E6400 Sudden Shut Down

I've had the E6400 for about a week. It's been perfect until today. Three times now, the computer has just shut down as I was using it, not falling asleep, obviously. It won't start right back up; I have to wait about 30 seconds and then it boots back up to normal. The fan is working and I set the power settings myself. Any ideas?

 

Is your computer hot? If so, use HW Monitor (link in my signature) to monitor your temperatures. It is possible that your computer is overheating and shutting itself off to prevent damage.

 

Possible problems to think of:

Where are you using the laptop?
You should be using it on a hard, flat surface like a table. If you just plop a computer down on the bed, it might clog one or all of the vents causing your computer to overheat.

Ever think about cleaning out the vents?
Sometimes the vents in the laptops get clogged with dust, so you might want to take a can of compressed air and blast the vents.

How are ambient temperatures like in LA?
I was born in LA, and the few times the AC went out during the summer was not fun at all. Make sure you are keeping the temperature at a reasonable temperature (like not in direct sunlight or in a very hot room; your laptop can only be as cool as the ambient temperature.).

Lastly, it might be a defective component in the computer that is causing the issue. If the above steps don't resolve the issue, I would make sure that I contact Dell and have them come over and fix the problem to your satisfaction.

 

It happened twice while it was on the table and once while it was on my lap. I very seriously doubt it was temperature.

HWmonitor shows average temperatures, similar to what people here get.

I got through most of the bios hardware tests before I quit them.

I changed from the Dell power profile and uninstalled a couple of programs. It hasn't happened for about six hours so, hopefully, it went away.

 

You can look in Event Viewer to see if there were any system events logged just before the shut downs.

John

 

I don't see something that's happened three times. It's been good since 11 PM yesterday. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Update. No problems. Weird, huh. The only things I did was uninstall a video program and change Dell's power settings download.

 

Update 2: It turned off while it was asleep in my backpack. Subsequent times putting it to sleep did not replicate the problem.

 

I would never put a sleeping computer into a bag. There are too many things which can cause it to wake up and then overheat because there is no ventilation.

I have read plenty of horror stories about this happening over the years although I don't have first hand experience (and don't want to).

I always use hibernation so that I know that the computer is off before it goes into a bag.

John

 

Good point. It's happened to me as well. It hasn't happened again. I wish problems were either there or weren't. This inconsistency is frustrating.