Inspiron 5100 shuts down randomly

Question

For the past two weeks, my Inspiron 5100 has been shutting off randomly....I'll be working online, and all of a sudden, it shuts off.  It doesn't even try to restart.  When I go to re-boot, it shuts down again after about 10 seconds.  It will continue to do this unless I let the computer sit off for about 15-20 minutes....it almost acts like it gets overheated, and needs to cool down before it will let me turn it back on.  I've called Dell three times so far....we've ran virus scans, patches, etc.  Yesterday we did diagnostic tests, checking to make sure all the hardware was getting a 'pass' on each test, which it was.  This is getting really annoying, and no one seems to know what is going on.  Does anyone here have any suggestions?

DELL-BobT · Answer

Abcsoup,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

This may be caused by one of your programs consuming too much memory. I would suggest going into the msconfig utility to remove unnecessary programs from starting. A description of this utility is here. Look at this knowledge base document for instructions on improving system performance.

dreamer_cast · Answer

That's funny, mines doig the exact same thing.....it doesn't have a virus, and everythng else seems normal, not sure what the heck is going on.....   Dreamer

clariion · Answer

My daughter's Inspiron 5100 is doing the same thing.. It randomly powers itself off and seems to happen more when the CD/DVD is in use..

Deel Email service responded to Reload the XP OS.. I don't think so,, not without a rational for doing that.....

Any comments?????

dreamer_cast · Answer

As an update, I now know why this is happening; as soon as I lifted the notebook off of my desk using lego blocks, it has been running great for a 3 days now straight.....I called Dell about it, they said it's either the motherboard or the fan mechanism, luckily the depot is in my hometown, so I'm going to drop it off to get repaired, we'll see what happens...

Dreamer

ashlock4 · Answer

Mine started suddenly loosing power when bumped, moved, typed on, or closing the cdrom door. it happened with AC or battery, and happened with the hard drive and cdrom removed as well. 4 months old and dell is repairing it right now. :(

clariion · Answer

Interesting...... So giving  that Fan which exhausts at the bottom right corner,, some breathing room made a difference.. I will try that.... Thanks,,

joey0909 · Answer

I have the same problem with mine. If I run the machine without the battery it runs great. Pop the battery in and within 5 minutes, shut down.  My battery light (on front of machine) flashes amber 4 times and green once.

Bravo_Romeo · Answer

I have the same problem and called tech support. The techie had me run the diag on the fan and found that it was a bad fan, (the fan was running too high in low mode @4000rpm). I have to send it back for a new fan to be installed, so we will see if that helps!?

clariion · Answer

Based on a suggstion from this string.. I have tested the air-flow theory.. Sittingup the Laptop on 3 sets of Jewel cases (3 stacks 2-high) making sure that the righ rear area is clear,, The laptop will run no issues  (3 day test ended today.. Removing the jewl cases.. it powers off within 1,5 hours.. 3 iterations so far..  The tiny rubber feet on the bottom do not give the fan exhaust enough crearance to properly get rid of the hot air. The Input is on the side,, and the Exhaust is on the bottom.   The Fany typically Goes from Loud to louder aven when it is elavated and working ok,, Theis tells me there is a general colling issue with this model.. Too much heat in the box from the processor and it keeps shutting down....

dreamer_cast · Answer

Just an FYI, I had to take my 5100 to get repaired from it's overheating; they replaced the mobo, CPU and FANS, now all is well......if you are having the same problem I suggest you do the same,

Dreamer

clariion · Answer

Thanks.. I have in-home service (Mt Daughter's laptop and she is home from school) I assme they can do that on-site...

naqoyqatsi · Answer

i also suggest that people collate this so that dell can update this error before releasing any other 5100's with the same problem.

agentsun · Answer

its not just 5100's. my 5150 just did the same thing tonight and from browsing 2 threads about the same topic here, i think i've figured it out. i just hope it's not a real problem with the fan. i don't mind propping up my notebook, i just don't want it to be a problem with the fan breaking because then i'm going to have issues...

just a note though, it didn't start happening until tonight and i've been home from college for about 3 days and my laptop hasn't been turned off since i got home. i think an additional issue in mine is not that it's little feet aren't tall enough for the air under the laptop to cool, it's because i have something blocking the fan on the back of the laptop. i say that the feet on the bottom are not the problem because i've had my laptop on a desk for the past 3 months in my dorm room and it has not shut down. the fan runs loud, but it has never shut down until tonight, when i had something too close to the fan. when it was in my dorm room, it had a lot of room and nothing behind it so the air could circulate.

clariion · Answer

My daugher's 5100 would shut doen randomly.. they are all a likkle different.. I have definitly seen a connection to propping the laptop up.. this is not right,, and Dell needs to do something about this.. it is a definitie design issue in the thermal area....

harrysaber · Answer

I've started having the same problem with an Inspiron 5000e and Win2K. I previously had some flakiness (not sudden powerdown as it is now) which was definitely solved by buying a Targus Coolpad to hold the notebook. It lifts the notebook off the table and can rotate. Now however I am having Sudden Powerdown Syndrome (SPD). It may be related to the Netgear MA521 wireless card I installed several weeks ago, but I don't have definitive proof of that yet.

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Inspiron 5100 shuts down randomly

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