INSPIRON 5100 Shutsdown Automatically --- Known Overheating Issue. The Problem. The Cause. THE SOLUTION.

THE PROBLEM.

Most likely, if you are like the majority of 5100 users, you have owned your 5100 for at least two or three months.  One day, all of a sudden, the computer just shut down.  No warnings.  No messages.  No beeps.  No nothing.  Just shuts down.  So you, in your confusion, perhaps wait a few minutes, turn it on again, and it shuts down again.  At this point, your computer can probably only manage to stay on for no more than one hour, that is, IF you have it off and cooling for several hours before.

At this point with my 5100, I remember that I called Dell and they had me run the fan test, which did pass.  Then they had me run the �Extended Test�, which takes about 1 hour to complete.  My computer, because of overheating, shut off within forty minutes�it could not even complete the test!

THE CAUSE.

Through the help of many �techies� on this forum, WE, not the dell diagnostic team, have properly diagnosed this problem.

So what is the CAUSE of the Problem:  DUST.  Yes, dust.  Dust collects, over two to three months, via the Eureka vacuum (fan) on the bottom of the computer, and as such, the heatsink becomes covered in thick, dense, caked-on dust is unable to complete its one and only job, namely, transferring the heat off of the processor.  Then our idle temperatures, rather than being in the mid 30's(C), go up to the mid 50's(C), and upon doing basic computing, we get the auto-shutdown.
 
It seems pretty simply, which can make you wonder why Dell support was baffled for so long over this issue, thinking it was a motherboard problem, or a processor problem, or this problem, or that problem.

In reality, the CAUSE is bad design flaw, which results in dust literally covering the heatsink.  The heatsink, although only a piece of metal, MUST be completely clean in order to a) absorb the heat from the processor, and b) release that heat.  So here is where the shutdown problems happen.  Dust slowly accumulates on the heatsink, thereby inhibiting its ability to properly release the heat it absorbed from the processor.  Therefore, the heatsink, in its now crippled state, is unable to perform it's one and only task, which then causes the processor to overheat and automatically shutdown.

THE SOLUTION

The solution has several short and long term steps and depends on how long you have had your 5100 computer.

IF YOUR COMPUTER IS BRAND NEW:

1.  Using compressed air, blow through the BACK vents on your computer weekly.  This will keep the heatsink and surrounding areas clean, thus avoiding dust, and therefore, overheating issues altogether.  Simple.

IF YOUR COMPUTER IS MORE THAN ONE OR TWO WEEKS OLD:

1.  If you are already experiencing problems such as performance decrease and auto-shutdowns, which ARE A RESULT OF OVERHEATING, and if you have already run the diagnostic utility on your fan and thermal sensor to confirm that they ARE WORKING, then you are dealing with DUST.  Period.  What can you do?  Well, thanks to everyone in this forum, we have figured this out and found the "fix" to this problem.  Use compressed air, or your own (if you can muster it up), and blow through the back vents on the computer, thereby blowing all dust off of the heatsink and out of the computer via the fan intake.  You should notice a small "cloud" of dust when you blow it out (assuming you use compressed air.)

The auto shutdowns should cease and the computer seems to operate at the same level it did when new from dell.  Immediately implement step 2.

2.  Download fanGUI at http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/indexd.html.  This program will monitor your fan speed, and more importantly, will tell you the internal temperature of your cpu.  You can also manually set you fan on high in an effort to keep your system a bit cooler.  ***Note:  This program was made for the dell inspiron 8000 series of notebooks.  However, it DOES work on I5100s.  Also, a dell rep did mention that any problems that result from using this software will NOT be covered by dell, as this programs allows you to manually control the speed of the fans, and if for some unknown reason you turn them off, you could cause serious damage to your cpu. 

After installation you should be able to read your CPU and HD temperatures.  If you cannot, then you probably have an old bios and must update your bios in order to successfully read your CPU temperature.  Also, you should not have to have fanGUI control your fans, BECAUSE IF YOU NEED A 3RD PARTY PROGRAM TO CONTROL YOUR FANS IN ORDER TO HAVE YOUR COMPUTER WORKING PROPERLY, THEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR COMPUTER...GET IT FIXED!

The following picture is a screenshot of fanGUI running on my computer immediately after I blew through the vents:

My idle temperatures were around 52C.  If I did a task which required a large amount of cpu usage, my temperature could rise as high as 68C.

Please note that 52C is within the NORMAL operational limits of the Pentium 4 processor.  HOWEVER, IT IS STILL ABOUT 15 DEGREES (C) HIGHER THAN IT SHOULD BE!

3.  Even after blowing through the vents, you will still have a resonating problem with heat, namely, that although you have avoided the auto-shutdowns, the computers are still running 15-20 degrees Celsius higher than they should be.  Why?  Simple.  By blowing the compressed air through the vents, you have successfully ridden your computer of the loose dust on and around the heatsink.  However, imagine if you have a dirty desk with layers and layers of three to four month old caked on dust.  Then you used compressed air to blow off this dust in an effort to clean the desk.  Would your desk be dust free?  Would it be clean?  No, of course not.  The loose, lighter dust would be gone.  However, the thick, now dense, caked-on dust would remain, and even if that were to have been blown away, at the very least, small remains of dust would still remain on the desk.  The same goes for the heatsink.

The only thing you can do is return your computer to the depot.  They will replace your heatsink and/or fan, and of course the thermal gel will get replaced in this process.  They will further clean all the area within your computer.  Therefore, you will get a new, dust-free cooling unit.  AND unless you want to go through this again, YOU WILL HAVE TO AIR YOUR VENTS PROBABLY WEEKLY.  You can decide how often.  But bottom line, you can't wait so long that dust begins to cake onto the heatsink.  Cause you can blow out the loose dust, but you can't blow out the think, dense, caked-on dust.

I shipped my computer to the depot last Tuesday, and it had the cooling assembly (fan and heatsink) replaced.  It took exactly one week, as I received my computer yesterday, Tuesday 2/3/04.

The following picture is a screenshot of fanGUI running on my computer after it was returned to me from the depot:

You can notice a significant drop in idle temperatures.  My average idle temperature is 34C, which seemed impossible before they replaced the heatsink.  Further, when I ran BenchONE III, the temperature rose to only 48C, whereas, before the replacement, it would go up to 68C.  So a dramatic difference indeed.

So if you are still running at around 55C, please know that your system is still overheating.  Granted you may have to be without your computer for a week or so, but it will be worth it to have them replace the cooling assembly, thus bringing your computer back to its original working condition.

Lastly, someone at Dell did inform me that they are aware of this problem and are working on some type of fix.  What will this be?  I have no idea.  But if we find out, we�ll keep you posted.

For additional information you can read the two main posts on this issue:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=139712

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=112325

cazint.

Message Edited by cazint on 02-04-2004 05:28 PM

Message Edited by cazint on 02-04-2004 05:31 PM

Message Edited by cazint on 02-18-2004 10:16 PM