Question Laptop switches off abruptly when running on battery ?

Tonsai

Honorable
Apr 25, 2016
9
0
10,510
Hi! I tried to fix it, but i see i need help.

I bought a refurbed laptop that i have started properly using today, and turns out it switches off abruptly (as if someone would has pulled the plug from a desktop) randomly and unexpectedly when on battery. Battery indicator at that moment can show anything from 60 to 98%. It refuses to start again while on battery, but if I plug the electricity cable in then i can start it. It has not switched off with AC adapter plugged in.

It's a Dell XPS 15 9560. The fans werent sounding much before switching off, and I generally doubt it is overheating. I do suspect battery or software. Twice it died when i was in video editor. No idea what driver problem could be there. Dell's power manager that I ran shows that battery health is excellent. I tried to run basic BIOS diagnostics and it showed that hardware had no problems. No issues at Device Manager.

I tried to reset BIOS to default, problem remained. Since I also have encountered two BSOD in last two days, the first being CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED (mostly hardware malfunction or driver issue) and the seond UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION (mostly driver issue), I am also thinking if it could be something with the software. I cant find any issues though.

I could send the laptop back where I bought it, but I really need it for work. I am already behind. To add insult to injury it is nearly impossible for me to find a laptop that has specs I need here in Sweden. Should I try to reinstall Windows again? I dont know what else I could potentially do.

And, would it be completely stupid to keep this laptop and use AC power when doing critical work? The abrupt switching off must be damaging for the laptop thou. Would it lead to further damage if unsolved? Any ideas what I could do? I would love to be able to keep this laptop.
 

Tonsai

Honorable
Apr 25, 2016
9
0
10,510
More info.
I ran the Diagnostics from BIOS (by pressing F12), no issues. Battery health 96%, manufacturing date 6/4/2021. Also ran battery check from cmd. It returned design capacity 96,991 mWh, full charge capacity 94,073 mWh, Connected standby not supported (dunno what it is), but battery seems ok.

I do notice that if i simply browse it doesnt switch off (yet) - but i dont need a laptop for browsing. Two of the switching off events happened when i was in my video editor, exporting a vid. I googled this, and folks write it could be CPU or MB overheating, - but then it does NOT happen if i am on AC power, and therefore it doesnt look like overheating.

I tried to check the reliability report. Now, I dont know what most of it means; when DaVinci (video editor) stopped working, every time the problem event name was BEX64, and fault module ntdll.dll

What can I do?
Would reinstalling Windows help? What else?