I'm just guessing here, but could these problems be heat related?  Toshiba notebooks with a desktop CPU have the same problems.  You put a desktop CPU in a notebook, it has to run hot.

I have the same problem. And i am sure that this is heat problem. Because when you play the game the computer gets hot and turned off. Now what i have learned is that if the fan is running and you start  the game then the computer will not shut down, but if the fan is turned off and you start the game then the computer instead of turning on the fan turn itself off.

You can easily check this in your laptop. When you are playing the game and your laptop turns off, turn it on instantly and let it boot, fan will run for about 2-3 mins because the computer was hot when turned off, now start the game again and make sure you do this before the fan turn off. Now the game will not turn off.

Other thing which is very strange is that CPU runs at 100% even if you run a very old game. I tried a very old game and how old was this you can imagine that it was designed on a 12mhz 286 computer yes its 12MHZ. Even running this game turns the computer OFF and reason is that the cpu runs at 100% and gets hot.

 

 

 

Don't know about the shutdown problem yet... my 250N hasn't experienced them yet, and hope never would.

 

But I can attest that fan is on very often. Especially when playing games. Sometimes even the task of surfing or word proc would turn it on.
But guess it's not too out of line, since the regular desktop CPU's fans are on CONSTANTLY anyhow...

 

I have tried fangui but it does not appear to be compatible with the Smarstep line. I'm not sure how hard it would be to program the changes, but as it stands fangui will not even recognize that the smartstep has fans.

I sent the computer to dell for repair. not only did they not find or fix the (presumably) overheating problem, but now the floppy drive doesn't work. Perhaps I'm being punished by them for some reason? It is very ironic. They said they "ran the system overnight" and nothing crashed. I don't doubt this, but it makes me suspect they didn't try very hard to tax the unit. The other option there is that the hard drive is the problem (they can overheat too), since didn't send it to them.

I have not been able to replicate the problem in laboratory conditions... ie the dell diagnostics program that ships on cd. However, when I use this program the fan seems to stay on for the duration of the tests. Perhaps this means that there is a problem with the windows driver that controls the fan? If so I hope Dell will look into posting a fix. The system isn't overheating per se, because with pentium 4's you won't get a sudden off but rather a slowing and then a freeze. It seems more likely that the temperature sensor is reporting a high value (valid or not), and thus instructing the motherboard to turn off the computer.

Nonetheless, the symptoms certainly point to overheating, and when the system shuts off, to the best of my knowledge the fan is not running. I certainly would appreciate a way to get data on either the temperature of my cpu or the fan speeds... motherboard monitor doesn't seem to work, if it did I could figure out exactly what's going on at the time of shutdown. If anyone knows how to do this it'd be really helpful. Thanks. I hope we can figure this out.

So if it is true that the 250N's shutdown because of heat (I'm still not completely certain.  You'd think Dell would have known this would happen), do you think Fangui would fix this problem?  I know you probably wouldn't want to run Fangui all the time, but at least during a game it might do the trick.

I ve got the same problem with my smartstep 250, it restarts sometime with apparently no reason. It could be when running game or IE6, immediatly when turning on or 10 hours later.

I read something interesting in a post, I will try to test if it shut down when the fans are running at the start of a game (This game could be a laboratory test because it always shuts down at the same moment in the game).

I keep you informed but I thing dell doesn t do anything to fix that.

 

SMARTSTEP 250N - XP Home Edition (French)

Paris - France

You might say I'm using you guys a guinea pigs.  I like the performance of the 8200, but there is too much added junk on it and the 4150 for my needs.  That leaves me with the SmartStep.  I like the design, I like the simplicity and it just rubs me the right way.  I really don't see price as the issue since there really isn't that much price difference between it and a similarly equipped 8200.  If they would stick a 32M Geforce 4 440 in the SmartStep, it would be perfect.  I have seen several discussions along this line and have followed them closely.  I have questioned the heat issue for one simple reason...desktop CPUs will not shut down immediately if they start to get hot.  Before shut down, did you notice the computer getting slower and slower until it just locked up?  This is how heat issues show up on the desktop processor (by design and personal experience).  As far as simple games are concerned, most DOS based programs will run the CPU at 100%, even your screen saver does.  I don't have Fangui on my desktop computers, but I do have a utility supplied by the manufacturer of my motherboards that shows fan speed and various temperatures  and my computers get hotter during a reboot than they do during an hour of UT2003.  Some people in these posts have stated driver issues and I tend to follow this line of thinking.  Driver issues or other compatibility issues will cause an immediate crash and subsequent reboots.  One person guaranties a reboot when he wins at Spider Solitaire.  Anyway heat issue or driver issue, it needs to be addressed and fixed.

Dell now believes that my shutdown problem is a "cold solder joint" in the motherboard. System is going back, I will let you know if this fixes it.

I know what a cold solder joint is...I've made a few myself.  I'm curious how they could arrive at that conclusion.  A cold solder joint would have to be associated with a particular component.  I don't see how they could isolate it that well using results from the diagnostic program supplied with the computer or otherwise over the phone unless it is a know production issue.  Keep us posted.

Message Edited by Never_Grew_up on 12-19-2002 08:44 AM

Any update to the shutdown issues?

I have a SmartStep 200N but have yet to see this behavior, although I do get the "video driver infinite loop" error sporadically (or 100% reliably if I'm about to win spider solitaire).

A couple of questions about sudden SmartStep shutdowns to anyone who can answer:

* Does battery vs. AC seem to make any difference?
* Does the problem ever occurred when not running windows?
* Does the problem occur when not using the modem?

Reading over the SmartStep shutdown posts it occurs to me that far more 250N owners are reporting this problem than 200N owners. Anyone know if Dell sells more 250Ns than 200Ns? If that's not the case, and if the 200/250 drivers are the same, then elimination would lead us to 200N/250N differences which seem to be:
* Memory (256 m vs. 512 m, 1 module vs. 2 modules)
* Hard drive (40G vs. 60G)
* Display (XGA vs. Super XGA+ - but I assume the same video drivers)
* CPU (2 GHz vs. 2.4 GHz)
* Optical (DVD vs. DVD/CDRW)

I miss anything? Hardware design wise, only the use of 1 vs. 2 memory modules or the faster and (I presume) hotter CPU seem to be likely candidates for a single source failure.

Back to elimination, anyone here running 2 (preferably 256 mb Dell) memory modules on a 200N and having sudden shutdown problems?

I've made quite a few assumptions above, but I'm hoping to find some common thread. Of course, perhaps more 250N owners use the forum than 200N owners.

I welcome your comments and/or suggestions.

Thanks - Don