sony vaio PCG-8L3L keeps turning off with no notice?

I just blew hard into the exhaust on the side of the laptop next to the esc key

Smart Ass
December 2010

No mine just keeps turning itself off even when being let to relax, i dont want to keep taking it back to sony over and over again? Any ideas?

Alex
December 2010

This model Sony has overheating problems. I solved mine by making sure heatsink is clean, plus I dissembled and cleaned the CPU and heatsink. Then reassembled using some high-quality Artic Silver thermal compound betwixt the CPU and heatsink. Runs Win7 very nicely now!
Have also run Debian 5.0.2 "Lenny" on this with much success. It never ran WinXP very well for some reason - could be because of overheating although I never had the shut-down issues you describe. Most owners of this model do have those same shut-off issues.
If you rip your keyboard out and use an external one, you could mount a proper desktop sized heatsink/fan on the CPU (it's just under the RH speaker near power button).
That would solve this issue permantly at the cost of "reduced mobility" - LOL

Cadstar
September 2009

It sounds as tho the machine may be overheating. Try cleaning out the fan grills etc (compressed air).

Diddly
September 2009

what do you mean 1 can of compressed air?? how on earth did that fix it?

Gemma x
February 2009

i just purchased one($270.) with the same problem, the fix was ...1 CAN OF COMPRESSED AIR ($7.00) laptop runs like new

jay gee...nyc
August 2006

If it only happens when you are doing something and not when it is just on, but Idle, You may have a bad memory chip. When the computer accesses a bad address it can cause this problem. If you have more than one chip take one out at a time and see if it still happens

deane
August 2006

You don't say if this happens when under battery power or connected to the mains. If the former, your battery is on the way out.

Terry
July 2006