I am having spontaneous shutdown problems with my SmartStep 250 N, as well. After 2 hours, seven humans and 5 different departments, I finally found someone in tech support who was willing to try and help. According to an article posted on Dell's website (that I cannot find myself) it states that the 250 N is experiencing spontaneous shutdowns due to thermal limitations.

In November of 2003, Dell released a new keyboard designed to alleviate this problem. The tech provided me with a part number and transferred me to Customer Care. Customer Care claimed they couldn't help me even though Tech Support generated a case number and pasted all pertinent information into the case file. Customer Care transferred me to the Parts Department who were unable to locate this particular keyboard. The Parts Department transferred me to the Spare Parts Department who had never heard of this keyboard and could not locate it in their system.

I was transferred back to Customer Care and then to Software & Peripheral. Both of these departments claimed not to have heard of this issue.

Needless to say, I cannot get this problem solved like the rest of you. My e-mails are answered with Dell's auto-response mechanism and I'm told over and over that a manager would call me back within 2-3 hours. I'm on day number 8 waiting for the manager to get in touch with me.

I'm sorry that I couldn't help out with a solution. If anyone can locate this article on Dell's website, please let me know.