laptop just shuts down

[Riolenny]

my laptop dell inspiron e1505 started this thing were it will shut down or maybe I say goes into sleep mode because the power lite is still on and you have to hold it down to turn off the computor. It takes about 5 min to start acting up and the more times I try to restart it that time get shorter. I know it sounds like the battery but its pluged in to the wall. Any help is greatly apprecaited.

[Speedbump]

Does this happen when your using it or when it's sitting idle?

[Riolenny]

This happen while I'm on it. I log on to the internet and by the time I get to were I'm going if I get there it goes blank. It just as if the battery ran out of juice.

[Speedbump]

I suppose your charger could be on the fritz as well. Is the battery good and charged or do you use the charger because the battery is bad?

[Riolenny]

The battery is good and charge but last only about 20 min so I just keep plug in and the charger was replaced with another same results.

[Speedbump]

If the battery only lasts 20 minutes, I wouldn't call it... GOOD.

I can't think of anything in the configuration that could be changed to make it shut down like that. I can see it going into hibernation or to sleep after so many minutes of being idle, but if it does this while your working with it. I really don't know what the problem is.

[HayZee518]

the charger is just another piece to the puzzle. the regulator circuits are on the motherboard of the computer. it may have just a card for maintaining the battery charge. I had a compaq armada e500 with just that type of plug in card.

[NightBird]

Hi Rio:

I wouldn't know how to check the card itself for the problem that HayZee mentioned.

What I would do before taking it to the shop though would be the following:

Go to the start menu and open it. Open the control panel: Then open the Power Options icon. This will bring up a box labled Power Options Properties. Make sure that the options for hibernation and standby etc. are set long enough to keep the machine from going into stanby while you are reading and not actively clicking or typeing.

If they are, then go to the Power Meter Tab at the top of the box and choose it. A new box will come up that will tell you your present level of charge and what power source you are running on. As the others said if you start at 100% and your battery only lasts 20 minutes then you probably need a new battery. If I remember correctly the OS tries to protect you by going into hibernation or shutting down when only 5 minutes of power are left. So if you quickly get to this level it will go into hibernate on you and almost immeidiately upon restarting so It gives the problem you described. I run into it alot at work when someone has inadvertantly left one of the plugs out or when the battery goes. As Hayzee said it could be a bad board but I haven't seen that mainly because I don't fix them at work.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely, NightBird

[NightBird]

Hi Rio:

One other thing to note is that a bad battery will lie to you and say that it is good when it isn't until it is under load. Also for the dells that I use if the battery goes some times it won't accept enough charge to keep the unit running even when plugged in.

If it were me, After checking the Power Options Properties, I think I would replace the battery because from your post you said it was only giving you 20 minutes anyway. Then if that doesn't solve the problem try a friends charger. If that doesn't do it then its time for a trip to the shop to have the board checked. This way you save the cost of shop diagnostics until your sure you need them while dealing with what you already know you need.

The disadvantage to this strategy though is that if the board is bad you have to decide whether to upgrade or not. If you upgrade you lose the cost of the battery pack you bought.

Sincerely, NightBird

[yeteti77]

I wouldn't change out the battery just yet. Batteries are expensive, even for old laptops. I think your laptop is about $300 market value and a new battery will cost $30-$45. Honestly, I'd consider buying a new laptop. At the rate that technology improves upon itself, things become obsolete quite fast.

If buying a new laptop isn't an option, I'd still test the battery. I'd let the computer be "charged" and unplug the battery. See how long it lasts for without blanking out. Then I'd plug the computer in and let it sit and see how long that lasts for. Don't touch the plug, but watch the icon that says the computer is plugged in and make sure its there. If it shuts down then your charger and battery are most likely not the problem. Try running your anti-virus and malware programs. If you need suggestions, I can help. Also run the computer in Safe-mode. Your computer should work. If it continues to do the same thing, it might be an internal issue. In that case, I'd get a quote on repair, but the repair cost might not be worth it.

Make note, any "bad" internal hardware (+ their drivers) can cause your system to go haywire. Undo recent changes. If the computer just started doing this, think about possible changes that you may have done. Maybe try a system restore. BACK UP your information no matter what steps you choose to take.

[Riolenny]

Thank you Yeteti77. Yes I did get a new computer. A repair service told me I had a circuit board problem and its to costly to repair.

[CeilingTiles]

I would try to find someone else that has a DELL laptop and try to use their charger and see if that is the issue. Don't want to waste money buying parts that might not be broken. Will be cheaper to get a new laptop if you do that a few times.

[joshhudm]

Since you see the actual on it sounds like its something with the LCD, video card, video inverter. Something along those lines.

[dapperdraker]

I got the same problem with my Lenovo Y410 but I managed to solve it by disassemble the unit and cleaning the processor fan. Also I put some new thermal paste on my the processor.

In my case, my laptop always shuts down after 10 - 20 minutes of use. The problem is caused by processor over heat problem

[RustySheriff]

Well I'm glad you got yourself a new computer. Use the old computer's hard drive as storage or a second drive.