Laptop keeps shutting down randomly

Hey everyone,

So, I've got this Dell Latitude that’s about seven years old now. Lately, it’s been acting up—it just shuts itself off randomly. Sometimes it happens after only two minutes of use, other times it might last four hours, so there’s no real pattern to it. It also runs incredibly hot during almost any task. I actually had it professionally cleaned and serviced just a week ago, but honestly, it didn't seem to make a bit of difference. I'm currently an electrical engineering student, so I really need to be running some pretty heavy software like MATLAB and EPLAN, which my current setup just can't handle. Given all that, does it even make sense to try and upgrade this machine, or am I better off just biting the bullet and buying a new one? Or maybe there's some middle-ground solution I haven't thought of yet?

Thanks for the help, cheers! 🙂

It sounds like your processor is probably overheating, man. Most likely your fan is either totally shot or just isn't spinning as fast as it should be. You should crack it open and take a look—while you're at it, blow out all that dust with some compressed air.

Honestly? Just grab a new one. If you manage to get the old one running again, keep it around as a backup or for light tasks that won't kill it.

Thanks for getting back to me!