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Computer shuts down intermittantly

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by casemaker

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Hi,
I am working on a Dell Inspiron 5000e that shuts off at different intervals. With the battery in and notebook plugged in, it will run for various lengths of times and shut down. If I remove the battery it will run overnight. If I leave the battery in and remove the HDD and boot it will go to the DOS prompt saying no operating system found and not shut down. If I unplug the power cord and try to boot I get the cursor blinking on the screen and hear a whistle type sound 3-4 times and it shuts off without ever booting to exp. The system was upgraded to XP Pro. I have gone into BIOS and stopped any settings that would power down or hibernate.

2 replies

by hal 9000

Have you tried a Live Linux as a OS to boot from and see if the hardware is working correctly?
I always see these as a Must Have tool for any Hardware testing as they allow the HDD to stay put but in no way affect the contents of the HDD while the Linux System runs in Virtual Memory.

If that works without a problem you'll can start looking at the Windows Installation as a potential problem and if it doesn't work you have some form of Hardware problem.

for a Live Linux you can walk into your nearest Newsagent and buy a Linux Mag with a Live Linux as a cover CD or maybe even a general purpose Computer Mag that has a Live Linux as a Cover CD or you can download one from here

http://tinyurl.com/23nmq

If you need a hardware suite of testing utilities you can not go past the Ultimate Boot CD available from here

http://tinyurl.com/3jnpy

But having said all of the above is this one of the Dell's that required the Battery Pack to be replaced? If so that could be your problem as the battery pack is not working properly and drawing too much power from the Mains Adaptor and causing it to overheat and shut down which could be causing the NB to stop working.

Col

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