XPS 8920, starting issue

Are you having any other problems such as the HDD/SSD not found or incorrect time and date? The system is around 6 years old and though it is not likely the CMOS battery is weak, it is possible. Try replacing the CMOS battery with a brand new recently purchased battery. If you do replace it remember to leave the old battery out of the system for 15 minutes before installing the new one. Also run diagnostics, F12 at boot, to confirm the system hardware is not having problems. 

diagnostics are all fine, there is no problem finding the SSD, if i remove the old bayttery and put a new one in, do all my bios settings stay the same?

replaced the battery, im hoping that the problem is fixed, thanks for the help lads

Thanks for the update. So you've looked to see whether the power button doesn't blink amber (orange) now after the BIOS reset (battery replacement) ?

Just out of curiosity, did you recently replace the OS disk drive from the factory installed drive and do you by chance have Intel Optane memory ?

it starts up fine, but it is early.. havent touched the machine since ive bought it

ive run the diagnostic after hitting the F12 key in Thourgh mode, and it goes for about 6 hours and all passes. it has me buggered

it was good for 2 days, now it is doing it, this time it starts up good, windows loads, then after 20 odd minutes just reboots.

@Steve2473 

It's possible you might not have all your drivers up to date. If you've checked all your drivers are up to date already, there could be perhaps something scheduled to start running after signing into Windows. Which version of Windows are you on ?   By the way, are you still seeing the power button blink orange after the battery replacement?

First try these steps in their order sequence 

1.) Go to Dell Support and check under your service tag to see if there's any critical updates to install

2) Go to task manager and click the Start Up tab. See if by disabling one at a time you can narrow down which might be a cause of the reboot. Don't disable important software you might see like your mouse, AV software, audio that're essential.  My start up tab only has two that're enabled  -- WavesMaxx Audio Service and Windows Security.     

@Steve2473   If the power button is still blinking orange, observe what pattern the light is blinking 

drivers all up to date, power ligt not blinking orange, but white, it blinks orange once on startup then turns white. i did this and so far system working ok

@Steve2473 

Thats okay. My power button on an XPS 8930 turns orange momentarily when I first press it and then it turns white too.   

All latest updates for the XPS 8920 look to be between 1-1/2 to 2+ years old. I assume you've also flashed the latest BIOS ver 1.0.23 ?

Finding what error messages are logging in Windows Event Viewer and noting the dates and ~ time when the last few reboots happened in Windows will help others know what is generating the re-starts. Windows is by default automatically enabled in the advanced settings to reboot under certain errors. I suggest you do NOT uncheck that setting since the error causing the problem will likely lead your system to experience a BSOD

Device Manager is a place to poke around in if you haven't already. Expand each of the nodes clicking the  > ’s  to find if there are any conflicts. Remove devices with an ‘Exclamation mark’, and ‘Other Devices’ and ‘Unknown Devices' by highlighting those and press the “delete” key on the keyboard. For any that have X’s, double click those and look for a box saying ‘Disabled’ under the general tab and select ‘Enable’. If any are already enabled, highlight them and press the delete key on the keyboard. Reboot to have Windows detect and reinstall those devices.   

Try to check the temperatures before a reboot occurs if you’ve been able to time approx how long you have. If the CPU, graphics video card or storage device reaches a high enough temperature it can cause rebooting. HWinfo64 and HWMonitor monitor the sensors of the CPU and the graphics card. Crystal Disk Info will monitor storage disk temp’s as well.   

The ePSA diagnostics tests the case fan, CPU fan, and PSU fan are working correctly.  I doubt that it tests the discrete graphics card fan. Have any fans been running loud? Is the ventilation obstructed because the tower is inside a desk enclosure?  Provided that the sensor readings from HWinfo64 monitor overheating, if necessary, blow out any heavy dust accumulation on the fans and the exhaust vents. Another test would be to leave one panel off when monitoring temps compared to with panel on.

Try testing if the memory might be bad. A basic program is built into Windows. Click Start and type ‘memory’. Windows Memory Diagnostic should appear. Run the program and choose the option “Restart now and check for problems”. The test doesn’t run too long . . . maybe 1 hr ? I’m not certain exactly

A more thorough memory test is Passmark MemTest86. You have to make a boot disk i.e, bootable USB. Just follow their steps in the manual. Its pretty easy. The test runs about 4-6 hrs depending on amount of RAM tested.   

Less common occurrances have reportedly narrowed a few A/V software programs to be the culprit. You can disable yours and just use Windows Defender to see. But only consider testing if you just started having the issue right around when a new A/V software was installed      

Im useing the onboard graphics ,,, machine is spotless clean, no fans going fast just normal slow speed, did a memtest boot up, all fine, bios is latest. ever since i did the two scans it has been working fine, hopefully that was it. does the attached error give you anything, it was the last time it rebooted by itself.

Steve

@Steve2473 

Steve, the moderators review screenshots/ pics before anyone can see them. I didn't see the picture / screen shot of the error yet