Dell Laptop Starts when it wants to

[boiler80027]

I have a Dell Inspiron B130, the other day it froze and I could only turn it off manually by holding the power button. I then tried to restart it and all I got were two indicator lights and nothing else. So I took out the battery and left it unplugged overnight. The next day I conected the AC adapter and it started right up and had no problems. After about 5 min of being up and running it froze again, same problem.

I took it to a friends house and while we were there it froze, we let it sit for 10 min, then started up with no problems. This time we had about 5 programs running, listening to music and running a movie. We noticed the fan was running and it wasn't running before.

My Question, is it just a fan problem since it will work fine but not when it gets hot? Should I replace the fan or just clean it? I've done some research and to get to the fan you have to take the whole thing apart so cleaning may be harder than expected. I've had the computer for about a year too.

[TT4Titans]

the fan is regulated by the BIOS if a certain temp is detected it kicks it on.

How much memory do you have?

The reason i ask this is 128 is minumum which that means it will run windows XP but will be slow.256 a little better but don't add much extras will effect it.recommended 512 to get performance and be able to add apps and it run fairly smooth.suggested 1 gig most problems solved.

also go to start - run - type msconfig.

Now in there shut down what you don't need running at start up.like Quick time,word,media player,msn & yahoo messenger and such.

http://homecomputerrepaironline.com/startlist/html/startlist_c.html

[boiler80027]

I got a 1 gig or ram + 80 gig hard drive.

I don't really have problems starting up its just sometimes the fan works and sometimes it doesn't. Should I just replace the fan or clean it?

Thanks for the info on cleaning up the start up, sounds like something I need to do anyways.

[TT4Titans]

Well freezing is normally due to CPU overheating or hardware filure.clean it but if it doesn't run like it should you need to replace it.

[lasher511]

This time we had about 5 programs running, listening to music and running a movie.

Can i ask why you would listen to music and watch a movie at the same time? Seems a bit silly to me.....

It really all depends on how computer savy u feel as to what you do to fix the problem. you can either clean the fan like you suggested or you could just get a can of compressed air and clean it as best you can without having to open it up.

The other option is that it may still be under warunty especially if it is only about a year old. If it is still covered then i would suggest doing this before you go opening it and cleaning it out as this could void your coverage.

[boiler80027]

Can i ask why you would listen to music and watch a movie at the same time? Seems a bit silly to me.....

We were testing the ability of the machine. My friend was thinking it could be the hard drive but since it could handle all the activites, including watching a movie and listening to music we were sure it wasn't the hard drive.

thanks everyone for the advice

[DellOutreach]

I’m with Dell's Online community outreach team offering support via forums and blogs. It sounds like you've narrowed it down to a thermal issue but if you still want to rule out other components you can always run diagnostics. As far as the fan goes, if it is still spinning then it isn’t likely that it needs to be replaced. I would try blasting it with canned air like someone else suggested and if there's still a problem then I would go inside it to give it a better cleaning. If you have any questions or would like my help feel free to contact me.

Neil
Dell, Inc.
[e-mail]