Windows Crashes w. No Error Message

[NakaNaka]

My roomate's laptop is being really weird. He is just in Windows, doing whatever, when the computer powers off. No error message, no nothing. It will come on again, maybe for 5 minutes, maybe for 5 hours, and then goes off again. It's seemingly random. Could this be a hardware problem? I told him to call Dell, maybe they will take it back, but he's had it for a couple months no problems. What you General Hardware guys think?

Thanks
-Phil

 

[JBDan]

Hard to tell from what you have said. Specs would help.

 

[Regs]

The first thing I would look at is the RAM or the PSU if it's hardware related.

Which means Memtest and a motherboard monitor would be needed to see if it's the problem.

Than I would check the hard drive. Which means running a Disc check and scan/defrag.

 

[Duvie]

Check the event viewer in administartie tools and see if it was software or something...

 

[worthless085]

what sucks is because its an intermitant (sp?) problem, sending it to dell doesnt mean it'll get fixed, chances are, some guy will turn it on... play around for a couple min see if it works, repackage and send it right back saying they fixed it.

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: worthless085
what sucks is because its an intermitant (sp?) problem, sending it to dell doesnt mean it'll get fixed, chances are, some guy will turn it on... play around for a couple min see if it works, repackage and send it right back saying they fixed it.

How sad but true.

 

[NakaNaka]

Originally posted by: JBDan

Originally posted by: worthless085
what sucks is because its an intermitant (sp?) problem, sending it to dell doesnt mean it'll get fixed, chances are, some guy will turn it on... play around for a couple min see if it works, repackage and send it right back saying they fixed it.

How sad but true.

Yeah. But I just don't know what to tell him. Because it's random means we can't track down what it is. And no error message. The biggest problem though is it's a laptop so we can't swap out parts and start fooling around.

 

[Duvie]

check battery connection....Does this ever happen when plugged into wall with AC plug???

 

[CubanCorona]

A good way to check and see if this is a hardware problem is to boot the system and load the BIOS setup program. Leave the system in the BIOS setup program and see if the resetting still occurs. If it does, the problem is probably hardware.