Overheating message

[dreamsoul620 via HWKB.com]

Hi! I have a Dell Inspiron 600m with 512mb Ram and a 1.6Ghz Pentium M
processor. When the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I have trouble
booting the laptop. Even though I leave the laptop in a warm environment, I
still have to take it outside to go to my car and inside the office. It
works fine in the summer. When I press the power button, I hear a click and
the lights turn green for a split second before going dark. Normally, it
takes around 30 minutes before I can finally boot up. Upon booting, I
receive an error message stating that the unit has possibly overheated, press
F1 to continue. I have contacted Dell, but they told me it was something
wrong with the settings or that I needed to format. I can see nothing wrong
with the settings and formatting didn't help. Even if the air in the office
is too cool or the air in someone's car riding to work, I have the same
problem. This has happened for over a year now. If anyone has any ideas, I
would be very grateful. This is more of an annoyance than anything, but you
never know when I might need something immediately instead of 30 minutes
later.

Thanks.

 

[Paul]

Hi! I have a Dell Inspiron 600m with 512mb Ram and a 1.6Ghz Pentium M
processor. When the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I have trouble
booting the laptop. Even though I leave the laptop in a warm environment, I
still have to take it outside to go to my car and inside the office. It
works fine in the summer. When I press the power button, I hear a click and
the lights turn green for a split second before going dark. Normally, it
takes around 30 minutes before I can finally boot up. Upon booting, I
receive an error message stating that the unit has possibly overheated, press
F1 to continue. I have contacted Dell, but they told me it was something
wrong with the settings or that I needed to format. I can see nothing wrong
with the settings and formatting didn't help. Even if the air in the office
is too cool or the air in someone's car riding to work, I have the same
problem. This has happened for over a year now. If anyone has any ideas, I
would be very grateful. This is more of an annoyance than anything, but you
never know when I might need something immediately instead of 30 minutes
later.

Thanks.

--
To be the best, you have to first give up everything.

Message posted via HWKB.com
http://www.hwkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/pc-hardware/200610/1

Let's try a hypothetical situation. Say the fan is temperature
controlled. Say the computer is cool. The fan speed would normally
be pretty slow to start with. Now, some motherboards will shut down
if they detect a fan failure. Could it be that the fan is not
spinning when it is supposed to ? If the fan is dirty, and
the voltage sent to the fan is low, that might be enough to
prevent the fan from spinning.

There are such things as "cold boot" problems. But a computer
remains running and the screen stays dark if that happens.
Having a computer switch off, usually implies a smaller set of
root causes, and either overheat or a zero RPM fan are good
reasons for the computer to switch off so quick.

Dell's suggestions of "that I needed to format" is a load of
crap and is intended to prevent you from getting the service
you need. Someone in the Dell organization probably knows
how often those failure symptoms arise, and has heard it all
before. The question is, can you find someone in the company
who cares enough to help you.

Paul

 

[dreamsoul620 via HWKB.com]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've made certain all components are cleaned
well. That was one of my first thoughts. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only
one who thought that formatting was a bunch of bull. I'll keep calling and
pestering them while the warranty is still good.

Hi! I have a Dell Inspiron 600m with 512mb Ram and a 1.6Ghz Pentium M
processor. When the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I have trouble

[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]

Message posted via HWKB.com
http://www.hwkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/pc-hardware/200610/1

Let's try a hypothetical situation. Say the fan is temperature
controlled. Say the computer is cool. The fan speed would normally
be pretty slow to start with. Now, some motherboards will shut down
if they detect a fan failure. Could it be that the fan is not
spinning when it is supposed to ? If the fan is dirty, and
the voltage sent to the fan is low, that might be enough to
prevent the fan from spinning.

There are such things as "cold boot" problems. But a computer
remains running and the screen stays dark if that happens.
Having a computer switch off, usually implies a smaller set of
root causes, and either overheat or a zero RPM fan are good
reasons for the computer to switch off so quick.

Dell's suggestions of "that I needed to format" is a load of
crap and is intended to prevent you from getting the service
you need. Someone in the Dell organization probably knows
how often those failure symptoms arise, and has heard it all
before. The question is, can you find someone in the company
who cares enough to help you.

Paul

 

[q_q_anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've made certain all components are cleaned
well. That was one of my first thoughts. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only
one who thought that formatting was a bunch of bull. I'll keep calling and
pestering them while the warranty is still good.

2 points-

1
a friend with a Dell said they're quite lenient with customers opening
up and messing around. But, yuo're not supposed to. They might be able
to refuse to repair your comp if you do. Depending on the conditions of
your warranty.

call tech support, if they are not helpful then ask to speak to a
manager, go up levels. OR get a friend to call on your behalf.
The end goal is for them to collect the computer from you and fix it
and return it to you.

It won't be much work for a friend to explain it to Dell. Responding to
objections like "you need for format it". (you don't get as far as
attempting to boot off a cd or hdd - because it's overheating)..

2
On the other hand...
there are some more possibilities
you said
"When the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I have trouble
booting the laptop"
60F is 16C. Is this room temp you are talking about? That doesn't
sound that hot.
And if you have trouble when the temp drops below 60, that is strange.
If anything it'd stop working above "60", or above a high temperature.

Is it possible you are running your laptop on a chair, or a bed. Try
running it on a plank of wood.
Laptops have a hole somewhere, sometimes on the bottom, sometimes on
the side, sometimes both. Where they get or get rid of air. If that
hole is covered, they will overheat. Even in a cold room.
Many laptops blatantly overheat and can even brake , from consistently
being run on a bed or other thing that sinks slightly and blocks the
fan holes, or a surface that doesnt' get rid of the heat. A desk is
safe. Or the laptop on your knees such that the air holes are open,
not covered by your legs.

 

[dreamsoul620 via HWKB.com]

Dell recommended taking certain parts out to clean with an air duster.
Luckily, this was recorded in a chat session I had.

Sometimes it's room temperature and other times it's the outside temperature
(carrying to and from work). It never cuts off while I'm working, but only
after it's been shut down and I try to reboot. I only run this if I'm at my
desk or kitchen table (both hardwood surfaces). If the temperature is above
60 (even had to transport it in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning),
it runs like a charm. That's the confusing part to me.

 

[Vic Baron]

Dell recommended taking certain parts out to clean with an air duster.
Luckily, this was recorded in a chat session I had.

Sometimes it's room temperature and other times it's the outside
temperature
(carrying to and from work). It never cuts off while I'm working, but
only
after it's been shut down and I try to reboot. I only run this if I'm at
my
desk or kitchen table (both hardwood surfaces). If the temperature is
above
60 (even had to transport it in 100 degree weather with no air
conditioning),
it runs like a charm. That's the confusing part to me.



--
To be the best, you have to first give up everything.

Message posted via HWKB.com
http://www.hwkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/pc-hardware/200610/1

pmfji but I've seen this happen when there's a cold solder joint on a
component. Cooler air causes it to lose contact and bad things happen. This
was on much older products,can't say if newer production methods have
eliminated this. Either way, I'd keep after Dell - they should fix it under
warranty.

Vic

 

[beenthere]

Hi! I have a Dell Inspiron 600m with 512mb Ram and a 1.6Ghz Pentium M
processor. When the temperature drops below 60 degrees, I have trouble
booting the laptop. Even though I leave the laptop in a warm environment,
I
still have to take it outside to go to my car and inside the office. It
works fine in the summer. When I press the power button, I hear a click
and
the lights turn green for a split second before going dark. Normally, it
takes around 30 minutes before I can finally boot up. Upon booting, I
receive an error message stating that the unit has possibly overheated,
press
F1 to continue. I have contacted Dell, but they told me it was something
wrong with the settings or that I needed to format. I can see nothing
wrong
with the settings and formatting didn't help. Even if the air in the
office
is too cool or the air in someone's car riding to work, I have the same
problem. This has happened for over a year now. If anyone has any ideas,
I
would be very grateful. This is more of an annoyance than anything, but
you
never know when I might need something immediately instead of 30 minutes
later.

You`ve still got warranty ?. Yes, that`s good. Ring Dell
and ask them where they want it sent to, so they can fix it.
That`s what your warranty is all about.
Best wishes.

 

[q_q_anonymous]

Dell recommended taking certain parts out to clean with an air duster.
Luckily, this was recorded in a chat session I had.

Sometimes it's room temperature and other times it's the outside temperature
(carrying to and from work). It never cuts off while I'm working, but only
after it's been shut down and I try to reboot. I only run this if I'm at my
desk or kitchen table (both hardwood surfaces). If the temperature is above
60 (even had to transport it in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning),
it runs like a charm. That's the confusing part to me.

since your problem is so unusual, it'd be beneficial to have the
problem well documented/archived. Do post the solution from Dell..

In the meantime, you could do some detective work

When it doesn't work, open it up, power it up(so you'll get the error),
check if all the fans are working (spinning)..
- power supply fan (that's the fan in the unit at the top of the case)
- rear case fan (this is below the power supply unit)
- cpu fan (this is below the power supply unit)
- front case fan (this is at the bottom of the case. Though I doubt
this is the problem)

Paste here the exact text of the error message, grammar is important
too. So it is googlable. Because then
- we can google it and see if we can find the feature that is throwing
the error
- others can google it and get your post

this "forum" is actually a newsgroup, part of usenet. It is accessible
through www.google.com/groups the newsgroup is called
alt.comp.hardware
all posts are archived nicely and contains lots of useful googlable
information. You might prefer to post through google, than to post
through
HWKB are a front, pretending something is theirs when it isn't !! They
don't even show you the newsgroup name. But there it is
alt.comp.hardware

 

[amc]

this is a bizarre problem. though i highly doubt this is what is wrong
with your laptop...warm electronics + cold environment (or vice versa)
= condensation. if the laptop is transfered from a cold env to a warm
one, it will get water on it from the air and temperature change.
trying to boot the laptop while there is condensation (water droplets)
on/in it will cause it to fail. to prevent this from happening to my
camera and possibly damaging the parts, i put it in a large zip-lock
bag when going from one temperature to another (such as my house to
outside in winter and vice versa). when the camera becomes the same
temperature as the environment, i can remove it from the bag with no
condensation forming on it. this is no solution to your problem, but
something to keep in mind. besides, where would you find a ziplock bag
large enough to fit a laptop into? it sounds more like a hardware
problem, perhaps the computer is simply faulty. one of my friends
experienced a faulty laptop and printer from dell and went through
hours and hours of customer service only to find it was something wrong
with the printer and laptop themselves. he gave up, sold his laptop,
and bought an iBook.