A web search, even on L19, didn't deliver any results, so am I the first/only one to see his computer shut down when running LZ? It doesn't happen always, but more than half the time and it's obviously very annoying. Anyone knows what's going on here?

Leela Zero is extremely intensive on the GPU (and partly on the CPU as well).

Most laptops arent actually capable of handling the heat load that their components can cause under such extreme use.
Specially in case the laptop has been in use for a year or two and dust has started to restrict airflow movement for the cooling fans.

So guess #1, the laptop overheats and shuts down (this is normal for a laptop to do when it overheats)

Please note that this can happen on pretty much any laptop. Ive had plenty of different Macbook Pros (13 inch, 15 inch, models from several different years), all do this due to extremely heavy use of both CPU and GPU at the same time. Ive also had some of my Thinkpads do the same, as well as Acer laptops. So a rather normal symptom sadly, in which the price of the laptop doesnt guarantee good cooling solutions.

In case its indeed heat, you can try lifting the laptops base a little bit so that heat gets to circulate. Check where the intakes for the air is, and make sure there is airflow.


Then guess #2: If this happens during battery usage (not plugged in), it might be the battery. Heavily taxing both the GPU and the CPU at the same time might cause a spike in voltage demands, and if the battery is in bad shape it might not be able to supply it, at which point automatic protections from the motherboard would kick in and shut down the computer instantly to avoid damage. This is something that is quite visible on mobile phones which have failing batteries, but a bit more rare in laptops.

Thanks. I'll do that.



That has been the first pattern I observed so I never use LZ unplugged anymore.

Years ago our low-end laptop would overheat and shutdown from a much more mundane reason:

If all else fails, but you still want to use LZ on the laptop, one thing you could do is limit the speed of the GPU (and possible the CPU as well).
If you are using windows you should probably be able to do this in either the control panel for the gpu and/or in battery settings.
If there are no options for reducing the speed in the settings, you want to optimize for battery instead of performance.

This way the gpu and/or cpu will be slower, use less power, therefor produce less heat and put less stress on power delivery, and the system should be more stable.

Thanks - just used LZ with my laptop lifted so that air could circulate underneath and no shutdown. So that seems to do the trick.