Help! My laptop wont stop turning off!

Neo#

My Dell Inspiron 5100 keeps turning off. Its nothing to do with viruses or spyware, i've made sure of it. Virus protection is up to date. It turns off after 20 mins when there is heavy activity like playing a game or watching a dvd. I think its overheating and this is causing it to switch off. Has anyone got any advise besides taking it to PCWORLD and having it cost me a fortune???

Oriel

Overheating, dodgy RAM, or windows.
More likely, either of the first two.

S.

Basq

Pentium or Athlon?

As far as i know. Pentium's are fairly extreme on eating up the batteries but it shouldn't be eating them up that quick. Can normally get up to 2 hours on my battery if watching a film.

Neo#

The laptop is about a year old. Its a Pentium 4. Windows XP

duridian

This is a known fault in these laptops caused by a build-up of dust in the cpu heatsink of these models.
http://www.crn.vnunet.com/news/1159430
Forget going to PCWorld,that'll only cost you, the injured party more money. You no doubt paid enough for this laptop so get on to Dell, they're the ones at fault here and don't take any of their crap if they try to duck out of their responsibility to sort this for you.
Going by the results of this Google search: overheating "Inspiron 5100" you are one of thousands to experience this problem.

DJB

I wrote a kick ass reply in the quick reply box at the bottom. I wanted to insert an image and clicked on the advanced mode... browser hung and I lost all 4 paragraphs!!! FFS!! :mad:

Anyway... in short... I had same problem. Easy solution is to put a book underneath the back of the laptop so it is at a slant. It gives the fans room to "breathe". Since I've done it, I have had no problems with playing Call of Duty and things like that. Laptop nevers turns off on me anymore.

Try it and see how you get on....

Rgds,

Dave

Neo#

Yeah I have tried using the book idea and it hasnt turned off yet. Thanks for that Dave. It does seem a bit rediculous though. Ill Google it and see what I can do. Otherwise I will get on to Dell. Thanks guys.

DJB

Neo# wrote:

Yeah I have tried using the book idea and it hasnt turned off yet. Thanks for that Dave. It does seem a bit rediculous though. Ill Google it and see what I can do. Otherwise I will get on to Dell. Thanks guys.

you might still be under warranty and if so... you may be able to get a free upgrade off Dell! But you will be without your laptop for awhile and if like me, you need it... you'll stick to the "book solution" - lol

I'm going to look around for little clips to glue on the back of the laptop... like what you see on keyboards to make them slan upwards... i'll let you know if I find any.

Neo#

Cool. Im not under warranty. Just out of it a couple of months. Bastards!

car

Sorry to interupt this post but :
I too am having this problem with my Gericom Laptop it powers off for no reason, I think it is over heating.
I bought from Aldi last November, I ran up their help desk to be told to get a hover to the fan and try to suck out the dust. I have worked on helpdesks myself and I have never told anyone to do this over the phone, but have done it on my pc never my laptop, I dont think it will slove the problem, any ideas????

Neo#

That sucks if you only bought it last November. Is it under warranty?

DJB

car wrote:

Sorry to interupt this post but :
I too am having this problem with my Gericom Laptop it powers off for no reason, I think it is over heating.
I bought from Aldi last November, I ran up their help desk to be told to get a hover to the fan and try to suck out the dust. I have worked on helpdesks myself and I have never told anyone to do this over the phone, but have done it on my pc never my laptop, I dont think it will slove the problem, any ideas????

Have you tried the "book solution"? I'm going to copyright that!

I can't believe they told you to get a hover to it! lol

Alternative to a hover... buy a can of compressed air and that may help instead of hover. You can get compressed air cans in office supply shops and they are great for blowing out dust and crap for under the keys and inside a desktop/laptop.

If you're fans aren't working properly and the system is over heating a lot... eventually the processor will burn out and that's that (so, i've been told)! Best try the book solution and if that doesn't work... go back and get an upgrade or your money back.

Rgds,

Dave

petes

OMG get a hoover!! Compressed air is the way to go!! Still not over that hoover solution. Pay peanuts, get......

youcancallmeal

Had the same problem with my inspiron 5100, When i blew through the fan system a big plume of dust came out! I used the hoover and havent had any problems since. I would also recommend getting a motherboard monitor program so as to keep check on the cpu temp and fan speeds. If your using a dell inpsiron 5100 try THIS program. There is actually no specific program for monitoring the 5100 motherboards but this is the closest one your going to get. Good luck

Neo#

Did you use compressed air to blow through it? Where can you buy that stuff?

car

well I called down into Aldi and was told to bring it back to get either a replacement or my money back, going to get my money back as this is my 2nd replacement, from them.
I will prob buy a sony or toshiba any suggestions!!!!
I want at least 512K Ram, and a 128 graphics card, with Dvd RW -+ and it needs to be wireless as well.

Bazkaz

there are laptop stands available to help keep the air circulation around the fans and so on, they cost about €20 or so... they seem to work pretty good. If the book idea is doing the trick though...

DJB

Bazkaz wrote:

there are laptop stands available to help keep the air circulation around the fans and so on, they cost about €20 or so... they seem to work pretty good. If the book idea is doing the trick though...

I'm using the book because the local computer store had nothing like what you mentioned. I'm searching the net for something at the moment that will be a bit more professional and tidier than a book!!!

You can get the compressed air in you local computer shop or office supply shop.

Why they don't attach the stands like on a keyboards, is beyond me!

Rgds,

Dave

Sparky

you can buy a notebook cooler that slips under the notebook from maplins
Around €20-€30 i think.

DJB

I found this, that seems to be a "product" of my ingenious book solution...

http://store.ergocube.com/eleg.html

Loads more results to look through... http://www.google.com/search?q=laptop+stand+fan

If you find something better, please let me know.

Rgds,

Dave

DJB

Ok, I found 2 more....

iCurve - http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/icurve/

iLap - http://www.raindesigninc.com/ilap.html

Think I might buy the iLap

Dave

kaimera

solid call on the book :: may test it out later, getting tired of loosing weeks of FM2005 games cos my lappy turns off unexpectingly.

Vikings

Neo# wrote:

My Dell Inspiron 5100 keeps turning off. Its nothing to do with viruses or spyware, i've made sure of it. Virus protection is up to date. It turns off after 20 mins when there is heavy activity like playing a game or watching a dvd. I think its overheating and this is causing it to switch off. Has anyone got any advise besides taking it to PCWORLD and having it cost me a fortune???

It wouldnt be an advent model would it?

My advent 7027 sometime does this on me, while its plugged in too, definitely an overheating problem, cant use it on my lap or bed because it wont get enough air. I have to keep it on a flat/solid surface, even then after a few hours of use it might just flip off.