Dell Inspiron 8600 turning itself off when gaming.

whitey · 13th April 2005, 4:29 PM

My daughter has been playing Sims 2 on my lappy and it keeps turning itself off about every 15 minutes.It fully shuts down straight away,no warnings,no noises it just turns straight off!
It restarts again instantly and goes for about another 15 minutes before doing the same thing.It sounds like an overheating problem to me,if these things overheat is this what usually happens?
Heres the specs:
Pentium M 765 Notebook
2.1GHz,2MB Cache, 400MHz FSB
128MB DDR ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo
80GB HD

It's doing this when running on mains power.

It's under warranty so i'll be phoning them up tomorrow,but interested if anyone has any ideas.
I'm also having intermittent problems with the DVD drive,sometimes it wont play DVD-Rs.
If you eject the dvd several times it will eventually play.The same discs have no problems on my other PC drives.It has the Sony one fitted,someone told me to tell the techs and they will probably fit an NEC,can anyone confirm this?Which drive is best?

stroggos2k · 13th April 2005, 4:38 PM

It's overheating, I've got a i8600 and it's never done anything like that in the ~15 months I've had it.

What DVD drive have you got (speed/etc)? (Dell seem pretty happy to replace DVD Drives, as I've had three for various reasons).

whitey · 13th April 2005, 4:52 PM

It's an 8X DVD+/-RW combination drive.

One other thing i've noticed is that the fan seems to rev up and down quite quickly and erratically.Being my first laptop,i'm not sure if this is normal or not.

FlameTheFire · 14th April 2005, 10:52 AM

Sounds like an overheating problem see if you can replicate the problem using 3Dmark but normally that what happens with overheat.

pyr0x · 14th April 2005, 11:03 AM

I've got almost exactly the same setup as you and haven't had any problems yet.

Do you have an NEC 6500A DVD drive?

edit > uh I'm an idiot

whitey · 14th April 2005, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pyr0x

I've got almost exactly the same setup as you and haven't had any problems yet.

Do you have an NEC 6500A DVD drive?

No,like I said in my original post it's got the Sony.I've heard that the NEC is better,so I hope to get one of them.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I enter setup,it says it's a 2.1GHz cpu,but the CPU speed is 1.6GHz,what's doing here???
Can someone else who has the same CPU check theirs,as I don't know if it's a glitch or a problem.

pyr0x · 14th April 2005, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitey

No,like I said in my original post it's got the Sony.I've heard that the NEC is better,so I hope to get one of them.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I enter setup,it says it's a 2.1GHz cpu,but the CPU speed is 1.6GHz,what's doing here???
Can someone else who has the same CPU check theirs,as I don't know if it's a glitch or a problem.

I have the 755 model CPU and because of the scaling various programs report it at various speeds. This is normal and actually a good feature, mine slows right down to 600mhz when needed and up to the full 2ghz.

whitey · 14th April 2005, 12:49 PM

So this is normal then? I thought it would probably just be a power saving device.
What is a good program to see if it does rev out correctly when needed?

13th April 2005, 4:29 PM	#1
whitey Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,612	Dell Inspiron 8600 turning itself off when gaming. My daughter has been playing Sims 2 on my lappy and it keeps turning itself off about every 15 minutes.It fully shuts down straight away,no warnings,no noises it just turns straight off! It restarts again instantly and goes for about another 15 minutes before doing the same thing.It sounds like an overheating problem to me,if these things overheat is this what usually happens? Heres the specs: Pentium M 765 Notebook 2.1GHz,2MB Cache, 400MHz FSB 128MB DDR ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo 80GB HD It's doing this when running on mains power. It's under warranty so i'll be phoning them up tomorrow,but interested if anyone has any ideas. I'm also having intermittent problems with the DVD drive,sometimes it wont play DVD-Rs. If you eject the dvd several times it will eventually play.The same discs have no problems on my other PC drives.It has the Sony one fitted,someone told me to tell the techs and they will probably fit an NEC,can anyone confirm this?Which drive is best?

13th April 2005, 4:38 PM	#2
stroggos2k Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Rozelle, Sydney NSW Posts: 6,155	It's overheating, I've got a i8600 and it's never done anything like that in the ~15 months I've had it. What DVD drive have you got (speed/etc)? (Dell seem pretty happy to replace DVD Drives, as I've had three for various reasons). __________________ Tune in to my radio show "Adam & The Stooges" from 8-10pm every Friday night on Sydney's 2RRR 88.5FM for obscure/classic/awesome rock, game, movie & tv reviews and random fun. Last edited by stroggos2k; 13th April 2005 at 4:39 PM.

13th April 2005, 4:52 PM	#3
whitey Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,612	It's an 8X DVD+/-RW combination drive. One other thing i've noticed is that the fan seems to rev up and down quite quickly and erratically.Being my first laptop,i'm not sure if this is normal or not. Last edited by whitey; 13th April 2005 at 4:55 PM.

14th April 2005, 11:03 AM	#5
pyr0x Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Melbourne Posts: 1,613	I've got almost exactly the same setup as you and haven't had any problems yet. Do you have an NEC 6500A DVD drive? edit > uh I'm an idiot Last edited by pyr0x; 14th April 2005 at 12:22 PM.

14th April 2005, 10:52 AM	#4
FlameTheFire Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 196	Sounds like an overheating problem see if you can replicate the problem using 3Dmark but normally that what happens with overheat.

14th April 2005, 12:49 PM	#8
whitey Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,612	So this is normal then? I thought it would probably just be a power saving device. What is a good program to see if it does rev out correctly when needed?