Dell Inspiron Fan Malfunction

My laptop stopped booting this morning, and when I tried to boot it in safe mode, it worked - once. After that it wouldn't boot again. Safe mode, diagnostic mode, nothing.

Symptoms - the Windows splash screen appears, then it goes black and the hard drive light is lit, but nothing happens. When I pull the power plug, it shuts down as if there is no battery, or the battery is dead. I should mention that when I got up there was the blue screen with the memory dump message on it - that's when I couldn't boot.

Finally, while playing with different safe modes to boot, I saw a message that said something to the effect that the processor fan is inoperative or not functioning. And I am thinking that maybe something has overheated.

Obviously I need to have the fan looked at, but because I am here in South America, and Spanish is not my first language, I'd like to have a clue what to say to the guys when I find a decent pc repair place. So - are my symptoms consistent with fan failure? Would more bad stuff have happened internally before this took place - in other words, not worth fixing the fan? Any ideas on how to tell?

Dell Inspiron 2600
Running Win XP Home SP2
I could try to get more specs from the Dell site, since I can't obviously check the system...if it would help.

Any assitance would be appreciated!
Alisen

 

I suggest reinstalling windows, but you'd lose all your data!
Also, one of your memory sticks may be fried, try taking one or the other out by popping out the rear plate on the laptop and BEING CAREFUL remove one or the other sticks

 

I must have missed something. Since when is ram, or Windows related to an inoperative CPU fan?



To the original poster. Call Dell and see if they have an authorized repair center there. Maybe they can explain the problem to them beforehand.

 

It has to do with the gyroscopes.

 

Adrynalyne,
Thank you for your response. They fixed the laptop, and told me that it had to do with the power supply, but then when my husband picked it up, they told him the laptop had been dropped. Go figure. Anyhow, it's working, so thanks. By the way, no dell service (authorized) that I could find here. But then, everyone claims to be authorized...to do anything

Thanks again,
Alisen