Strange autoshutdown!

gabe22 · 22 May 2015

Hi

My laptop Dell Studio XPS L502x i7 with following config:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64b (WEI Rating: 5.7)
Ram 8GB
Nvidia GeForce GT 540M
WD HDD 500GB
WD Portable 1TB

Here is whats happening ...
My system keeps auto shutting down without any errors or anything, specially when running games such as: DOTA2 or RIFT, this just started today.
(I have been playing DOTA2 on this system overs years and this never happened before and RIFT is rather recent, been playing for a month and so far .. no issues ... until now)

My systems battery got expired and here in my country original dell battery isn't available so I had to get a non-brand battery, probably Chinese version(I'm just mentioning this because this issue started today and I got the battery yesterday, although lastnight system performed just fine) but anyway, could this be cause of this issue?

Or Could this be overheating causing system to shutdown on its own as for the last couple of days temparature here has been usually high.

After the 2nd restart I checked the dell "Support Assistant" formally known as "My Dell" ... it logs system errors, here is the screenshot from the dell SA tool and also I have attached the WER report VLC crash file.
(Note: I tried to attach the .wer file directly but the upload system won't accept it so I added it in a zip file)

I'm no techie but seems like Dell SA(support assistant) tool is pointing figures at vlc but strange thing is ... after 2nd shutdown, on next run .. I didn't even open VLC player, I just ran the game and it auto shutdown after like 10minutes or so ..

Please advise how to fix.
Many thanks!

GokAy · 22 May 2015

Most (?) laptops can run without a battery when plugged in to AC. So you may remove the battery (shutdown laptop first!) and try if it will run. Run like this until you are confident that the new battery is problematic or you get another shutdown.

Everything is Chinese these days, maybe even your old battery

RyanWilliams · 22 May 2015

First thing i would do is to monitor my temps to see if its heat related.

gabe22 · 22 May 2015

Thing is .... the temp is high but it was about the same yesterday before this new battery and the errors log from dell SA doesn't implicate those, this is just my assumption based on very little knowledge I have on this.

@ GokAy : I'm gonna try that.

gabe22 · 22 May 2015

I took the battery out and ran on direct power, ran dota2 to test and... still the same, system auto shutdown after like 10minutes.

So I suppose battery probably isn't the issue, its something else .. just guessing on the facts though.
Also attached speecy screenshot of system temperature

Oh and also running the system again after autoshutdown without battery, I checked dell SA tool and it suggested same VLC ... blah blah blah(I don't understand those really), only thing I understood is that its probably saying vlc exe caused the issue but I could be wrong, ideas?

PeaB4YouGo · 22 May 2015

82° at the CPU and 84° at the motherboard are sure indicators that you sys is probably overheating. Considering this is a laptop, be sure to clean all of the vents openings around the base and edges of the case. I use a small vacuum when doing this type of thing.

Something like this may do the trick to bring those temps down after cleaning it good.

NOTE: Do not use compressed air to blow out the vent openings. It will drive dust up into the system and make things worse.

gabe22 · 22 May 2015

I already have a logitech cooling pad(purchased this along with this dell system), this one: Logitech N100 Cooling Pad (Wit) - Prijzen - Tweakers ... but honestly though so far and even now its doesn't seem to do much, I mean I have ran the system for days with pad and without pad ... it only makes a little difference maybe 4-6 temp ... and only when running games.
And I'll try a dust cleanup tomorrow.

Also something I forgot to mention about heat this dell model seems to overheat rather usually or perhaps its overheating is usual for this model, anyway I'm gonna try what you suggested but I'm still wondering could this be the doing of a faulty dll or some update or maybe some program causing this?

I'm just wondering cause although the temp is rather high but I have seen my system temp going over 120 a while back ... had lots of dust and after cleanign dust temp came down to around 60 but still freezing issue was there, after some research, found that a recent dell update caused my system to freeze every 2sec, had to uninstall to fix.

BTW I don't know if it will help but here is the latest auto shutodwn(took place like 2mins ago) XML log from even viewer event id "6008" (Unexpected Shut Downs)

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />

<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6008</EventID>

<Level>2</Level>

<Task>0</Task>

<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-05-22T13:04:37.000000000Z" />

<EventRecordID>577691</EventRecordID>

<Channel>System</Channel>

<Computer>MARUF-PC</Computer>

<Security />

</System>

- <EventData>
<Data>7:02:37 PM</Data>

<Data>‎22/‎5/‎2015</Data>

<Data />

<Data />

<Data>11826</Data>

<Data />

<Data />

<Binary>DF070500050016001300020025005500DF070500050016000D00020025005500600900003C000000010000006009 000000000000B00400000100000000000000</Binary>

</EventData>

</Event>

gabe22 · 22 May 2015

anyone know if it could be a software related issue or a faulty hardware maybe? anyway to test?

GokAy · 22 May 2015

Maybe you can check the hardware by booting into a live Linux distribution. I guess they have benchmarks too, try running some. If you can find a temperature reader, keep an eye out for the readings.

Sorry can't help with the software for Linux as I have almost no experience with it.

Callender · 22 May 2015

Wondering if you've got VLC options in your right click menu when you click on a media file - it would show something like "Play with VLC"

That means it a shell extension integrated with Explorer and if it's buggy or out of date I supposr that it's a possible cause.

Try checking for updates for VLC and try clean installing VLC too - as it's free. Well personally I ditched VLC so don't have it on my system at the moment. If you remove it there's options to remove preferences and cache. Just try to remove everything and then reboot, run Cccleaner, reinstall VLC. Don't add the web plugin unless you really need it.

I don't remember what the install options for right click explorer menu integration are but try avoiding that option if you spot it.