WAY OT--- need a Dell bbs as good as this one

firstruck · October 31, 2005

Any of you know of a good Dell computer bbs like this one? My Latitude laptop just turns off at random once or twice a day. DRIVING ME CRAZY!

AArrghhh just did it again! come on guys this is kill'in me.

BRZ71 · October 31, 2005

Any of you know of a good Dell computer bbs like this one? My Latitude laptop just turns off at random once or twice a day. DRIVING ME CRAZY!

AArrghhh just did it again! come on guys this is kill'in me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No.

But here are a few things it could be.

If the fins on the processor heatsink are clogged it could be overheating.

If the fan on the processor heatsink is bad it could be overheating.

Could also be your RAM too, but that usually causes random lockups.

Very low possibility but it could be the power supply on the motherboard or in the power adapter.

What model is it? If I remember right the 1100 series have a defect that allows the tabs on the memory cover to contact one of the power ICs. It will usually also cause it not to start some times.

October 31, 2005

Bump

6Burgh · November 1, 2005

I would go with what BRZ71 said. Overheating problem, power supply or motherboard are common reasons. I know you said it is random but is there anything that may be common each time it does it?

firstruck · November 1, 2005

I would go with what BRZ71 said. Overheating problem, power supply or motherboard are common reasons. I know you said it is random but is there anything that may be common each time it does it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only thing I've noticed is a blink of the monitor just as it freezes up.

I'll check some of the things mentioned, though the fan is clean and ram is seated ok. thanx guys for trying. If only this thing had an OBD II - I could Git-R-done!

UPDATE--DOH! should the little fan be running all the time? or should it be doing absolutly nothing as mine is now?

6Burgh · November 1, 2005

I would go with what BRZ71 said. Overheating problem, power supply or motherboard are common reasons. I know you said it is random but is there anything that may be common each time it does it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only thing I've noticed is a blink of the monitor just as it freezes up.

I'll check some of the things mentioned, though the fan is clean and ram is seated ok. thanx guys for trying. If only this thing had an OBD II - I could Git-R-done!

UPDATE--DOH! should the little fan be running all the time? or should it be doing absolutly nothing as mine is now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does it freeze or shut off?

What Operating system are you runnig?

No, on the newer laptops the fan doesn't nessecarily run all the time usually only when the CPU is under a load, sometimes they have a variable speed fan on them also.

firstruck · November 1, 2005

It does it all baby! sometimes just freezes, sometimes does an auto restart thing and just tonite it has just plain shut down, as in BAM! out go the lights. It's a Dell latitude Cpi 300xt running win98 SE with what appears to be 256k ram. I alway thought the fan was running but maybe not, now I don't think it's ever come on. I should add that its probably a circa 2000-ish unit

pjmmoore · November 3, 2005

-try removing the battery and see if that helps. sometimes with older laptops the batteries cause unusual problems. as for the fan - usually a fan will come on briefly at startup and then shut off until it senses that things are getting hot. on startup take a tissue and hang it where the fan expels the air and see if it blows the tissue away from the laptop. if it doesn't chances are the fan is not working and the laptop is shutting down when the processor gets too hot. also, 5 years is a long life for a laptop - usually when they get that old they've been banged around so much that all sorts of things start failing. good luck!

BlueTahoe · November 3, 2005

Used to have a lattitude I used for work and I noticed the fan never worked. I pointed it out to the local IT boys and they installed some free software that controlled the fan. It was kind of cool because it would tell you temps and you could adjust the fans on/off temps. Might want to look for a freeware like this. If nothing else it could help eliminate a temperature problem.

BRZ71 · November 4, 2005

Did the fan ever run? Alot of the older laptops like that had fans that ran all the time. When a customer comes in with those symptoms here is what we do.

Check the voltage on the power supply.

Try another power supply.

Remove the internal modem if it has one (some of them when they go out will keep the computer from booting or cause random problems like you are stating.

Swap the ram with known good Ram

Open case remove heatsink/fan unit, check that fan actually works

If clogged up clean dust etc from heatsink and fan.

If fan checks out OK, we remove the processor and reseat it in the socket.

Swap processor with a known good processor.

If Motherboard has a reset button we go ahead and reset the motherboard, or remove the bios battery and let the laptop reset.

If all that fails, the only thing is probably to send the board out to be fixed or get another one. Getting it fixed is almost useless as you can find so many either fixed or working on ebay.

If the fan is just not running enough the heat sensor on the board could be bad, or as was stated before Dell didn't allow the fan to run enough. Sometimes they will have an update for the bios that will fix those problems. If it has been freezing up for a while and now will not do anything the processor is probably shot now. Just like driving your truck with no radiator.

MCourson · November 4, 2005

What are the specs of the laptop?

I would suspect overheating especialy if it was a newer pentium 4.

Try this first download and run Prime95 and run the torture test.

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103

If it shuts off because of that, overheating.

Also download and run Memtest. (Read the directions on how to run it because it is a standalone program, ie runs without windows.)

http://www.memtest.org/

firstruck · November 8, 2005

Whoa! This is WAY over my computer comfort threshold and since my laptop now looks like one of those radio shack "build your own crystal radio" kits(gawd I love taking stuff apart!) perhaps it'd be best to get her to a service shop and pony up the $ to have a pro Git-R-Done!

Thanks for all the replys, hummm can I actually stay off line for several days w/o withdrawls?