My XPS 1645 reboots randomly

Since buying my XPS 1645 two months ago it very ocassionally reboots at completely random times.

Very ocassionally = maybe once or twice a week

Completely random = there's no pattern. It has rebooted once while typing an email, a few times while editing a Word file, and a few times while doing absolutely nothing. No apps open, just sitting idling at the desktop.

It's done it at home, at my work, at a friends place ... so doesn't seem to be power related.

What I've tried = resetting the RAM. Changing power point locations. Running off battery only. No difference.
Can't think of anything else to try without voiding my warranty.

When it reboots there is no BSOD screen, there is no error messagel, there is no warning at all. The first I know its happened is that I'm looking at the black POST screen and then watch Windows 7 loading again.

Looking at the Event Viewer - System all I see right after the reboot is something like "The previous system shutdown at 10:48:23 AM on ‎3/‎10/‎2010 was unexpected" but beforehand there is no hint that the machine was about to reboot.

Any suggestions before I call Dell Support?

thanks!
Greetings from Australia

Specs:
Dell Studio XPS 1645, i7-840, 8Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD, Bluray, 9 cell battery, 130W AC adapter, A11 BIOS, Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit)

 

Mine is doing the same thing ... Very odd as from Australia too.

Went into the Event Viewer and I get a kernal error Event ID 41. Doing a bit of an internet lookup, the hints as to what to look for seem not to apply.

I tried to do a system recovery as I thought I might have installed something that had gone amuck but its doing it again. Took a snapshop from Event Viewer so I can show dell. My Dell 1645 is less than 3 weeks old.

I did reduce the pagefile down to 0 as I thought 8GB of RAM was plenty ... Perhaps it isn't.

 

Maybe Australia got a bad batch of motherboards?

I'm running a 4096Mb pagefile here.

What's yours doing when it reboots?

As a test today I hammered it with Prime95 in Torture Mode for a few hours and it didn't reboot.

 

Thought the same as you until I googled it a bit more.

Found a few hints and tips as apparently the problem has been around for a while. Suggestions were to turn off all power management stuff (i.e. never sleeps, never hibernates etc). And it also seems to happen when you have an external HDD plugged in for long periods of time.

And I have had my WD Passport plugged in for a while. So am going to see if it happens without it plugged in.

In answer to your question; the only thing opened at the time was Mozilla and Media Player. I wasn't even doing anything with either application; simply working on another laptop.

 

Never reduce the pagefile to 0 in Windows Vista or Windows 7. Even if you have enough RAM that you don't need it, some programs will still try to access virtual memory anyway. The whole Windows architecture requires it. You can turn it down to a set 1024MB, which is what I did, but you can't shut it off without all kinds of strange problems happening.

Pagefile on windows 7. Do you even need one?. - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Understanding the Windows Pagefile and Why You Shouldn't Disable It

 

Legend seeker-moc ... In going to change back, noticed that I hadn't changed it upon completing the system recovery.

So it wasn't the pagefile causing these weird rebooting events. That said, I did change to the min suggested.

 

It just rebooted again just now after I'd been away from it for an hour or so. Only had Outlook open and a few IE8 browser windows.

All my power saving, hibernation stuff was already turned off and I didnt have any external drives plugged in.

 

Time to give Dell a call ... on phone with them myself as we speak (on hold at the moment). I want to see what they have to say and see how far away my OS CD's are.

Last thing I want however is a refurb'd motherboard when I am not certain its a hardware fault perse.

 

I agree. Just calling them now and am on hold again after they transferred me to the XPS help desk.

 

I was told to call them back when in front of my laptop. Fair enough.

Thought a few screen dumps would be sufficient as its not like I can replicate the randomness of this issue.

There were some other suggestions mentioned in the forum. Such as bumping up the voltage in your BIOS. Swapping around the RAM; removing multiple audio drivers. Ensuring all your drivers were up to date. Haven't tried these yet. They are a little bit more involved and I want to try the simple stuff first.

Though its hard to imagine it a software issue if no one else is having the problem ...

 

They got me to do the Dell Diagnostics (F12 from boot).

After it passed that they asked me to leave the laptop for 24 hours just sitting in BIOS setup then call them back.

 

You can't change the voltage in the XPS 16 BIOS, and the power regulation modules for the core i CPUs are on-die, so even with a desktop with a fully functional BIOS, changing the voltage does very little.

For the RAM, try removing one of your modules. Use it for a bit and see if it crashes or not. Then switch with the other and do it again.

If it crashes with both individual ram sticks = it's not the RAM (possible, but very highly unlikely both sticks are bad)

If it only crashes with one stick, but not the other = have Dell replace that stick

If it doesn't crash with either individual stick = it's not the RAM, or the random crashing just didn't happen

It's very hard to tell if it's the RAM if the crashing is random. You can try running memtest or OCCT with max ram testing and see if that triggers the crash.

If they do replace the motherboard, tell them you will not accept a refurb, your laptop is brand new, and you want a brand new replacement motherboard.

 

Thanks for the advice seeker_moc. Having installed Office 2007 and buying 2010 yesterday, decided to try this all again. I performed a system recovery, installed Kaspersky 2011 and Office 2010. I am also going to hold off installing any updates for now. No reboots since but it has only been 6 hours. If it happens again, I will try the RAM modules.

I am interested to see what Basildownunder comes back with.

 

I left it in the BIOS overnight, it didn't reboot but it was only 6 hours. The problem is that this my work laptop so I'm on it all the time.

I really dont think our reboot problem is software related.

Dont know what to do next. It's such a random problem that it could take ages to convince Dell to come out to take a look.

 

I think I have shot myself in the foot. Dell will not help as they believe my problem will be solved by the OS CD they are sending out.

<bangs head>

Gotta laugh ...

All this said. I have yet to experience the random reboot issue since last posting. Since I have simply refrained from plugging in the external HDD for extended periods of time (odd one) and I have performed a second system recovery to ensure a clean install of Office 2010.

I would suggest giving Seeker_moc's idea a go as the problem seems to be leaning towards a possible memory issue.

Edit:

System crashed again at 7:45pm. So lasted about 3 hours before the same fault took it out again. Kernel power Event ID 41. No bugcheckerrors and no Powerbuttontimestamp issues.

Strange thing is however when I log back in and restart IE8 (or Mozilla), it asks me if I want to load up my previous tabs. Also, Office seems to be able to recover documents which had been open. I didn't think this would happen.

Startin' to think we got a bad batch now basildownunder. Whatever you do ... refuse the refurb!

Edit 2:

Happened again at 9:44pm whilst editing this post. Have created a screen dump from 'Event Viewer'. Checked my audio drivers of which I only have one plus a CODEC. Running out of software options unless there is a Windows Update I dont know about (have refrained from installing any updates since I received this laptop a few weeks ago).

 

What surprises me is that my laptop didn't reboot after a few hours of Prime95 Torture Test which apparently really hammers the CPU and memory of our laptops.
Torture test your CPU with Prime95

Think I'll try Memtest if I can find my Hirens Boot CD again

Out of interest, why are people on this forum so against refurbished motherboards? I'd have thought if it fixes issues and Dell keep the warranty going it would be ok.

Yuley, have you spoken Dell support from in front of your laptop yet? If you have but they wont help you because you are waiting on OS discs thats a bit rough I'd have thought.

 

I'm not against refurbished motherboards, they're likely to work just fine. However, yuley just got his less than a month ago. To me, it's a thing of principle. If it's less than 90 days old, they should replace it with a brand new part.

 

arggg now i am scared. hopefully mind doesn't come with the same problem.

Would doing a clean install in ANY way cause the laptop do this?

 

Fair enough, I think I agree with that thinking on reflection.

Are you also in Australia?

I doubt it. Though I did do a clean install from my Windows 7 Ultimate disc as soon as I got this laptop.

 

Okay. I have done 3 Dell System Recovery Installs and it happened under each scenario. Just got hold of Dell again and this time they advised it was an issue with the ATI High Definition Audio Drivers fighting with the IDT High Def Codec (so a problem with the CCC driver I am guessing).

I have disabled the ATI High Definition Audio driver from Device Manager as instructed and now will wait and see. Will leave my XPS on all day with the usual stuff open. IE8, Outlook and Word and see if the problem rears its ugly head. I hope this fixes it.

 

Thats unlikely to be the problem, at least in my case, because I don't have the IDT High Def Codec installed and I have CCC disabled.

 

Hmmmm... I'm guessing that the tech doesn't know what he's talking about. The ATI Audio Driver is only when using HDMI, if HDMI isn't active, neither is the ATI audio. Besides, the ATI audio completely bypasses the IDT audio, it doesn't conflict with it.

If you're doing a fresh system recovery, and still getting the problem, then it's not likely a software problem. Besides, disabling a feature of your laptop to prevent it from crashing, especially when it's not happening to many others, isn't an answer.

99% of the time problems are software problems, but in this case it might be time for a new motherboard.

 

Its interesting you mention the HDMI issue as I use a HDMI to DVI cable to plug into my external monitor and I cant remember this rebooting issue happening whilst simply working off the laptop.

In disabling, will that mean I wont get audio through HDMI? It's not often I will be plugging this into a TV but it may happen and as suggested, would prefer it worked.

How can I tell if I get a refurbished motherboard or a new motherboard? Do I simply take the technician sent out at their word? Or is it a case of demanding/asking for a new laptop be sent out to ensure its new.

 

If that's the case, it may be possible that the ATI driver is in fact involved. You could try using a Display Port to DVI adapter instead, and see if it fixes the problem.

Yes, disabling the ATI audio driver will disable any audio over the HDMI port.

For the last question I guess you'd have to take the word of the tech, unless somebody else here knows different.

 

Well its been running without fail for the last 6 to 7 hours ...

This is really bizarre ... Although I may no longer be any help to basildownunder, I may try my HDMI-HDMI cable tonight and re-enable the ATI Audio driver and see what happens. Starting to think I may need to replace my HDMI-DVI cablefor a display port to DVI.

And its a shame about the issue of refurbishment. I think it a tricky one myself to actually know what replacement part you are in actual fact getting.

 

No problems. Looks like maybe your reboot problem is caused by a different issue to mine.

 

No random reboots since I last posted. I would say the ATI audio driver was likely my issue. I gave ATI the heads up; perhaps it maybe addressed with later releases of CCC but I could not see it.

I hope you can resolve your issue basildownunder. This machine is pretty awesome when no issues of course.

 

Hey basildownunder, Did you manage to resolve the issue? I too am from Australia and also am experiencing the exact problem you described. So now begins my journey of personal discovery and suffering

 

It hasn't done it in the last six days.

Buts it's gone weeks before without doing it and I haven't made any changes to it since so I expect it will happen again.

 

Hi,

I thought I'd post my critical events log to see if anyone could spot a pattern that I'd missed. I noticed that it seems that 11 days was my best stretch.

I'm assuming the system event log is a 30 day rotating log by default which is why I don't have any events prior to this? I have had my XPS since end of June.

Thanks
Luke

Level,Date and Time,Source,Event ID,Task Category
Critical,11/10/2010 8:15:15 AM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,8/10/2010 6:53:54 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,3/10/2010 3:29:15 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,28/09/2010 8:09:15 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,26/09/2010 2:16:53 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,22/09/2010 7:06:31 AM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,21/09/2010 11:08:42 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Critical,10/09/2010 9:29:13 PM,Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power,41,(63),"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

 

Kernel Power Error 41 is a recurring problem with a lot of people and Windows 7, check out these two articles and see if they help you.

Windows Kernel event ID 41 error in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2: “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first”
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...f/thread/a611d79d-9865-4a8e-917b-74b0a891912f

Basically, update your drivers, remove overclocking, and see if it still happens. If it does, you might have a hardware problem, and need a new motherboard.

 

Happened again. Maybe 50 minutes ago. Dell Support had me flash my BIOS to version A12.

Since my machine had been idling for some time, I am beginning to think it due to my power settings. Sleep mode has been switched off on all power settings ... This is beginning to bug me.

I am not liking the idea of a new motherboard seeker_moc ... And in reading the article, I dont think any of the scenarios apply. The powestamp is always zero, as is the bugcode. Drivers are all current (going by the Dell driver site).

 

My XPS has been doing this for about 3 weeks now. At first, I thought it was a software issue so I reformatted the whole thing and started fresh. It still happened.

The other day I came across a thread on the Dell forum from someone who had the same problem. His fix was creating a custom power profile and setting the CPU max to 66%. I tried it and it seems to have worked as a temporary fix.

My reboots seem to happen more often when I have a USB storage device attached. Either a portable HDD or a flash drive.

 

Strangely, my laptop hasn't rebooted on its own for at least three weeks.

Am still running on A11 BIOS.

 

It was happening to me a while ago but in researching found a couple of suggested causes. The first was audio drivers, the second was leaving in a USB drive for long periods of time, the third was the power settings (sleep mode, hibernation and the like).

I turned off these power settings, refrained from using USB drives for lengthy periods of time and it still happened. Dell Support then advised me to disable the ATI HD Audio driver. After I did this, I hadn't experieneced the reboot issue again.

Over the weekend however, I re-installed Win7 and partitioned my HDD. I also disabled the ATI HD audio driver once again thinking that the main culprit (and obviously forgetting about the power settings). With it happening again, I have disabled these power settings once again.

Strange though.

Happy to see that basildownunder has not experienced this issue for 3 weeks now. It is rather random ...

 

YOu'll get a different message. it will pop up and tell you memory is getting low and you need to close programs to continue. It won't randomly reboot though

 

Okay. It did it again (and at the worst time) ... <sigh>

1. ATI HD Audio driver has been disabled
2. Power saving settings such as sleep and hibernation have all been disabled.
3. No external HDDs plugged in.
4. Flashed to latest firmware (A12)
5. Pagefile is set at default

I have performed 2 installs (one being from the Win 7 OS CD) and it has occurred on all builds. One off's here and there; and the system has not been under stress (only one application running). Thankfully it has not necessarily been a huge deal in the sense that I haven't lost anything but I imagine it could cause me some dramas in the future. The only thing each of these random reboots may have in common is the computer may have been on for a long period of time (in excess of 4 hrs).

In contacting Dell they are going to give me a motherboard and 2 4GB memory modules. I have tried to ask that these parts be new and they said the parts would be new but I am sceptical.

My Dell XPS 1645 is only 5 weeks old ... If these parts do not resolve the issue, I will be provided with a new system.

I wonder if I can score the new Dell XPS though I do like the look of mine better. The 2GB Nvidia GPU does sound nice ...

 

Dell Tech came today with a refurbished motherboard and 2 new DDR3 RAM modules. I allowed him to replace the later but the motherboard will have to wait. Will see if this new memory may solve my issue.

Strangely Dell Tech also recommended to keep my Dell well ventilated as heat may cause this issue I am experiencing ...

 

Good luck with it yuley, keep us posted.

It's quite strange that my system has stopped rebooting since I didn't change anything (that I know of) since it last crashed.

Am not convinced with Dell Tech's explanation that it could be heat related. I closed the lid on my unit today and instead of shutting down as I have Win7 configured to do, annoyingly the laptop kept running. Needless to say, a couple of hours later when I opened the laptop it was all VERY hot. But it was still running, it did not reboot.

 

Randomly rebooted on the Thursday night ... <sigh>

Looks as though I may need to try the refurbished motherboard. And what Dell terms a refurb is a motherboard that has come from the factory; they open it to test it; then package it back up. Apparently it is not a motherboard from a broken Dell XPS 1645 that has been repaired. I think they are all lying to me (but I have spoken to three tech support people from Dell who have all told me the same thing). As the latter is the very definition of a refurbished part as far as I am concerned.

All this said; the random reboot has only happened once since the new RAM has gone in. Since then, the laptop has been running non-stop without issue. I will see again tonight as it would have been running for in excess of 12 hours; and I may just leave it running the entire weekend to see what happens.

Glad your machine has settled Basildownunder; its an odd one.

 

@Yuley I've had a similar random crash-reboot problem since day 3 since I got the machine (same entries in my event log, no minidump).

My setup has the laptop connected to a DELL3007 2560x1600 via displayport (and a displayport to DVI ACCEL USB active converter) and an ACER X243W 1920x1200 via HDMI. I also have 2 USB hubs to connect to various devices (ON-OFF at different times) : scanner, ipod, wireless keyboard+mouse, etc. In short, enough wires connected to this thing to introduce lots of points of failure.

I've tried many things to troubleshoot, as crashes do appear random. I found that crashes happen when both external displays are connected. Crashes have never happened when I use the laptop standalone nor when only the 3007 connected to displayport (no HDMI). This is not scientific however as I use the computer for work and thus cannot test configurations for extended periods of time in one config.

Given that, does anybody with this issue also have *both* displayport and HDMI external displays connected? Could it be that since both displayport and HDMI connectors are so close to one another that they create some sort of a glitch, or power demand, on the 1645 motherboard?

~~~~~~
Dell XPS 1645 | Intel i7-720Q | 1080p WLED | 256GB SSD PM800 | ATI Radeon HD5730 1GB | 8 GB DDR3 RAM | Intel Wifi 5300 | A12 BIOS | Win 7 Ultimate 64bits | 20Aug2010

 

Since my Dell hadn't rebooted over the weekend, I decided to delay the motherboard replacement. I also turned the sleep/hibernation settings back on (now goes to sleep after 3 hours).

Strangely after a week, it has not yet rebooted.

Dell have my case history. If it becomes more frequent, I shall try the new motherboard ... Based on fmheir's comments, perhaps I should avoid the HDMI connection to my external monitor. Its not as though I really need it ...

 

Quick update: after running with displayport external display only, I have experienced crashes again. Thus ruling out the hdmi+displayport combo issue.

I guess I am back to looking for a power glitch or a temperature problem as per microsoft KB Windows Kernel event ID 41 error in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2: “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first”

 

I am not sure the article applies due to the powerbuttontimestamp number. Whenever mine does this random reboot both this number and the bugcheckcode are zero.

I am leaning towards are power related or temperature related issue (could be a combination of both) as first suspected.

Without an external monitor using the HDMI port; without a USB drive; and with all power saving settings turned off, perhaps something is overheating on the left side of the motherboard.

<shrugs> Who knows? Dell sure doesn't.

 

Guess what guys?

After weeks and weeks of stability, I just returned to my laptop after leaving it alone on my desk for about 10 minutes to find it had rebooted.

This can't be heat or stress related because its 20 celcius inside, the laptop was just sitting idling with Outlook 2010 and some IE8 windows open.

I dont have any USB devices attached, no external devices at all in fact apart from a Dell TravelMouse connected via Bluetooth.

Power settings are always on Balanced and I have the large battery installed which raises the laptop slightly from the table for even better ventilation.

 

So random!

Mine is nearly into its second week without an issue but I am expecting it to happen again ...

Perhaps a 'new' motherboard basildownunder may be our only recourse.

 

hey guys, been looking or answer for a while now, ive tried everything, dont know if this could help but here is everything ive tried, still no go, however, there is an os called g parted , burn it onto a cd and run it when booting up... no crash with.. so it must be windows 7 driver and hardware compatibility issue..

windows 7 unexpected shutdown...

 

I am having this problem too. It's a new system, about 6 weeks old.

At first it happened once a week, and I didn't think much of it. Started happening more often. Now once or twice a day.

It has happenned when I have had a USB mouse plugged in, but also when there is nothing attached to the USB or any other ports. Has happened when plugged in and when on battery power.

Has anyone managed to get rid of the problem? I see a lot of people dipping in and out of the thread. Just hoping someone had success but hasn't been back to post yet.

Looking through the thread, the only things I think all our systems have in common are that they are i7 and have 8gb ram. Is that right?

 

I just got offline with Dell tech support and after running all of their hardware tests, they determined it to be a software issue. After they suggested i try re-installing the operating system, I informed them I was currently running my 3rd installation and it was highly doubtful there was a software issue. They are sending out a new motherboard and a HDD, just in case. I had to show them the Event Viewer logs just to prove I wasn't imagining things.

The hardest part of diagnosing these issues, is the complete and utter randomness of it all. Like the previous poster, my system tends to reboot when it is sitting idle, under virtually no load and not when i am running 4 virtual machines or gaming. Failure under these extreme circumstances might be understandable, but while sitting idle? Too weird.

 

This indicates a heat issue.