XPS15 Shuts Off on its own

I purchased a new XPS15 has the I7 1.73ghz 8mb ram etc.... I have used the laptop for the last 4 days. It has randomly turned off on me.

For example today I had itunes open and was watching a video on youtube. The audio on the youtube video slowed down and sounded weird then the laptop just shut off. I restarted right away and it says it was not shutdown correctly and then I click start windows normally and it is ok.



This is the second time it has done that and I'm not sure what the issue is? I'm about ready to contact dell and ask them to refund my money on this brand new $1,700 laptop with issues.

Anyone have the same experience with it shutting off on its own

 

more than likely it is overheating.

 

why would a brand new laptop overheat? What would you guys do? Should I return it and downgrade to a I5 processor?

 

I agree. New notebooks overheat all the time. Give it some room to breathe (if it's laying on a bed for example). All notebooks have the potential to overheat, from my Macbook Pro to my Dell XPS. I've experienced this with nearly every notebook I've owned at some point. Though, I've not experienced it while using itunes and youtube. Do you have the processor set to automatically adjust its performance. Or, do you have it set to operate at max GHZ.

Your power settings should be set to automatic, unless you know you're going to need full power- photo or video editing, gaming, etc. Websurfing and youtube watching is not processor intensive, and you can crank the speed down, substantially.

You'll learn to get a feel for when it's going to overheat. On the other hand, you can always call tech support and ask their opinion.

 

Thanks for the replies. I feel it had more then enough room to breathe, I had it on my lap at the time.

I had an inspiron 6000 that this never happened to.

I will have to check on the setting for the processor.

How long do you have to return a new product to Dell. Is there typically a fee involved with a return?

 

I have the exact same problem, I can get anywhere from 10-15 shutdowns with a black screen a day or none at all for a week or two!! I have the i5, it happens all the time, usually when only doing something simple like playing music or video or browsing the net.

I also get a lot of audio stuttering when playing music and video all the time, and it will freeze with the audio stuttering, just like a small part of the music or whatever playing over and over, reqiuring a hard reset.

I have contacted dell about this and am waiting for them to get back to me. It has been nearly two weeks since I contacted them.

It could be heat related, a poor paste job or something or a faulty component or motherboard, but it is not my job to find out, I have already spent ages reinstalling drivers etc. and have swapped the ram sticks around, it still happens. I too am dissapointed, this is not what I would expect from such an expensive laptop.

 

KGH how have you contacted them? Can you please post the outcome of your issue in this thread as it appears we have the same problem.
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How long ago did you purchase your laptop

 

just curious what is your temp with hwmonitor ?

 

you have 21 days from invoice date to return. subject to a 15% restocking fee.
thats in the USA anyway.

 

Is HWmonitor a program thats already installed? Or is it something I need to find and install?

Also I hope they wouldnt charge a 15% restocking fee on a laptop that is having issues.

 

It is here:
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

It is a free program. Easy to use.

 

Just ran the free program it is showing all four cores running the same.
I have firefox running only and using battery power.

core 1 (Fahrenheit)
Value Min Max
130 120 138

Is this normal ?

Graphics card showing

Value Min Max
116 114 134

Room temp was 80 degrees.

It has shut off about 4 times on its own since my last post.

 

I noticed right after turning on the laptop the Value temperature is about 140.

 

Well my laptop shut down again today. Only on the internet and had itunes open!!!! Looked and the processors was at 212 f or 100c. What the hell. Would my laptop be part of the intel recall?

 

No, your laptop doesn't have a Sandy bridge processor, nor does the fault with them cause heating issues.

However, a temperature of 212f is abnormal in the extreme. 110oF is normal [about 42oC] - 132 is slightly warm, but 212oF is at automatic shut-off.

Try running Speedfan ( Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer) to see if your fans are actually working.

 

Yes fans are working properly. I can feel it pump out hot air from the left side of the laptop

 

Like I said, overheating, big time. Intel recall has nothing to do with it. Bad paste job, damaged heat sync. something is causing it. Call Dell.

Even with the crappy heatsync you should not be seeing temps above 85c or so unless you are blocking the vents.

 

Yup I would RMA it to Dell unless you have on site service. Way too hot.

 

I was DJ'n at a nightclub and out of no were, my laptop shuts off, then when I push the power on, massage came on saying that i didn't turn the power off the right way.. that happen to me twice in a week.. don't know why this happen but i was about to take the laptop and put it on the trash. any one help..
i'm running a :

XPS L501X
4.6 WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX
INTEL R CORE TM i5 M460 @ 2.53 GHz
4.00 GB
64-bit
500 gig of memory
Windows 7