random laptop power outages with Ubuntu 16.04.1

[Colin Law]

On 29 November 2016 at 22:37, Jason Paul Joines <jason at joines.org> wrote:
>
> ...
>         Periodically, and with increasing frequency, the machine just
> powers off.  The display goes black, with a small sliver of yellow or
> orange flickering along the very left edge.  This lasts only a couple of
> seconds and then the power cuts out completely.
> ...
>         I have reviewed syslog, kern.log, and X.org.log around the time
> of each power loss but can find nothing in common.

Do the logs just suddenly stop? If so then it is most likely (though
not absolutely certain) a hardware issue.
+1 to suggestions that you vacuum it out in case it is overheating for
that reason. Also open it up and reseat all the connections you can
find (take them off and put them back again) and remove and replace
the RAM. Then run the memory test accessible from the grub boot menu
and leave it running overnight (for example).

Colin