Computer Shuts down Radomly

Question

My Inspiron 5100 512MB 30GB HD and a Radeon 7500 32MB card...shuts down randomly as of recently when either turned on for more than 10 minutes or starting a graphic intensive game.

The power settings are set to "Home/Home Office" and nothing as far as this has been altered.

It is plugged in, has the most up-to-date drivers and bios...and no overclocking or messing with internal hardware has been done.

The one solution I have found that works (this may sound weird) is to fan the right side of my laptop with an external fan. This completely stops the problem...but I can't use my laptop in public, obviously, since I can not haul around a fan with it.

It's still under warranty and tech support constantly gives me answers that have no end.....(like taking all of the keys off the keyboard, removing the monitor and seeing if it stays on etc.)

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas. Sounds like a heating issue to me...but no idea why it's having this issue and it has no dust inside/outside and the fans sounds like they work fine.

Thanks in advance!
Craig

mnk · Answer

i have the exact same problem. i think many people out there face the same problem with the 5100s and i guess it is the overheating problem. i convert my home videos to dvds and the laptop just shuts down abruptly.

let me know if you get to know something. i have to clean my fans. any idea how to get that going ?

thanks

mnk

xarquid · Answer

Dell tech support continues to give me crazy answers (as usual)...they won't even tell me how to utilize my warranty...

viper11885 · Answer

Have you tried using a program called i8kfangui?

This program allows you to manually control when you want the fans to turn on/off at a specific temperature. This should help with your overheating problem as you can set your fans to turn on at a lower temperature, preventing your system from overheating.

randy41 · Answer

a solution that seems to work for many is to get one of those cans of compressed air and blow through all the vents.....i havent tried this myself but those who have report seeing clouds of dust come out and then the laptop functions as it should.

xarquid · Answer

Did all of this (including the cooling pad) going to see how this helps.

I didn't install the cooling fan modifier program, because I didn't want to screw up my warranty.

Let's see if the cooling pad and blowing out the computer helps.

Does this really sound like a cooling problem though? It sounds weird if it gets overheated after being on for just 10 minutes. :-P

kormath · Answer

most likely a heating problem.  Are you able to reboot the system imediately after it shutsdown or do you have to let it cool?  Have you run the diagnostics on the fan etc. ?

xarquid · Answer

I am able to reboot immediately but it does shut off again if I do not have an external fan on it (which when I do this, it works fine for 24/7)...

How do I run the diagnostics on the fan? And when I look at it to clean it out...the holes around the fan are so small, I'm afraid if I blow a Can O' Air into it...it will just blow into the computer more...

mkendall · Answer

hello there,

i just thought i should comment on the fact that i am having the very same problem with my dell smartpc 250N laptop. at first the computer would shut down when burning cds, running/installing a game when also very hot and left on for hours. However, now it seems to have got worse, with the laptop randomly turning itself off when turned on for only 10 minutes or less and performing a simple task such as cleanup on the hard disk.

Does anyone have any ideas as to the problem? Do any online Dell technicians have any solutions? Any help would be much appreciated as its driving me nuts!! I have tried freeing up hard disk space and also tried disk defragmenter and cleanup but the laptop turns itself off in the middle of these two tasks....

thanks,

matt.

kormath · Answer

run the diagnostics from the Dell Drivers, Utilities & Applications cd.  best to boot straight to the cd or hold down the access button or mute button then hold the power button down to turn on the system.  After you see a message saying loading diagnostics or something similar release the buttons.  after a simple Preboot System Analysis test it will load the diagnostics off the cd.  You can do a simple express test or a full extended test.  I'd recommend the extended test, be ready for a couple hours of diagnostics though.  If the system shuts down in the diagnostics thats a sure sign you have internal motherboard problems.

halibut · Answer

i just thought i should comment on the fact that i am having the very same problem with my dell smartpc 250N laptop. at first the computer would shut down when burning cds, running/installing a game when also very hot and left on for hours. However, now it seems to have got worse, with the laptop randomly turning itself off when turned on for only 10 minutes or less and performing a simple task such as cleanup on the hard disk.

Does anyone have any ideas as to the problem? Do any online Dell technicians have any solutions? Any help would be much appreciated as its driving me nuts!! I have tried freeing up hard disk space and also tried disk defragmenter and cleanup but the laptop turns itself off in the middle of these two tasks....

Overheating on the smartpc is a very well known problem which Dell support largely refuse to acknowledge. A few people have had some success with sending machines back for repair, but the better solution (assuming you still have some warranty) is to scream at Dell until they replace your laptop.

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Computer Shuts down Radomly

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