERY COMMON ISSUE.

The problem is, dust blocks the heatsink. When I took my computer to pieces, I found a strip of dust half an inch (1cm) thick covering the back of the heatsink which prevented air flow. If your laptop is a couple of years old, this could be the problem. When I removed this dust, the problem disappeared.

If you are computer savvy, then try the following - if not, take it down to a computer shop!

1) Remove the 5 screws holding down the heat sink cover and processor cover. These are on the bottom of the laptop, in the centre, at the back.

2) Remove the 3 screws which hold in the heat sink in place.

3) Remove the heatsink

4) Take the dust out

5) Re-assemble

a note: be careful not to get dust in the thermal paste on the cpu - unless you have replacement paste.

Good Luck!