Jan242013

Why does my laptop shut down after 20 minutes whenever I watch Netflix?

annw1958 asks:

Whenever I watch Netflix, after about 20 minutes, my laptop just shuts off. No indication that tells me that it’s going to power down.

My setting are set that the computer stays powered up for hours, no limits before turning off. Any idea what is going on? I have checked all my settings and nothing tells it to shut down after any amount of time.


Browser: Explorer 9
System: Windows
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18 Answers - Write an Answer

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ha14

January 24, 2013

did you checked event viewer to see any message
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-information-appears-in-event-logs-Event-Viewer

1. Click on start , Right click on Computer, Click on Properties
2. In System Properties Window. Click on Advanced system settings. Click on Advanced tab. Uncheck the option: Automatically restart
3. Next time you face the problem you would receive error message or error code.

Uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Silverlight
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/03/11/netflix-launches-new-tech-support-site-uses-microsoft-silverlight-as-a-problem-poster-child/

Netflix.com Player Error N8008
http://support.netflix.com/en/node/69#gsc.tab=0

0 votes
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Logan Ingram

January 24, 2013

I’m thinking that the battery is messed up or it could be the inactivaty time is set to 20 min

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Safvan Vhora

January 24, 2013
0 votes
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Kiril Vasilev

January 24, 2013

Check your temperatures and CPU usage. Maybe your laptop overheating.

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yixin shi

January 24, 2013

Go to system event log to see if there is any errors at the time you computer shut down. Right click computer icon-manage-system tools-event viewer-Windows logs-system. A memory leak could cause the problem

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Oron Joffe

January 24, 2013

Both Safvan & Kiril’s answers sound viable. If it’s a temperature issue, you’ll need to remove the heat sink, apply new thermal past and reattach the heat sink. See http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-overheating-laptop/ for instructions.

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Austin Halsell

January 24, 2013

I’ve had a similar problem with some desktops and hibernate in Windows 7. You may want to check the advanced power settings. If you go to Control Panel>Power Management and on the bottom there should be a sentence underlined in blue that is something like “Change advance power options?” Under sleep, there are several options that may or may not get changed when you change the basic settings.

Might be a long shot, but it seems to work for me.

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Ibnu Ruslan

January 25, 2013

I would say the laptop is overheating, and today’s most laptop safety countermeasure for this issue is by shutting down your computer. and perhaps the cooling gel on you processor is dried and need to be replace. :)

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Junil Maharjan

January 25, 2013

I think there is a heating problem with your laptop. when watching movies or playing games, laptops and pcs heat more than when you are using it for typing or internet browsing. So it shuts down to protect itself from too much heat. get a laptop cooler and do not put it over clothes or mattresses when in use.

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Nevzat Akkaya

January 25, 2013

If it always occurs at 20 min, then it’s related to sleep/hibernate settings I think. Go to advanced power settings.

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Obed Cutaran

January 25, 2013

In chase your laptop have a low specs and you are watch HD videos in Netflix, you video card heats up to a certain point and it automatically shuts down in order to protect the board for not getting burnt.

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Thomas Milham

January 25, 2013

I would say that it could be the video card is getting to hot for the laptop cooling and when it reaches the threshold, it will shutdown to avoid damage. Try cleaning your laptop (or take it to the local repair shop)

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Newell Fisk

January 26, 2013

You probably have it set to do that in the settings

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FIDELIS

January 28, 2013

Hello, does this happen with laptop is plugged/unplugged? When computers shut down like that, most times it is caused by overheating.

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unknown69

January 31, 2013

Sounds like somebody will need to clean the fan.

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Indronil Mondal

February 3, 2013

check out that its not over heating

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Anish Parameshwaran

February 10, 2013

Perhaps is your computer overheating due to the netflix load. It runs on silverlight, which is almost as inefficient as flash when compared to HTML 5, so this does seem to get the fans going and may also heat up the computer to a point where it has to shut down.

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David White

March 16, 2013

I would agree your laptop is overheating. Download the free program Core Temp; a small program to monitor processor temperatures. Run it while on Netflix and watch your chip core temps.

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