I would try some hardware testing as smorizio suggested. As for further diagnosing software issues via Event viewer I will provide a link to a useful post regarding that.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html
I would make note of the time when next your system crashes. And check the Event Viewer to see if there are any non bsod errors etc. might find some answers there.
May also want to boot into safemode and run a malware scan such as malwarebytes.
You should be able to visit the support site for dell and type in your Service Tag number and retrieve that information. Link below.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04?c=us&s=bsd&cs=4&l=en
seems you also have a problem with your space bar. Laptops will dim by default when not using the supplied power adapter. You can change those settings in the power options
I had already guessed it was the motherboard sir. I guess I was looking for a more specific answer as to what exactly was clicking. as i could not put my finger on it (or my ear). Not a big concern just something I had not come across before.
Thanks for responding Brett. If you read my post you would see that I took powered a motherboard with nothing but the power board and motherboard. There were no components connected to the motherboard.
You could try powering down the machine and unplugging it from the wall for a short time. Sometimes this will "reset" your usb connections and cause them to work.
I would buy a replacement. If you spill juice or "tap" water on your electronics its best to rinse clean with distilled water and then leave to dry. Regular water will corrode electronic connections.
what do you see when you access the playback devices?
assuming you are using a windows product you can easily access this buy right clicking the speaker icon on your taskbar and select "Playback devices"
Have you considered using a cloud service for your backup needs? From the sound of it you do not have a lot of data you want to back up. I would recommend using google drive or skydrive as they are free services and give you a great backup option.
I have an Acer 4720-4721 that has been lying around for a while. I recently decided to repair it as it was given to me broken and i never really had any immediate plans to fix it.
The initial symptoms were that the machine simply would not power on. No lights nothing. Upon further...