Laptop crashes when flexed/moved slightly


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Hardware: Toshiba Satellite U300-11V

Problem: The laptop seems to freeze instantly upon slight movement, shaking or flexure of the case.

Symptoms: The screen remains exactly as is (still on but completely frozen, moving mouse/clicking/pressing keys on keyboard have no effect, videos playing stop). All sound ceases. Sometimes short fat lines may appear momentarily/flicker on the screen. The light indicating hard drive activity no longer flashes and remains off whereas the power and battery lights remain on.

Possible causes: The original battery lost it's chargeability a couple of years ago. A few months ago I bought a new, high-capacity battery. Right before this new problem started to occur, I was using the laptop unplugged and the battery fell out causing the laptop to instantly lose power and turn off.

Any ideas of a solution?

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Hello,

My initial guess is that there is a hairline fracture on one of the solder traces connecting a component to its board somewhere inside the unit. Flexing the casing breaks electrical contact causing the system to freeze. Other than opening the unit to inspect the solder joints and re-heat the affected one to reflow the solder, I'm not sure what else you could do to solve the problem.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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It could be the free-fall protection of the hardrive. Basically it locks the hardrive heads if motion is detected to prevent any data from being damaged, and on some of the older Lenovo's this would cause the PC to freeze for a sec (once it stopped moving things would go back to normal).

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Here's what the screen can look like once it's crashed (although it doesnt appear every time and only for 1 to 30 seconds.

N6aVE.jpg

Given the suggested problems, what is the solution?

I tried using the laptop without a battery in, only power supply, and the problem still occurs.

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I tried using the laptop without a battery in, only power supply, and the problem still occurs.

If it still happens with the battery out, I would also say there is a hairline fracture in the motherboard or something is shorting against the chassis

Could also be a loose cable I guess, I'd dismantle it and double check everything is secured, then go over the board with a magnifying glass looking for any cracks

Just pushing on the board while it is open and powered on might give an idea where the fault is

Might be something as simple as a loose RAM module, check they are clicked in place properly

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