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Dell Inspiron Keeps Restarting Randomly

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charmedquark

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Posts
14
My 1 year old Dell Inspiron has started randomly rebooting throughout the day. Sometime the interval between reboots is a few hours, other times just a few minutes. It happens at least 5-10 times per day. Any thoughts?

Thanks!
 
It just booted into normal mode and I'm running the bsod app. If it craps out in the middle, I'll try booting into safe mode. Thanks for the help!
 
I was able to run the BSOD app. When I tried to run the performance monitor, it returned an error message when trying to generate a report. Shall I follow the instructions to start a new thread with the BDOS zipped output, and leave out the performance monitor report? - Thanks.
 
BDOS Output

Attached is my zipped output from the BSOD file collection. The performance monitor crapped out during the report generation, so I haven't included it here. My laptop has been repeatedly and randomly rebooting many times during the day.

Dell Inspiron 5520
Intel Core i3 2370M
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bit, pre-installed
Hardware and software ~14 months old
Never reinstalled OS

Thanks!!
 
Thanks. You didn't need to create a new topic, though.

It looks there are no minidumps on your systems (neither C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP or C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\*.dmp files), so it's not possible to say for sure what's causing these reboots. Could you please follow this guide and make sure dumps are enabled ("Kernel Memory Dump" option should be selected). If you can, please provide a screenshot of that window.

In addition, I noticed that the date of you computer is set to 2014. Could you please enter make sure a correct date it set in BIOS and Windows? Even it is not likely a cause of the reboots, it might cause some other unexpected issues. In addition, that might be an indication you CMOS battery is dying (and that could cause the reboots).
 
Re: BDOS Output

Sorry - the BSOD instruction specifically stated to start a new thread...Attached is a png file of the screen capture after I changed "Kernel Memory Dump" to "Complete Memory Dump" as per the instructions you provided. Should I rerun the BSOD app and provide the new output? I'll poke around to see how to set the date in the BIOS and windows.

Also, my laptop no longer starts up after shutting down - it's simply shuts down randomly, with no attempt at starting up. I have to hit the power button to attempt a startup. I also ran a Dell app called PC Check that does a complete check of the hard disks, memory, DVD drive, etc and everything passed.

Thanks again for all the support!
 

Attachments

  • dump.png
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OK, the dump settings seems OK. Anyhow, since there are no BSODs/dumps, it really looks like a serious hardware issue.

Is your laptop running on a battery or on power adapter? Could you try removing the battery and run it with power adapter only?
 
Thanks - I'm re-running the BSOD app with the new dump setting. I am currently running on a battery, sometimes with wall plug power, and sometimes the battery alone. The shutdowns occur regardless of whether I'm on battery alone or wall plug power. I'll take the battery out and see if/when I get the next restart.
 
Unfortunately it is still powering down/rebooting even with the battery removed. The last time, it beeped 5 times, several times, and wouldn't start up....
 
charmedquark said:
Unfortunately it is still powering down/rebooting even with the battery removed. The last time, it beeped 5 times, several times, and wouldn't start up....
Click to expand...

As per this post, 5 beeps mean "Real Time Clock (RTC) power fail: CMOS battery failure". So, it means I probably was correct when I said the wrong date on your system might be an indication of failing CMOS battery. Please replace it and see if it solves the issue.
 
Ok - I'll try that. But the date and time in my BIOS and the Windows 7 time were both perfectly correct. When you mentioned that the date was set to 2014, why is that incorrect? It *is* 2014!
 
charmedquark said:
Ok - I'll try that. But the date and time in my BIOS and the Windows 7 time were both perfectly correct. When you mentioned that the date was set to 2014, why is that incorrect? It *is* 2014!
Click to expand...

Sorry about that, my bad. Still living in 2013 :sleep2:
 
Ha! :) One more thing - I've noticed that when Windows boots up now, the little Windows jingle sounds sounds fuzzy - like there's static, even though the speakers are fine. Not sure if that means anything...
 

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