My Kids' Inspiron 1000 Overheats and Dies...

Bought it a year ago for my kids ($700 TV special). They use it a lot, but
it overheats and flops out every couple of hours. Is there something I can
do to fix this? I'm not very computer savvy, so any simple solutions would
be greatly appreciated.

Happy new year.

The Hanrahans <> wrote:

> Bought it a year ago for my kids ($700 TV special). They use it a lot, but
> it overheats and flops out every couple of hours. Is there something I can
> do to fix this? I'm not very computer savvy, so any simple solutions would
> be greatly appreciated.

?? Under Windows, no less? I thought these things never happened
under Windows.

Check Dell's website and see if they have downloadable BIOS upgrades.
If they have a BIOS more recent than in your model, that may be
your solution. Can't help you much with the details, though.

--
pa at panix dot com

"The Hanrahans" <> wrote in message
news:OUiBd.16984$152.5726@trndny01...
>
> Bought it a year ago for my kids ($700 TV special). They use it a lot, but
> it overheats and flops out every couple of hours. Is there something I can
> do to fix this? I'm not very computer savvy, so any simple solutions would
> be greatly appreciated.
>
> Happy new year.
>
>

You might try the newsgroup alt.sys.pc-clone.dell and post your Dell
questions there. There are a lot of helpful people on that group.

Lee

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 20:46:38 GMT, "The Hanrahans"
<> wrote:

>
>Bought it a year ago for my kids ($700 TV special). They use it a lot, but
>it overheats and flops out every couple of hours. Is there something I can
>do to fix this? I'm not very computer savvy, so any simple solutions would
>be greatly appreciated.


Super-stupid question: Does the fan come on at all?

Yes, the fan comes on quite a lot.

"bobb" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 20:46:38 GMT, "The Hanrahans"
> <> wrote:
>
> >
> >Bought it a year ago for my kids ($700 TV special). They use it a lot,
but
> >it overheats and flops out every couple of hours. Is there something I
can
> >do to fix this? I'm not very computer savvy, so any simple solutions
would
> >be greatly appreciated.
>
>
> Super-stupid question: Does the fan come on at all?
>

On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 15:52:34 GMT, "The Hanrahans"
<> wrote:

>Yes, the fan comes on quite a lot.


OK, at least we know now the fan is not broken.

Reset bios to factory and reconfigure and see what happens. Be sure it
says Power Management=ON. Go to the Dell's specific forum and ask for
help there if you are unsure how to go about this. Dell has one 1
year warranty?

The vents may have become choked with dirt, use some compressed air on
them but the best way is to dissasemble the unit and clean, but that's
dissassembly typically is not for the faint of heart.

Ur kids know not to use the notebook on any soft surface (ie. bed)
without some sort of rigid pad right?

I have had a Inspiron 1000 for about a year now. It does get warm if
you block
any vents or fan exhaust. My thought is the computer is shutting down
because of this overheating. As long as you here the fan working it
should cool ok.
Are you aware that the fan does have two speeds. The higher fan speed
will kick
in if the cpu gets really warm. I would check with Dell especially if
its still
in warranty. Maybe you have a loose heatsink for the cpu which may
cause the
cpu to shut down. It would be expensive to have to replace CPU if you
fry it!
bobb wrote:
> On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 15:52:34 GMT, "The Hanrahans"
> <> wrote:
>
> >Yes, the fan comes on quite a lot.
>
>
> OK, at least we know now the fan is not broken.
>
> Reset bios to factory and reconfigure and see what happens. Be sure
it
> says Power Management=ON. Go to the Dell's specific forum and ask for
> help there if you are unsure how to go about this. Dell has one 1
> year warranty?
>
> The vents may have become choked with dirt, use some compressed air
on
> them but the best way is to dissasemble the unit and clean, but
that's
> dissassembly typically is not for the faint of heart.
>
> Ur kids know not to use the notebook on any soft surface (ie. bed)
> without some sort of rigid pad right?