If your laptop creashes every time it reaches the Bios, the chances are you have a heat-related issue. Let our Helproom Editor explain.
QUESTION My Dell laptop keeps crashing. It reaches the Bios splash screen but falls over before Vista loads. It even crashes after a minute or two when in the Bios-configuration pages. I thought that it might be an overheating problem, but the fan is spinning. The power supply works fine on other Dell laptops, and I have tried the laptop with and without the battery. imaginarynumber
HELPROOM ANSWER This could still be a heat-related issue, particularly if the crash is happening after roughly the same amount of time. The fan may be spinning, but a build-up of dust could be obstructing airflow.
Clean any externally accessible vents and, if you're comfortable with doing so, take a look inside the laptop for any matted dust build-up around the heatsinks and vents. Sometimes a can of compressed air can be used to help shift stubborn build-up.
We don't know how old your Dell laptop is, but Inspiron models including the 1100, 1150, 5100 and 5150 may suffer from a known design fault that could cause the sort of symptoms you describe.
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Comments
Hugh066 said: Heat - where do you get that from
Michael Hunt said: the heat generated in the 10 seconds or less to get to the bios is minimal as the processor is not really being used that much hard drive is not being accessed at bios stage either in my opinion it is the mainboard at fault a small crack in the board that cant send data through normal paths the other issue can be the power input port if the power port is damaged then the power cord would be fine to use on other laptops but not ok on this laptopdefinitely not hard drive definitely not heat
The Laptop Centre said: It might be heat but very doubtful but it could also be Memory RAM or Hard disk drive HDD related