My XPS 1645 reboots randomly

What are your specs? Can you detail your problem and how often it happens.

I am afraid to say that if it is a 1645 and the same problem that we are facing here: random reboots with no blue screen, then reinstalling windows hasn't helped any of us. Service pack for windows 7 hasn't helped either.

Next thing to try is the new bios. Has anyone given that a go yet?

 

I've got the latest bios installed, still getting the reboot.

 

Shame. What are your system specs? Do you get any error codes in event viewer associated with the reboots?

 

Same here.

 

Anyone have any updates on this?

I'm still getting random reboots every week or two.

I now have a break in work so am going to get onto Dell about it. Was just hoping someone worked out which piece of hardware was at fault before I have to deal with their (un)help(ful) call centre.

having re-read the thread, it seems various people have had their motherboard, hard drive and memory replaced and none of these worked for anyone.

 

Haven't had a reboot for at least two months (touches head).

No changes made to my system since last time it rebooted.

 

Just got a random reboot.

Oh well, this could be one of those never to be solved mysteries. Warranty expires on my laptop soon too I think.

 

Sorry to hear it. Funnily enough I am going to have to get in touch with Dell as well this week. Also warranty running out. Still getting the reboots every week or two.
It will be a long and slow process, but having read this thread, I am going to refuse memory change, hard drive change and motherboard changes as options as it will just take unecessary time. I really don't want to have to send it in, but I think that will be the only option.

 

The problem with sending the laptop in to Dell is they could have it for weeks (or in my case months) while they try to replicate the random reboots.

But good luck with it.

 

I have been having the same random reboot problem since I got my laptop almost a year ago. It averages maybe 1 reboot every few days but can sometimes go a week without reboots (especially if I don't use it). The problem seemed to get worse earlier this year and I eventually called Dell Support in early June. Been dealing with them on and off for the last 3 months (ugh) but no solution.

Had the hard drive replaced (didn't help), and paid $100 to upgrade my warranty so as to get a house call to replace the motherboard (didn't help). Have reinstalled Windows twice so far (didn't help). Tried to get a refund for the machine but to no avail. Diagnostics says everything's fine; Dell support now says therefore it must be a software problem and they don't support software. However they were quick to suggest I buy the $130 System Mechanic software as they're "99% sure" that will solve all my problems... um, right...

Was wondering if it could be a video card issue, but seems the latest drivers from AMD won't install on the Dell.

Anyway, to sum up, no solution yet, and warranty expires soon

--
Dell Studio XPS 1645, i7 Q740, 8Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD, BluRay, 9 cell battery, A13 BIOS, Windows 7 SP1.

 

I have had the same problem with my LG X130 and sometimes it reboot several times a day and sometimes weeks past between the reboots. I have tried several software changes to find what the problem was but with no really result.
The only thing that works is to start a movie with VLC and then the computer doesnt reboot at all. Can anyone find what the real problem is so I dont need to have VLC open all the time eating memory.

// DAn

 

Anyone got any thoughts about whether this could be linked to the USB sockets somehow? I don't know if that is an early symptom, or the sign of the problem, but I have noticed once or twice that a USB device stopped functioning a minute or two before a reboot. For example my wireless usb mouse hasn't functioned and then 2 mins later- pop. I remember at the beginning some people thought it was a power management issue, or something that happened less often when they didn't have an external hard drive plugged in. Any thoughts? I am emailing dell now, 5 days before my warranty expires, as I have had enough. I lived with it, managed by constantly saving any work in word every 2 minutes etc. But once or twice I have lost valuable work and I have had it now really. It was just one of those misleading problems, when if you are in a good patch, a week or two without a reboot, you just kid yourself that everything is ok now. I am kicking myself for not dealing with it straight away.

 

I contacted Dell. I got a good, helpful guy. The warranty runs out next week, but they will see this problem through even if not fixed by then. As expected they gave me two options. Either send it in and leave it with them for a couple of weeks, or start the parts replacement cycle at home. I've gone for the second option as I can't afford to be without the system for a couple of weeks. Starting with a new motherboard tomorrow. I will update the thread for anyone with the same problem who is following things.

Bottom line is it has to be some parts issue, as all our systems with near identical specs were likely built at the same time last summer/ autumn. I'm not convinced it is the motherboard, memory or hard drive, as other people earlier in the thread had these changed, but I have an open mind, so let's see what happens.

 

I'll try not to fill this thread with just my posts, but want to keep anyone interested updated, especially basildownunder who has shared my experiences with this problem from the start.

Nice technician came and replaced the heatsink and motherboard today.

I will update when next random restart happens, or after every couple of weeks, if I am restart free.

 

Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but thought I'd update just in case.

I haven't had a reboot since the motherboard and heatsink were replaced almost 5 weeks ago. Too early to say anything definitive, but it was rare for my system to go 2 weeks without a reboot before, so here's hoping.

Anyone still in warranty, give it a go.

 

My warranty expired yesterday and guess what happened today.

Yes, spontaneous reboot :-(

 

I've been a member here for a while but only just found this thread.

Basildownunder, get onto Dell, they should still fix/replace your laptop. If not get onto (or threaten Dell with) fair trading/consumer affairs.

I too suffer this problem. I had a 1645 that was flawless, unfortunately it was stolen during a house burglary. Insurance paid out and as nothing else really compared I bought another 1645 (September 2010). The only difference between this machine and my first machine is 8GB RAM in the new one compared to 6GB in the stolen one. From day one I wasn't as impressed with this laptop, it had a scratch on the silver near the right speaker when I took it out of the box (can only have happened during manufacture) and Dell told me it wouldn't have been them.

I've had all sorts of problems and made a list with the date, fault and conditions at the time of the fault. That list is below, I've highlighted the ones that relate to the random rebooting (relevant to this thread).

I run a 120GB SSD in place of the 500GB 7200rpm drive it came with, though the problems existed before I changed that. The external HDD mentioned in the list below is the same 500GB drive in an enclosure. I have reformatted several times (as soon as I bought it to get rid of the bloat-ware, again a few weeks before changing to the SSD, a fresh install on the SSD and again after a few months of using the SSD) and still suffer the issues. The only thing I haven't done is update to the latest BIOS.

I have a powerful desktop machine so don't use my 1645 every day, but I do use it while I travel for work. At the moment that is 2-3 weeks/month and that will continue until after Easter 2012. That means any downtime whilst it is being repaired is a HUGE inconvenience. I did pay for 3-year next-business-day on-site warranty so I guess I have that in my favour.

Anyhow, the aforementioned list is below, have any of you suffered the same issues? Do you have any suggestions on things I can try to stop this random reboot issue (or any of the other issues)? It is becoming quite embarrassing having an unreliable machine while working out of customers offices.

19-04-11 - Restart, no blue-screen. Running on battery, working on spreadsheet.

21-04-11 - Restart, no blue-screen. Running on battery, surfing the net via BT tethering.

21-04-11 - Bluetooth stopped working. Warm reboot brought it back.

22-04-11 - Restart, no blue screen. Running on battery, editing photos.

16-05-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

18-05-11 - Bluetooth stopped working. Did have phone tethered and BT mouse connected. Device not in Device Manager, tried switching wifi manager off and on several times, still missing. Warm reboot didn't work, cold reboot brought it back.

19-05-11 - Locked computer, came back 1hr later and all USB's had stopped working. Windows Hung whilst shutting down, had to hold power button. Worked fine on reboot. Mains power, using a spreadsheet, mouse and USB HDD plugged in. Disabled USB power control by OS on reboot.

31-05-11 - No bluetooth on resume. Warm roboot brought it back.

01-06-11 - Restart, no blue-screen. Running off mains power. System was locked and had been unused for 1hr. Nothing in Event Viewer. External HDD and a Flash Drive was plugged in.

14-06-11 - Pushed power button, wouldn't post. Power light and keyboard lights were on, waited 30 seconds and pushed-and-held power button to turn off. Pushed power button again and it booted fine.

15-06-11 - Pushed power button, wouldn't post. Power light and keyboard lights were on, waited 30 seconds and pushed-and-held power button to turn off. Pushed power button again and it booted fine.

11-07-11 - Failed to load profile, had to recover from temporary profile.

12-07-11 - Restart, no blue-screen. Running off mains power. Nothing in Event Viewer. External HDD and USB mouse was plugged in.

15-07-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

25-07-11 - Failed to load profile, had to recover from temporary profile.

26-07-11 - Failed to load profile, had to recover from temporary profile.

29-07-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

30-07-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

31-07-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

03-09-11 - Left on for 5hrs, touch-pad & keyboard unresponsive, nothing displayed on screen. Pushed power button and it did nothing, pushed-and-held power button until it turned off. Booted fine.

04-09-11 - Reboot with no apparent cause. Plugged into power, nothing else plugged in, computer was idle and hadn't been used for min. 30 minutes.

07-11-11 - Stuck at Preparing Desktop for several minutes. Mains power. Pushed-and-held power button until it turned off. Booted fine.

10-11-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

10-11-11 - Screen flickering. Mains power, screen half-brightness, working in a spreadsheet.

You can see by the dates the times I haven't been using the 1645 because there are gaps in the dates! I only started logging the faults in April, it has been a problem since day 1.

I also have scratches on screen from contact with keyboard & surround. I saw reports of others having this issue but it wasn't a problem with my first 1645, but it is a major issue now. I am almost OCD about keeping my laptop spotless (too many years working on other peoples filthy ones I suppose) and there is never anything between the screen and the keyboard, not even dust.

 

Not that anyone is probably going to read this but Dell replaced the screen, keyboard, palmrest and motherboard in an attempt to resolve the problem.

First business meeting I went to and it rebooted itself. Dell have said they think it's a software issue. I can't see how as it's had 2 formats and fresh installs since the problems have existed and it didn't fix it.

One curious problem has poked it's head up since they "fixed" it, the battery only charges sometimes. Use it on battery and the plug the power adapter in and it says charging but several (up to 12) hours later it still hasn't charged. Switched on or off it still won't charge. Removing the battery and reinstalling it seems to work in about 50% of cases.

I have eliminated the power supply as a cause because I have two (both genuine 130W, but from different batches).

 

This is an old threat but I found a solution, well at least for me. The problem I was having was the same as yours, random reboot often times with no BSOD. After taking apart my system myself, after numerous times dell technicians have done it, I realized that when they replace parts (in my case) they don't re-coat the heat sink with heat transfer compound. My computer is a couple of years or so old, so naturally the transfer compound would dry up and need replacement. I wen't to my local computer component shop (Fry's), bought compound and installed it myself. Now my computer doesn't restart at all and no hiccups. The restarts may have been caused by overheating. This is my solution, and I'm not guaranteeing that it will work for anybody else.

 

I've only had one reboot in the last few months, and since it's my main work computer I decided it wasn't worth being without it for an extended time while Dell worked on it.

I spoke to a helpful Dell rep last week and seems there's a chipset driver issue that affects those of us with 8Gb or more of RAM.

Using the link he sent me I've updated the driver (from circa 2006 to circa 2009). Let's see what happens (or hopefully doesn't)

Here's the driver update:
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [Australia]

 

update:

Has rebooted twice since updating the driver.

I'm about to call Dell, even though its out of warranty they should have records of my calls to them about this problem pretty much from the time I bought it.