Computer, once again you have forsaken me.

November 11, 2015 8:23 PM

My stupid old computer is on the fritz again. All of a sudden, my computer keeps shutting itself down. It'll say Entering power save and the screen will go blank. Then there's no way to wake it back up. So frustrating! Is this fixable or I should I finally break down and buy a new one?

So a few days ago I was on my computer and suddenly it said "Entering power save" and the screen went blank. I couldn't wake it up, so I had to hard boot it. Then it took several tries to completely start again. When it did, it worked for maybe a half hour before it did the power save thing again.

Since then, I've been able to get it to stay "awake" for progressively shorter times. Now I can't even get it to stay awake for ten seconds. I'm able to get into safe mode for as long as I want, but I can't get it to stay in regular mode. While in safe mode, I ran a virus check but it didn't turn up anything. I also did system restore back to a month ago when everything was fine, but that didn't solve anything.

The good news is, I learned from the last time my computer almost died, and did a backup of all my stuff. Thank god.

So the question is, is my computer finally giving its last gasp? Or is there a simple/easy fix to get another few months out of it? It's a 2009 Dell Inspiron 518 desktop so it's old and obsolete. But I love it and also am not so keen to drop hundreds of bucks on a new one just before the holidays. Even if I could make it limp along until holiday sales kick in, that would be something. Help!

posted by silverstatue to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

The power settings are usually in the BIOS setup, which is saved in battery backed-up memory.
Your battery may be on it's last legs, the instructions for replacing it are in this manual.
posted by Marky at 8:34 PM on November 11, 2015

1. Open up the case and blow out the years of accumulated cruft. Compressed air cans are good at this. If your fans are clogged, it could be overheating. Overheating produces this exact symptom (unexpected shutdowns) except in my experience the error message tells you it's overheating. Maybe OS dependent? Overheating is especially likely if your environment has pet fur.

2. If that fails, try replacing the power supply. A new power supply costs around $50 and is really easy to replace.

Finally, are there any beeps when it shuts down or fails to start up? Beep codes are the lowest level way your CPU has of communicating when something goes horribly wrong. The pattern of beeps is meaningful.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:27 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

If it isn't obviously the battery, I had a reminiscent problem with another Dell laptop which was caused by the internal fan giving out, consequently causing the processor to overheat after it had been turned on for varying amounts of time. Doing anything intensive like playing video would accelerate its demise.

The key diagnostic step was to get an industrial blower fan and arrange it and the laptop on a table so that air from the fan was being blasted into the rear vents of the laptop while it was turned on; this provided enough cooling to allow the laptop to run for about twice as long than without the fan. Once I disassembled the laptop according the maintenance guide I got off of the Dell website, I could directly see that the processor fan never started during the power cycle.

(Plus, as qxntpqbbbqxl suggests, I removed enough dust and lint to make a throw pillow. This slightly improved the laptop's stamina but the dead fan is the real problem.)

Theoretically I could just buy another fan from Dell and replace it but I'm ashamed to say I haven't gotten around to it yet...
posted by XMLicious at 9:32 PM on November 11, 2015

I had to buy a new power cord. I also bought one of those auxiliary fans with an under deck for my laptop because it overheated sitting in my lap.
posted by Oyéah at 11:16 PM on November 11, 2015

Oyéah reminds me, one other thing to be aware of is that some (all?) Dell laptops use power supply transformers/cords that have some kind of chip or other element in them that communicates with the computer. If the computer doesn't detect this signal, even if it's being supplied sufficient power to run it will refuse to charge the battery even when it's shut off and not using power for anything else. The wire or whatever it is that conveys this signal seems to be much more easily damaged than the conductors conveying the power itself, so in my experience it's very common to have a power supply that's worn from being yanked and twisted which still delivers the proper amount of electricity it always has, but the laptop's battery will not charge when connected with that power supply. (I cannot see how this is anything other than a scam.)

So if you do discover that the battery is dead all the time, before you buy a new battery just make sure that what's going on isn't that your power supply is damaged in this fashion; your battery might be perfectly fine and what you actually need is a new power supply. (You might need to find someone else who also has a Dell laptop and borrow their power supply to test whether it can charge your battery.)
posted by XMLicious at 4:55 AM on November 12, 2015

I had an old HP laptop that did exactly what yours does. It got to the point where it would shut itself down within a couple minutes of powering up. Out of frustration, I replaced it.

A couple years later, I opened it up out of curiosity. I could not believe the layers of packed lint and dust clogging the thing. I blew everything out with canned air (paying special attention to all the tiny channels and holes on the long heat sink connecting the processor to the outside world) and the problem went away. BAM, working computer.

Before this happened, I had no idea just how much crap could get inside a computer, or that it could affect operation that much. So, before running out and buying parts, I'd open it up and clear all the cruft out. Hopefully that's all it is.
posted by Opposite George at 6:48 AM on November 12, 2015

The this sounds like either overheating or having a failing power supply. After cleaning everything out and trying again if it doesn't work, swap in a known good power supply from another PC. IMO Overheating, or a few dead fans inside the case are more likely.

When your computer shuts off, does it immediately stop making noise? HDDs, Fans, all sounds stop quickly, and the only way to start it again is to switch it on and off at the back?
posted by shenkerism at 8:16 AM on November 12, 2015

Response by poster: The weird thing is.... the computer doesnt actually shut off... the MONITOR does. So the computer is still running, the cd tray will still open if I push the button, etc. It doesnt make any weird sounds or beeps. Just the monitor powers down and then that's it. Oh and also the keyboard shuts down too, because I can't, for example. turn CAPS lock on and off, or anything like that.

Also if I run it in Safe Mode, it's fine. I went into safe mode last night and let it run all night and it was still working this morning. But if i go into regular mode, it powers down after a few seconds. If it was the power supply, wouldn't it not work in any mode? I'm so confused.

I will clean out the insides when I get home tonight. I do not have any other desktops that I could swap out for parts, or use for testing etc.
posted by silverstatue at 10:35 AM on November 12, 2015

Windows XP? 7? If you can get in, the event log may be useful.
posted by theora55 at 4:48 PM on November 12, 2015

Response by poster: I'm sorry to say it's Windows Vista. It's embarrassing how obsolete this computer is! But I still love it. It's a great little computer when it's not imploding.
posted by silverstatue at 8:17 PM on November 12, 2015