My Laptop, my heatsink, my fan, and me!

[Vondie]

haha, getting irritated. Have a DELL 8600 inspiron. I probably havn't treated it very well - basically it's been running for 3 years straight. A month or so ago it started freezing up - sometimes shortly after it booted, sometimes during the boot process. I wasn't so concerned until it froze when I booted it in safe mode. so i started by replacing the 15 dollar fan....then someone suggested I add some heat sink grease. before i put the grease on it, it ran for a while with the keyboard removed - no freezing. Then I put the keyboard back overtop and it froze. So i put on the heat sink grease. No luck.

Any suggestions? is the processor fried? is it worth throwing another 30-50 dollars at it for a new processor?

Thanks for your help!

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Was it the vent fan you replaced? Sounds like a heat issue. If you can get it to post with the keyboard off the processor is still OK. So I'm sure you made sure and blow all the dust out of it. Also if you plug the keyboard in and leave it out of the way like up off the laptop a little for air to get in will it still freeze up. If so it may be something wrong with the keyboard.