Dell inspiron 531 shut off itself

[feelexit]

I bought this dell inspiron 531 about 2 yrs ago. Last nite, it shut off itself while I was surfing web. First I thought Maybe its virus. I reinstalled windows. it still shut off itself and it gets worse. Yesterday, at least I can see the windows logo shows up, sometimes, If i m lucky I can get into system for 5-10 mins before it shuts itself off.

but this morning, as soon as I turn it on, even before logo shows up, it just shut off.

I checked cpu fan, it still running. so probabl not cpu overheating caused this problem. Is this a power supply unit issue? I gonna order one from ebay, but before I buy it , what else I need to check?

thank you for your help.

I checked my cpu, I notice at the bottom of my cpu fan, thermal glue all dry out. coudl that be the problem? cpu fan still running .

 

[oldskool]

I bought this dell inspiron 531 about 2 yrs ago. Last nite, it shut off itself while I was surfing web. First I thought Maybe its virus. I reinstalled windows. it still shut off itself and it gets worse. Yesterday, at least I can see the windows logo shows up, sometimes, If i m lucky I can get into system for 5-10 mins before it shuts itself off.

but this morning, as soon as I turn it on, even before logo shows up, it just shut off.

I checked cpu fan, it still running. so probabl not cpu overheating caused this problem. Is this a power supply unit issue? I gonna order one from ebay, but before I buy it , what else I need to check?

thank you for your help.

I checked my cpu, I notice at the bottom of my cpu fan, thermal glue all dry out. coudl that be the problem? cpu fan still running .

You should reapply some thermal paste. You may need to clean it up before you reapply paste though.

You don't need much, don't over do it. Just enough to be cover the surface without any oozing off the sides. An overheating CPU could cause startup problems, yes.

Note: Here is a link on how to clean up and reapply thermal paste if you need it.

How To Correctly Apply Thermal Grease | Hardware Secrets

 

[Lexluethar]

Agree with oldskool, sounds like it is overheating so the reinstallation wasn't needed. Clean out all fans with a can of air. If that doesn't fix it reapply the thermal paste, but clean off the old paste before proceeding.

 

[feelexit]

Agree with oldskool, sounds like it is overheating so the reinstallation wasn't needed. Clean out all fans with a can of air. If that doesn't fix it reapply the thermal paste, but clean off the old paste before proceeding.

thanks for your help. got thermal compound today from microcenter, still not working, probably something wrong with power supply unit. gonna order one from ebay,hopefully that will fix it.