Random shutoff only when plugged in

[kuberdahal]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5577 gaming laptop. It has an i5 7th gen, gtx 1050, 8gb ram, 256 ssd, it is pretty decent for gaming. However, I've noticed that the laptop randomly shuts off ONLY when plugged in. It doesn't do so while on battery. So far it only shuts off when playing big games like gta or fortnite. I don't have a can of air to blow out the vent but I used a straw to do so and it didn't help. Any ideas?

 

[R0GG]

When plugged in, battery while charging would add some amount of heat to your system, that adds up with the heat coming out laptop components while gaming, could you monitor several temperatures of your system while gaming and laptop charging and spot the difference ?

Another parameter to take in consideration is that when your laptop is plugged in your it might switch automatically to " HIGH PERFORMANCE" power scheme (through some third party app), or within same power scheme would switch to plugged-in settings allowing higher clocks for the CPU which is good for gaming performance but adds a lot more heat to the system : check your laptop power scheme while unplugged and after you plug it in, in both cases go to advanced view of the power scheme and check different parameters for CPU, PCIe, CPU cooling ( make sure is active at least when plugged in), you could decrease the maximum performance of your CPU and/or lower it's lower limit so it could have lower clocks when not needed >> this is as a last resort)
Also check your laptop fan (or fans) is working (sound or visual check)
While charging and/or gaming you could help ventilating your laptop by keeping it above table level or better getting laptop cooling pad (metal ventilated ones are best), this will help cooling your laptop and increasing it's battery life span as well.

 

[kuberdahal]

When plugged in, battery while charging would add some amount of heat to your system, that adds up with the heat coming out laptop components while gaming, could you monitor several temperatures of your system temperatures while gaming and laptop charging and spot the difference ?

Another parameter to take in consideration is when your laptop is plugged in your laptop might switch automatically to " HIGH PERFORMANCE" power scheme, or even within same power scheme ( balanced) could allow higher clocks for the CPU which is good for gaming performance but adds a lot more heat to the system : check your laptop power scheme while unplugged and after you plugged in, in both cases go to advanced view of the power scheme and check different parameters for CPU, PCIe, CPU cooling ( make sure is active at least when plugged in), you could decrease the maximum performance of your CPU and/or lower it'ss lower limit so it could have lower clocks when not needed >> this is as a last resort)
Also check your laptop fan (or fans) is working (sound or visual check)
While charging and/or gaming you could help ventilating your laptop by keeping it above table level or better getting laptop cooling pad (metal ventilated ones are best), this will help cooling your laptop and decreasing increasing it's battery life span as well.

I noticed that the laptop turns off randomly in BIOS and diagnostics as well. I ran the diagnostics and it says there is nothing wrong. Could it be the hardware or the software?

 

[R0GG]

Now even when you have just the Bios screen it shuts off by itself ? while plugged or not ?
did you check whether your laptop fan is working?

 

[kuberdahal]

Now even when you have just the Bios screen it shuts off by itself ? while plugged or not ?
did you check whether your laptop fan is working?

Fan was working and it was plugged in. I realized that it is still under warranty, and after a three hour phone call I finally sent it for repair to Dell.

Thanks for the help though!

 

[R0GG]

That sounds like a plan, could be overheating or a defect in laptop power plug, battery or charging board, I forgot suggest to remove battery and run laptop on ac only, anyway good luck with your replacement lappy.

 

[lucaswyrm]

Why I Have A Feeling That Your Laptop Charger Has Extra Voltage Coming Trough It...

 

[kuberdahal]

Well, they ended up changing the motherboard. Could be anything I guess...

 

[R0GG]

Did they give you any detail about what component in the motherboard was defective? Good thing this happened while your laptop is still under warranty.