Hi loungers –
First I’ll put my configuration on the table:
Dell Inspiron E1505 (yep – it’s 4 years old). 2GM RAM 120GB SATA HDD. Vista Ultimate SP1 (very highly maintained – all applicable updates through the end of May 2011).
About 10 days ago, my system started shutting down at random. Since it only happens when on battery power (and my battery is usually pretty well charged when the system shuts down) and never it never shuts down when on AC power, my inclination was to think it was related to the Vista power management settings for battery. I checked them and my power settings had not changed since I performed a clean install about 18 months ago. Since Inspiron batteries have power meters on them, I know that the battery charge was not at the specified critical level (10%) when the shutdown occurred. So today, in hopes that it would clean up the perceived power management issue, I upgraded to SP2.
The problem still exists – Vista shuts down my computer even though the battery is about 75% charged – no where near the 10% that I have set in the power management dialog.
Any hints, help, direction would be surely appreciated.