I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop, 3 yrs old. It has 40 Gb hard drive, with 60% free space. I’ve always used Norton Anti-virus, and last September I installed the 2005 version.

Back in Jan I got 2 or 3 messages saying that my virus protection wasn’t up-to-date, which didn’t make sense, since I have the auto-update feature turned on. Anyway, I used the live update to get current.

Shortly after that I got a message saying that something had been corrupted and that I should un-install then re-install the anti-virus program…so of course I did. The first re-install wasn’t successful, but the second one was. I ran a complete scan and everything seemed back to normal until…..

The other day I wanted to run another full scan, but the scan would run for a few minutes, then the computer would completely shut down! All of a sudden, with no warning, the screen would go black and the computer was off…not in standby, but completely off!

After trying to run the scan several times with the same results, I started looking elsewhere. I did a clean-up and defrag. I rechecked and re-set the times when my computer would automatically turn off. I tried scanning while online as well as off-line. I uninstalled and re-installed the whole program….and the results are still the same….after scanning for a few minutes, the computer just automatically and mysteriously turns off!

Needless to say, I’m at my wits ends trying to figure out what’s causing this problem. The only thing I’ve added recently to the computer was the Ding! Program from SWA, and I’ve uninstalled that…but to no avail.

I’m definitely NOT a computer person, and I’ve done all that I’m capable of at this point. Does anyone else have ANY ideas?

I did a little bit of googling on Norton and spontaneous shutdown. I found this old thread about Toshiba laptops having an issue like this. I don't know if this is the issue or not. I'd recommend using the google search that I did and review a few of the posts.

Another item to try is to boot into 'safe' mode if you are running Windows XP or Windows 2000 and then try running Norton. There is also a free virus checker available on-line. If you have a fast internet connection, you might want to try it. Trend Micro

Also, turn off computer, unplug everything (including battery) reconnect everthing and then reboot after about 15 minutes. If that doesn't help then completely uninstall Norton, turn off computer and reboot. If no trouble with computer than it is something to do with Norton.

If that doesn't work try the "restore" function to a date when all was working well. The restore function is found here:
Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore

One last thing that I can think of is that you have a virus which resulted from your responding to the questionable message to update Norton. If you have the Norton disc:
Uninstall Norton
Insert Disc
Hopefully it will have a function that allows you to run Norton from the disc--do not install! If you can do that it will find the Virus and help you eliminate it.

Peter

It was the fan! It needed to be cleaned, and once clean everything functions normally! Such a simple solution, but the one thing I didn't think about! My brother always says that heat is the biggest enemy of electronics, and this was certainly the case here!

thanks!

I think Kim recently had the exact same problem with a Dell notebook - the fan!