Inspiron 4150 random shutdown

johns13193

johns13193

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Well, it's near Philadelphia, PA
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Ok, I have an Inspiron 4150, that I got from someone I know because it was having this problem. What happens is I press the power button, and (depending on how long it has been since my last attempt at booting it) it tries to boot, but shuts down in the middle of the process. No warning at all. I've tried reformatting the HDD (partly since I hoped it'd fix it, and partly b/c i needed to since the person's stuff was on there) to no avail. I talked to Dell, and they say that it isn't software related, and I should send it in for repairs. Being that I don't want to do that, does anyone have any ideas?
 
4150, so i assume its out of warranty, now what part of the startup does it fail? Loading windows? During POST?
If its POST, check battery and power. Also see what the BIOS says. If battery and power seems good, check ram. Does things tend to stop a computer cold.
 
Does it get exceptionally hot near the out fans?
 
Sounds like a thermoconductance issue, but it could also be a capacitor made of FAIL. Are there any swollen capacitors on the mainboard? Have you tried taking off the CPU's heatsink? Is there a funny gel underneath? Also, try it with another power supply. Sometimes electrical spikes can fry the things and they act all funny.
 
It shuts down whenever it feels like, depending on how long it has been on. The farthest I got was into windows, for like 3 mins. I tried right after it died, and it only lasted a couple of seconds. During this, it doesn't get exceptionally hot, no more than my other laptop. I have taken off the CPU heatsink (and most of the stuff on top of the mobo for that matter) and I didn't find any odd gels, only the stock paste. I don't have any extra power supplies, and the battery also hates me (when i press the power level indicator, the lights come on like this: o x o x o, o being on x being off). I checked dell's site, and they don't seem to want me to buy one (can't find out how much it costs). A genuine (fingers crossed) one on ebay would run me about $25.
 
It sounds like an overheating issue. Can you get into the BIOS and see if it has a hardware monitor. It might tell you the CPU temperature there.
 
Nope, it's the standard crap Dell bios. Would adding some thermal grease to the cooler help at all?
 
Might as well try and see if it stays booted longer before shutting down.
 
Being that a desktop processor requires about a rice-grain-sized thing of grease, how much should i use for this?
 
Have you tried cleaning out the fan? No airflow = death.

Also take the ram out, check the contacts, and reseat it.
 
You need just enough to cover the chip slightly. No gobs of that but a thin layer.
 
No temp options in the shit dell bios, sadly.
 
So if you boot into the BIOS, will it shut down there too?
 
Yep. Even if i let it sit there, it'll still happen.
 
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