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    My Inspiron 6400 randomly hangs/crashes when unplugging the power supply. Help?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by cookie15, Jul 3, 2006.

  1. cookie15

    cookie15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    When I try to unplug the power supply when my laptop is on, the laptop "sometimes" crashes or turns off the screen for no apparant reason. I can't get out of it when this happens, I have to press power and reset my laptop.

    Is there a reason why this is happening? Is this normal? Or is there a special way of unplugging the power when it's charging my laptop?
     
    cookie15, Jul 3, 2006
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  2. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    no that is not normall for any notebook at all. it seems that your notebook is not getting enough power from the battery.

    can you load it while it is unplugged? just off the battery
     
    yuio, Jul 3, 2006
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  3. cookie15

    cookie15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    yes, it can run perfectly with the battery on and off. the problem only occurs when:

    laptop is on and,
    I want to unplug the power supply.
     
    cookie15, Jul 3, 2006
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  4. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    oh, this sounds like a motherboard thing if you have you contacted Dell about this problem. it might be a chip screw up.

    if you have installed anything at all just before this started happening try doing a system restore if it was like that when you opened the box then contact dell fore sure.
     
    yuio, Jul 3, 2006
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  5. mbushnaq00

    mbushnaq00 Notebook Evangelist

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    I have the same problem, but it happens once every ten times... It seems most inspiron 6400 laptops suffer with this problem. My guess would be from the graphics card driver, cuz I am not using the original Dell-ATI drivers that came with the laptop. Currently I am using Catalyst 6.6 (was 6.5) and from the day I updated I didnt suffer from this problem. If u want to download the drivers, u will need to search the forums for the link cuz the ati website wont give u the link for dell laptops.
     
    mbushnaq00, Jul 3, 2006
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  6. cookie15

    cookie15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    well, I'm using the omega drivers....
     
    cookie15, Jul 3, 2006
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  7. MC.

    MC. Notebook Enthusiast

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    are you sure it hangs/crashes ? or maybe it's just the screen turning off?
    have you tried moving the lid back and forth? like opening it way back...
    my screen sometimes wont turn on and doing this works perfectly
     
    MC., Jul 3, 2006
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  8. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    I've never heard of any of the Dells doing this, so I'm thinking it is something pretty serious. Has this been happening since you got your laptop? Also, have you checked your battery. Is it a tight fight or loose?

    I kind of wonder if maybe the battery isn't being detected when you unplug the power. Does your laptop completely shut off when you unplug the a/c adapter?

    Sorry for all the questions.
     
    Amber, Jul 3, 2006
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  9. loesjoel

    loesjoel Notebook Consultant

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    I'm using the Omega drivers and it happened once to me too. Since then, I've only unplugged on the fly once and my screen did flash a few times before stabilizing.
     
    loesjoel, Jul 3, 2006
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  10. j4y_7

    j4y_7 Notebook Consultant

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    Although this is unlikely, it might also be a problem with Dell QuickSet. QuickSet automatically detects when your notebook is being powered by an AC adapter & will activate/deactivate your ethernet card accordingly. See if upgrading to the latest version of QuickSet or disabling the feature will help.
     
    j4y_7, Jul 4, 2006
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