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March 21st, 2024 20:01
M6800 Freezes
Folks, having a problem with my M6800. I've run HW diagnostics, everything is fine. It's not the O/S, I'm running Windows 10 and there is nothing in the event viewer except "the previous shutdown was unexpected". I do have a message in the BIOS error log - LED CPU-Flash-On-On. I also occasionally get a couple lights when booting back up.
*) Machine freezes - mouse pointer will not move, keyboard unresponsive
*) Hold the power button
*) Screen goes blank
*) Disk light, battery light, wireless light flash, fan goes on high speed and nothing
*) Occasionally The Disk light blinks steadily every second, Battery light is on & the wireless light is on (bluetooth & caps lock are off)
*) If the above doesn't happen the machine comes back up
*) If the above happens, I press the power button again (3rd time) and the machine comes up
It's like someone removed the connection to hard drive, ripped the processor out or ripped the memory out while I was typing away. Whatever is on the screen stays forever, no messages, nothing in the event viewer - nothing.
There is no set amount of time the thing stays up. The machine has been up long enough for me to create my ID & type this. Sometimes I'll open a spread sheet and it freezes.
Does anyone know of a way to run continuous diagnostics?
Thanks folks
EllsworthT
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June 29th, 2024 20:26
I am on my third Dell Precision M6800 (running Windows 7 Professional), and all three laptops exhibited this same behavior after approximately six months of heavy usage.
Another problem I encountered on all three was that the laptop suddenly became very, very sluggish (even while Windows Resource Monitor showed plenty of available RAM, low CPU-usage, and low disk activity). Hard reboots didn't help. The machine just stayed slow until it started working normally again! (No, the laptop didn't feel hot and the vents weren't blocked.)
Here's what I found worked best (after lots of troubleshooting):
1. Unplug the laptop from the AC/DC adapter (yes, I read and tried all the Windows Power Option settings--nothing worked better than just keeping the laptop unplugged).
2. Avoid resting your palm/wrist in the area to the left of the trackpad and do not handle the laptop from the left back edge (at the computer/display hinge).
I've heard about disabling Intel's SpeedStep (in BIOS and/or the drivers), but I've had mixed results.