Laptop wierdness

[afultz075]

Since I don't feel like spending hours on the phone with Dell's awful outsourced tech support i'm hoping some of you computer whizzes here can help me. I've noticed in the past month or two my Dell Inspiron 5100 seems to just shut off randomly. Not got through the shutdown process, but just totally blackout. I notice that 90% of the time this seems to happen, it's either while watching a video, playing a flash game, or listening to music or some other form of multimedia. Prior to these "blackouts" my fan always seems to hum pretty loudly, like it's working itself to the max.

I'm kind of thinking this is almost some sort of built-in overheating preventative measure but then I question why it's never done this before in the year and a half i've owned it. Any ideas?

[Buff]

how old are they?

the batteries may be going out......

those have P4 desktop chips....so they may be overheating.....
google 'motherboard moniter' and install that, and find out what the temps are on you cpu and motherboard.

[warpspyder]

It does sound like an overheating problem. Make sure you keep it in a well ventilated place. Basically don't use it as a LAPtop. Try a TABLEtop. If you actually do keep it on your lap it tends to heat up faster. Also the fan MAY be older and burning out. I don't know everything about computers, especially laptops, but that would be my guess. Sadly though if it's been around that long it MAY be time to start thinking about a replacement.

Lol and I would have to agree about Dells support. I build my computers, but I have a friend who HATES dealing with Dell.

[afultz075]

Actually, this computer is a table top 100% of the time, I don't think it's ever been on my lap. I've actually only used the battery less than a dozen times, it runs off of A/C power mostly.

How often do the fans on these things die? If I need a new one is it something my local computer shop can install. I bought it new in August 2003 so it's by no means old.

[warpspyder]

Hmm.... Try running it on the battery as you would if it were plugged in. If the same thing happens you can rule out the AC power supply. A friend of mine had a similar issue with a desktop computer. It turned out to be a faulty power supply, so I'm wondering if perhaps there is a problem in that AC power supply.

[afultz075]

Hmm, that may be it, i'll try running it on battery for awhile.

[Eagle]

I used to have a desktop that did that, and I have a friend who used to have a laptop (I think it was a Gateway, but not sure) with the same problem, and it was an overheating issue.

[afultz075]

That stinks, I wonder what I can do to fix this? I used to be able to watch videos and play games and stuff all the time without it doing this.

[warpspyder]

If it turns out to be the power supply that's pretty easy to fix. If it turns out to be an overheating issue, try to figure out if you changed anything. Also try not to have a lot running in your system tray. Basically just run only what you need when you need it. That should make things a bit easier on the processor, thus creating less heat. Hope that helps.

[SIGSays]

did you ever get a blue screen?

[warpspyder]

did you ever get a blue screen?

That's actually a good question. I just assumed it completely died as in shut off. Blue screen of death *shudders*

[afultz075]

did you ever get a blue screen?

Nope, never.

[Bolter]

Although Dells look nice I often wonder how many failed machines they make. For example at my work place they replaced our old machines with nice shiney new Dell ones. What made me laugh was that for each work station they would litterally wheel up 5 Dell machines and try them out until they got a working one. They must have sent back as many as they brought. To me thats terrible.

[Automaggot68]

Possibly Bad connection to battery?

[afultz075]

Hardly ever use my laptop on battery power so that's not it.