laptop spent night under blanket. now shuts down randomly.

[querent]

so i fell asleep last night with my laptop lying on the carpet (vents kinda blocked), and kicked a blanket over it while sleeping.

now it shuts down randomly. what's the deal? i'm guessing this is a hardware issue. anybody know?

[chaanakya_chiraag]

Is it really hot? The laptop could just be overheating.

[querent]

i left if off for several hours, and it still shuts down randomly. sometimes it'll stay on for an hour or so...sometimes it drops power at grub.

so i don't think that it's just hot now. but it got really hot last night.

[chaanakya_chiraag]

Ya, I'm pretty sure something in there is really close to failing. Probably something like the motherboard, but I'm probably wrong.

[dmillerct]

i left if off for several hours, and it still shuts down randomly. sometimes it'll stay on for an hour or so...sometimes it drops power at grub.

so i don't think that it's just hot now. but it got really hot last night.

Sorry to break this to you man but most likely what happened is the computer over heated and caused some type of permanent damage to your hardware.

There is a small possibility that it is temporary and may go away but more than likely not.

[chaanakya_chiraag]

Does the laptop have a temp monitor?

[querent]

i don't know if it has a temp monitor. i don't think so. it was booted to windows when it may have overheated, so no software temp monitors for sure.

it there is hardware damage, does anyone have any idea how much it is gonna cost me? i really can't afford this lol.

thanks for the info, all.

[sailthesea]

It could have got overheated to the point where something has gotten partially unseated from the motherboard and is randomly coming loose again as things warm up when power is on Does it shut down properly or just go out like a light?
Try unplugging and reseating everything you can reasonably get at You may at least narrow things down a bit when it comes to solving the problem
It doesn't sound like a fatal problem just tricky to fix
Good luck

[querent]

it just goes out like a light.

i did try making sure everything was well connected, but can only get the the hard drive and the ram without opening it fully (these components are compartmentalized).

last time i opened up the main compartment of a laptop, i never got it back together. so i'm gonna try to not have to do that.

[sailthesea]

it just goes out like a light.

i did try making sure everything was well connected, but can only get the the hard drive and the ram without opening it fully (these components are compartmentalized).

last time i opened up the main compartment of a laptop, i never got it back together. so i'm gonna try to not have to do that.

There is most likely heat damage to the motherboard or components then As you say taking a laptop apart isn't a good idea unless you really know what your doing
The fact that it does power up seems to suggest that the damage may be minor and can be fixed by a professional though
I fear its time to get your dollars out and head for the shop!
Bad times