This has been happening for about a week now. I use an old laptop with Ubuntu MATE 14.04, and when it’s not plugged in, the computer shuts down at random. I think the battery may be going bad; a notification appears at startup saying that the battery only has half of its original capacity, and it of course it doesn’t last very long.
EDIT: I just found out that it still does this when plugged in.
Hi,
Have you tried mains power with battery disconnected? Shouldn’t make a difference, but might be worth trying as a test.
One other possible cause, since you mention this being an old laptop, it could be an overheating issue if fans need cleaning.
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Hi @schisch,
try running the laptop on battery power only and let the battery drain, close it down and remove the battery, restart with mains power and see what the laptop does!. 
Depending on how old the laptop is it’s possible there’s so much dust caught in the CPU Fan that it easily goes into overheating. That could explain the emergency shutdowns.
Maybe worth it to pop the hood and dust it off?
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