Why won't my laptop shutdown properly?

My older Pentium II Sony VAIO laptop is running WIN98 SE with 192 MB RAM. It recently stopped working in that it shuts down all applications, the display, keyboard and mouse. The cooling fan remains running and the only way to restart it is to power down the laptop and power restart it. After approx. 1.5 minutes after it has restarted, it will shut down again…this problem is ongoing. However, when I start the laptop in Safe Mode, it stays running for as long as I need until I manually shut it down or restart it.

I have formatted the hard drive and reloaded the laptop with the System Recovery CD’s several times. I have also accessed the BIOS to disable all power management functions and, while in Safe Mode, I have modified the power management controls in the Control Panel to the “AC Power” and “Always On” setting.

None of this has helped to resolve the problem.

What else can you advise me to try? (Obtaining updated system drivers is not the answer as the laptop has been loaded with exactly what it came with when I bought it originally.)

Thank you.

This question was answered on October 28, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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The fact that it runs in safe mode tells me two things It is not a heating problem and it is probably a driver problem.

Something has changed involving the drivers Have you loaded

any new applications or games.

Try try SFC with the CD in the laptop It will check all

system files against the originals once you have everyting

loaded to ensure that nothing has been changed.

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Posted by Jaquelyne of Mesa Community College on October 28, 2003

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