did you also inspect the heat sink that the fan blows into. sometimes the
blades of the heatsink become covered by a layer of dust and debris (cat
hair a common culprit) and so even if the fan is running it is rendered
useless as it is blocked from blowing air across the heat sink.
bay wolf's images of your model show that it does have the type of heat sink
that i am thinkig about...
www.bay-wolf.com/8500video.htm
and these picture of mine from cleaning a fan in an inspiron 9100/xps (this
model actually has two fans - and this example had experianced random
reboots - all it needed was to be throughly cleaned).
ftp://postner.com/ebay/dell9100as.jpg
ftp://postner.com/ebay/dell9100bs.jpg
ftp://postner.com/ebay/dell9100cs.jpg
"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Christopher,
>
> The fan is running correctly as far as I can tell, and when I opened it up
> to give it a clean it appeared to be fine with very little dust on it.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>
> "Christopher Muto" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> sounds like your system may be overheating and that make the fan suspect.
>> the fan could have failed or it could just be dirty. the fan should spin
>> up to full speed when you first power on the system and then slow or turn
>> off if not needed as a test and to let you know that it is working. you
>> are throughly clean the fan by removing it as follows...
>> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...an.htm#1000550
>>
>>
>> "Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
>> news:46bc6689$...
>>>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine
>>>up until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am
>>>using it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't
>>>changed. Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram,
>>>is there a usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error
>>>reporting brought it up as a device driver problem
>>>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>>>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>>>greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Robert
>>>
>>
>>
>
>