Dell XPS 14 is randomly shutting off (full battery) with no warning

Hi Michael,

Does the system overheat or display any error before turning off?

I would suggest you to drain the residual power from the laptop:

• Disconnect any external peripherals (flash drives, printers, external hard drives) from the computer.
• Remove the adapter and then the battery.
• Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds.
• Reconnect the battery and the adapter and then turn on the system.

Also run the diagnostics to check the hardware functionality. You may refer to the link http://dell.to/GAxNcY  for steps on how to run diagnostics.

Keep me posted with the information. I will be glad to assist you further.

Hi Kuldeep,

Thanks for the reply. To answer your question, the system isn't overheating since the failure has sometimes occurred on the first boot (i.e. off all night and boot from cold). There is no error displayed before turning off - I would be doing things in Windows and everything would go black. I can try to make a video of it happening but it's very unpredictable. 

For your suggestions, this is the ultrabook XPS so the battery is built into the system (not removable). The failure has occurred without any external devices plugged in so I doubt that is affecting it.

I've run the diagnostics previously, but I'll re-run them again shortly and let you know if they caught anything.

Thanks,

Michael

Hi Michael,

I apologize for providing unrelated steps.

I will suggest you to update the system BIOS from the link http://dell.to/18SrX1I.

You may refer to the video on the link http://dell.to/176grvH for steps on how to update the BIOS.

Also, share the results for the diagnostics.

Keep me posted with the results. I will be glad to assist you further.

This is happening to me also. I first noticed it when I unplugged the power chord with the computer on - it would shut down then not start until the ac adapter was plugged back in. When the ac adapter is not plugged in it will shut down randomly. Often I have to plug the adapter in just to use the computer. All of these symptoms happen with the batter near fully charged, the battery passes diagnostic tests. I believe the problem is the ac adapter connection, sometime if I stress the area near the adapter connection the computer will start.

So I've upgraded the BIOS as suggested and the issue still persists. I also ran the diagnostic suite prior to OS boot-up and no issues were discovered. 

The symptoms you mentioned above are identical to what I'm seeing. Here is another video of my laptop dying when unplugged despite having a full battery charge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxbcl3Z72YA

Kuldeep/Dell, what should my next actions be? It looks like this is a hardware problem. 

Thanks,

Michael

Hi Michael,

It seems the system is unable to detect the battery as it works only with the AC power.

Check the status for the adapter and the battery health in BIOS.

• Go to the BIOS screen by pressing F2 at the Dell logo 4-5 times.
• Check the ‘AC Adapter Type’ on the ‘Main’ page to see if it is detected.
• Go to the ‘Advanced’ tab to check the ‘Battery Health’.

@samuelwelch, please share the exact system model and the operating system.

Try updating the BIOS of the system. You may refer to the video provided in the link above for steps.

Also share the status for the adapter and the battery health.

Keep me posted with the information. I will be glad to assist you further.

Hi Kuldeep,

The BIOS detects a 90 watt adapter and indicates that "this battery is performing normally". Here are picture sof hte BIOS output in case it gives any more hints:

http://imgur.com/81s4Yox,keRfNhq#0

http://imgur.com/81s4Yox,keRfNhq#1

Thanks,

Michael

My 14z stopped powering down randomly on battery when I deleted a 3rd party power plan and stuck with the default plans. The third party plan was from AVG that I generally liked

any joy? mine does this...

:(

bizarrely i clutched at a straw and changed the power management settings even though AVG had not interfered. I have not had an issue since

weird.. 

will report back later.

Did anyone else that have this problem all get sorted by using a new battery? Seems it must be a design flaw. Mine was randomly powering off with lots of battery left (not overheating) but now needs the mains plugged in all the time. 

Battery shows as fully charged both within Windows and on the LED indicators

Having the same issues.