Studio XPS 8100-sudden shutdowns

The 8100's have the newer "Active PFC" power supplies.  These tend to be more sensitive to AC power variations and will not work with some model UPS systems unless they are a "pure sine wave" output (on battery) type (the higher priced models).    However, some will operate on standard UPS systems as long as the switching time is less than 4 ms.  Could this be the problem or a potential problem?

There is a big thread on here about the Active PFC power supplies and UPS systems.

Thanks  for the answer, that could very well be the problem. The UPS the computers are on has a 8ms response and a step approximated output. I'll move the PC power to the surge only protected slots and see if that solves the problem.

I'll post back if that helped.

The only thing with taking them off the UPS is any AC power interruptions and they will still go down.

I checked and the UPS has only gone to battery power 4 times since Christmas, so that isn't the problem unfortunately,

Have you disabled automatic restart? Run the Dell diagnostics?

Yes, ran the diagnostics and all good. I wasn't aware of the Automatic Restart, can you tell me more?

You can find a lot of things just by searching: Disable automatic restart

Update-left one side of the case off of one of the 8100's and no crashes. Put it back on and a blue screen withing 30 minutes. The other two 8100's crashed about half as much. So it certainly seems to be a heat problem, anyone have any suggestions about the best way to add extra cooling to these?

Thanks!

Hi I have the same problem with my 8100.  It is real anoying and I also been having the problem from day 1.  I haven't found a solution yet.  I orginally thought it was a power managment issue but after turning everything the problem still exist.  I also experience times where the ubs ports shut off even though the computer is running.  Can't do anything as the mouse and keyboard are usb.  Can access the remotely so I am wondering if there is a defect in the motherboard.

Since taking delivery of my Studio XPS 8100 in mid-January (2011), I have had regular shutdowns as described by other owners here.  After trying a few of the suggested (less costly) fixes here and in other posts, I think I have found the problem plaguing my unit.  I had tried updating as many drivers as I could through the Dell Support website, re-installing the processor heat sink with Arctic Silver 5 paste, disabling the setting for USB Root Hub 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power', and a few other fixes that I won't get into now.  I even ordered a PCI slot case cooler fan (VIZO PCI-101-BK 65 mm), which I have not yet received from NEWEGG, to lower temperatures.  Having followed the advice in this forum to Disable Automatic Restart, I finally got a BSOD error report that led me to this article http://bit.ly/BugCheckFor8100  This led me to check my driver for my on-board NIC which is a Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet unit.  After downloading their current driver from this site http://bit.ly/i9KJ06 , I found the Windows 7 (64-bit) driver to be dated August 2010 while the driver on my 8100 was dated July 2009.  So I downloaded and installed, through Device Manager - Update Driver, and so far have had no more sudden shutdowns.  I'll try to update this post later to let anyone interested know if this has 'totally' fixed my problem.

Update:

Sorry for the premature 'solution' here, as sadly I report another shutdown occurred today.  I'm not sure why I do not get a BSOD when this restart occurs, since I have set the Disable Automatic Restart a few days ago.  I'm now back to square one, any ideas would be appreciated.  :emotion-8:

Update # 2

I put a call in to Dell tech support a week ago and had a tech from Worldwide Tech Services come to my home to replace my motherboard, memory, hard drive, and video card on Tuesday, March 1.  As we booted up the machine after the parts were replaced, Windows loaded about 50% of the device drivers and then suddenly shut down.  It was great to have the failure occur with the tech watching.  She immediately called this result into Dell tech support with her description of the latest failure.  She told me that the power switch on the top of the case sounded loud to her when it suddenly shut down.  So a new power switch, i5-650 processor and hard drive (another hard drive, because they had loaded Win 7 Home Premium instead of Win 7 Professional that came with my computer) were ordered and the same tech (at my request) came back on Thursday, March 3 to install these new parts.  No more sudden shutdowns!  The machine has run properly for 3 days now.  The tech is quite sure that the power switch was the only thing wrong, though just about everything else was replaced in the process of diagnosing the problem.  The processor was also changed when the switch was, but was not likely the problem, especially considering the louder noise the tech heard when she observed the failure with the old power switch in place.  After 6 weeks of frustration with the Studio XPS 8100 desktop, I finally have the machine I was hoping for when I purchased it.  Hope this helps anyone who may be dealing with this same problem.  :emotion-1:

I have about ten of these machines on our floor and one of them started with these symptoms suddenly. It worked fine until I started installing a Centos6 upgrade from cd and then suddenly the reboots started. I've swapped the RAM, the hard drive, the video card, the power supply, and everything except for the motherboard and CPU.  It's more like a complete poweroff, I just hear then it's dead.

Hi J4JES,

Have you run the Dell diagnostics? That's where I would start. If you run through all the diagnostics without a restart, then it's an OS problem, not a hardware issue.

Sure I'll try it again, but it will need at least 30 min of up time without shutting down for that. I've replaced everything but the power supply and motherboard so far.