Oh DELL NO!

Sounds like to me one of two things.

It's over heating and shutting down. There is prolly one fan in there and that's not going to cut it. I just built me a pc and I have five fans in my tower.

Second it could be a software issue.

 

Okay guys thanks for the tread jack! Haha, no worries tho.
And I actually did buy my computer thru dell, I Custom built and ordered it from their website. Cost me $2,200 before my discount I get with Cabelas.

I do not know what else they could replace, and i do keep it on a cooling pad, and our house is always set at 62 (Trying to keep costs down at college).

I just got a call this morning that the service guy should get in my parts tomorrow and be at my house to replace them. I have about 100 days left on my warrenty, and am sure glad i had purched the 2 year. I just wish i would have done something so I would not have this many issues.

I do have to admit that Dell can usually have a technician at my front door in about 2-3 days after calling them with my issues. Hats off to them for that at least.

 

How do you use the laptop when it starts to go nuts? Is it getting the airflow required? I've seen laptops left sitting on beds or couches, air intake sucking nothing but lint.

Bring up task manager and check CPU usage. If it's pegging, you got some rogue software going on. That heats stuff up.

There's free CPU temp monitoring software out there - get an idea of what's going on temp wise, as heat kills them all......even Macs.

FWIW, I've had my share of Dells over the years and have had great service out of them all. But sometimes, you get a dud.....even Macs.

(No, Macs are not magic. They use the same damn hardware now. Back in the day they rolled their own, but no longer. An i7 is an i7, no matter who sells it.)

edit: I see you have a cooling pad...so nevermind the airflow question.

 

UPDATE: The technician left my house an hour ago after installing another motherboard. They did not send the processor because they dont know if will be working correctly without another machine to check it, and they wanted to make sure that it was not the processor socket was not bad first. So now that i am the owner of motherboard #4 my computer still does not work. They said that if must be sent in to them. They will be mailing me an empty box so i can mail it right back to them with my computer in it. They said it would take 5-10 for them to fix it and get it sent back out to me.

I have downloaded a temperature monitoring program and have been monitoring it. my CPU usage is always between like 2% and 30% and the temperature normally runs on my 4 cores between 130*F to 165*F. I have seen it hit 180*F once. The safety shutdown temp that program says is 212*F....So basically i have no idea why it "melted down."

I think im going to name my computer Chernobyl.

 

Which program did you download?

 

well it looks like my work is done here.

 

I do not remember exactly wich one it was... I could tell you in about 2 weeks.

 

As a tech, I've seen plenty of Macs fail too. The only difference is the PR machine paid to keep it on the down low. I will give Apple props for good customer service. But it's a myth their hardware is any more reliable.

OP - Check this ... http://en.community.dell.com/dell-b...13/7-beeps-error-on-the-studio-17-laptop.aspx

As for the i7 heat - it's been a big problem with early i7s in laptops. Those chips run way hot. And it's still the reason why I recommend i5s to my laptop clients.

If your system is still under warranty with Dell, I would demand a replacement with a newer system altogether.

One very IMPORTANT note to you ... before sending it in, pull the hard drive & make a copy. If you can get the whole drive, great. Otherwise just get your documents, music, pics, favorites etc. Any decent shop can do this for you.

Go down to Walmart and buy a backup drive (get one big enough for your system). The Western Digital Passport Essential drive is a good choice. Then take the backup and your hard drive to the shop. If you're not comfortable removing the hard drive from your laptop, they can do this too. It takes 5 minutes, so don't let them overcharge you for this! For reference, I'd charge a client $60 to make a complete back image (ghost) of a drive up if they brought me the laptop and backup device.

Just remember -- Chances are if they do replace your system with a newer model, your data will NOT come with it!

 

I clicked ont he link you sent and i did try that. I have pulled my hard drive and will be sending my computer back to them once i recieve the box (should be today)

I am not sure about how they would like me demanding a new system all to gether. I am not sure how to go about this seeing as i will be sending my machine in for a replacement processor. If i do have any other issues i will more than likely be demanding a new machine from them as long as i am still under warranty.

I have the studio 1747, what would be the direct replacement?

 

Well it finally arrived and is working. For now.
Took forever to get back to me. Stupid fedex.

 

did they tell you exactly what the problem was??

 

We recently (like within the last month) had a rash of new Dell laptops with bad motherboards at our company. Sounds like Dell got a bad batch.

 

I hate Dell computers, I have had 3 over the years and they were all junk. 2 laptops (dell has a history of crappy batteries) and one desktop (as mentioned with another brand by someone else, the monitor turned into a fireworks show). Got my Toshiba laptop now. Sucked cause it crashed in Afghanistan soon after purchase, but once I reloaded it, it works amazing.

 

toasted my i7 processor

 

tldr;

I would look at inadequate cooling being the problem. Random restarting lends itself to overheating quite often, which in turn will cause other components to fail sooner.

edit: in other words, clean your fans every now and then. don't be afraid to see whats under the cover.

 

I have a dell Inspirion that I have owned for three months and I just had the Dell visiting tech at my house today to fix mine as well. I needed a new battery and motherboard.
Glad it was under warranty.

 

I have had my fans and heat sink replaced twice now... and ya i try to keep this baby as cool as possible. I may just have to open my window. Its a balmy 21*F out now.

 

Fans and Heatsinks (HSF) are the visible part of cooling. Thermal compounds that transfer heat from source to cooling apparatus (HSF) are of paramount importance and in many cases are cheaply sourced or applied incorrectly.

A good thermal compound (MX-2/AS5/Shin Etsu/etc) can drop temperatures substantially over a stock application, because equal coverage over the heat source + high thermal conductivity + good HSF = good cooling.

 

I have had dell laptops and desktops. I have nad better luck with the laptops. You are correct the batteries they put in them are rather useless after a year.

 

Had the same issue with my old Dell Studio, that's why I switched to Mac. Dell has gone down hill. they lost a lot of the market share to HP over the past few years.