Laptop powers down

I have a laptop that a friend asked me to take a look at that powers down after a few seconds on on time. It started this after a power outage at their house. It is a Dell Inspiron B130.

I can go straight into the BIOS and a couple seconds later. It will power itself off. I'm pretty sure it's heat related but I don't know where to begin. I stuck it in the fridge (I know it not a good idea to store electronic equipment in a fridge for a few minutes once (I was just testing a theory as the laptop was no good anyway as it is). It stays on just a little longer. I'm thinking the fan for the cpu needs to spin all the time but it does not spin at all. The only noise I hear from the machine is from the hard drive I think. I would think it would stay on a little longer even though the fan is not working. Wondering if something else ain't fried?

 

since it is a laptop.. there is little you can really do.. I wouldn't recommended opening it.. but i guess if you have no warranty left on it, it can't really hurt. Dell laptops are a PITA to open.. (personal experience with my own dell) Try opening it and use compressed air and get any dust that is lurking in there out and try again.


Btw.. it is relatively easy to open it in the first place.. but as you can figure out.. there are so many screws and stuff to open it even more.. its just not worth it.


Also be very careful and consciousness of the fact that the keyboard is connected with a thin little flat ribbon and make sure you open it up slowly as not to sever that connection or else you have no more keyboard..

 

I did have this one open before to remove a broken power jack and resolder a new one in (about a 10 weeks ago). It didn't look particularly dusty. Yes a pain to get apart but not too bad.

 

ok.. so your a little farther ahead here than i am. I have to resolder my power jack on my dell inspiron 1525... tried to open it and im like im giving up i have to concentrate on my courses by CBT direct (going for my A+ certification).

and it is probably good just to try to use the compressed air anyways... depending where you have left your laptop.. dust can gather quickly in 10 weeks... that's my 2 cents anyways..

 

If you do not think the fan is spinning then this is probably the fault. Turn the laptop on and put it upside-down. See if you can see the fan spinning through the vent. If you do not hear the fan on start-up then it has probably failed.

It is relatively simple to replace the fan so do not despair.