Dell Precision M4600 sudden shut down

[Jantink]

I bought a Dell Precision M4600 refurbished from a seller on NewEgg. I got it Saturday, spent time over the weekend loading up my work software, connecting peripherals, figuring out what I needed to tweak in the BIOS to connect more than one extra monitor, and was generally very pleased.

I took the battery out since this will be plugged in most of the time. I disabled the laptop monitor since I work on an external keyboard and keep the laptop on a riser using it as a CPU only.

All seemed to be going quite well while working on Monday night. I got done working and was relaxing, streaming some Hulu through Chrome, and really nothing else was running.

Suddenly, it shut off with a small pop. I have it running through a battery backup, but none of the monitors I have plugged into the backup went off. I was able to turn it back on without a problem, and it's been running fine since then.

I checked the AP Power Chute software, but the battery backup detected no power events.

It was late, so I left it running and went to bed. It was still on this morning. After checking online, I thought it might be the power supply. I went ahead and contacted the seller on NewEgg to see if I could get another one.

In the meantime, I restarted it so I could check the BIOS. The power log showed an ASF2 force off at the time of the shut down.

I checked online, and the theories on what causes this are many and varied. One of these was a possible registry problem, but I ran CCleaner's registry repair utility, and it detected no problems.

I would really rather avoid returning this if possible. My old laptop is still available, so I would just have to endure going back to its extreme slowness until I got something else. My husband votes for returning the laptop. I have a 90-day warranty through NewEgg and bought a 1-year warranty as well through them. In addition, I bought it through American Express so I have their purchase protection. The seller on NewEgg has emailed saying they could send a new power supply or I could choose to return the computer on their dime.

Right now, I'm trying to replicate the event, again streaming Hulu with a few tabs open on Chrome, and so far so good.

So what could be causing this? Any ideas? Should I just bite it and send the thing back? I kept the box, only had it for a few days after all.

 

[holdum323]

Hi. Here's my thoughts. This is a refurbished PC? Refurbished by whom? A small pop was heard and the PC shut down? You have it working through a battery back up? You ran CCleaners registry repair utility? (I'm not aware of this feature in CCleaner)
You have been offered a new power supply( AC power adapter)?
You are asking if you should keep the PC or send it back? What do you think you should do? You have a 1 year warranty? Where's the rush?

 

[Jantink]

It was refurbished by EPower, a seller on NewEgg.

Yes, I heard a small pop when it shut down. There was no smell of burning plastic or hot smell, but I suspected the power supply since there was that pop. My husband suggests that the speakers made that pop not the power supply. He said if a capacitor blew in the power supply, it would no longer be working.

I initially emailed EPower when I was thinking it was the power supply and yes, they offered a new one or to return the laptop at their cost.

I don't really want to return the PC if I don't have to, but in my husband's eyes (who has been working with electronics most of his life), electronics are either bad or they are good, so if it's doing this now I should return it.

I don't think there is a big rush, but I also don't want to get really settled into this computer and then have to go through the hassle of returning it later. I would rather figure out the problem now, or if it's not worth trying to figure it out, return it.

 

[holdum323]

Hi Thanks for your reply. I understand what you're saying. If your husband has been in electronics most of his life, maybe you should listen to him. I have no idea what would make a pop sound and then shut down. If it was power related you may not get a dump file. Not sure about that. Here's article by MS about Windows dump files. If windows shut down that fast, I seriously doubt if a dump file was written. Maybe other members will have better suggestions for you latter.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/130536/windows-does-not-save-memory-dump-file-after-a-crash
PS I will offer this suggestion as I'm always preaching backups . Create regular back up images with a 3rd party program so you can always restore back exactly like you were the day you created the image.(y)

 

[DavidBailey]

You ran CCleaner's registry repair utility? (I'm not aware of this feature in CCleaner)

Registry Cleaner in mine ---

 

[holdum323]

Hi Most Techs don't recommend using CCleaner registry cleaner. I don't see how that would help with this issue, but that's just my opinion. I myself don't see any problem running it, and it will save the issues that you can put back if you choose to do so I have tried that and it will restore all the items it deletes of fixes.

 

[Jantink]

Hi Thanks for your reply. I understand what you're saying. If your husband has been in electronics most of his life, maybe you should listen to him. I have no idea what would make a pop sound and then shut down. If it was power related you may not get a dump file. Not sure about that. Here's article by MS about Windows dump files. If windows shut down that fast, I seriously doubt if a dump file was written. Maybe other members will have better suggestions for you latter.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/130536/windows-does-not-save-memory-dump-file-after-a-crash
PS I will offer this suggestion as I'm always preaching backups . Create regular back up images with a 3rd party program so you can always restore back exactly like you were the day you created the image.(y)

I plan on creating a system image plus I have

 

[Jantink]

Welp, it did it again on Thursday, a little over a week later. From what I've been able to find online, this is a Dell phenomenon, and theories about it being the battery contacts (I don't have the battery in), something to do with the USB ports (I do have those maxed out), or the motherboard abound, but I have yet to find one satisfactory explanation or fix that actually worked for it.

Then, today I got up to a message saying the memory was maxed out, even though nothing was open and,with the applications that were running in the background,it didn't seem to be using as much in total it usually does (Chrome wasn't running for instance) though it said it was up to 92%. The first task manager screen shown is before I restarted and the second after, where you can see Chrome is running and it's only using 35% of it's 8 GB of RAM. I had left it last night with two Chrome windows open and a Windows Explorer window (which shows it still being open on the right screen, but I could not scroll over to it, and it was not active in the Task Manager when I looked at applications. The screen was split in a weird way as well. Thinking this will have to go back. It's too bad because I like this machine. It's way faster than my HP Pavilion dv6t. I just hate to go through the hassle of uninstalling everything I put on there, cleaning it off, shipping it back, and then having to put my old pokey laptop back in place while I look for something else.

 

[holdum323]

Hi Sorry you're are having Problems. I think it's a good idea to send it back. Let us know how things go.