Mysterious computer shut down

[kingearl]

Hi.  I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop which is about four years old.  Recently it has started spontaneously shutting down on me without any prompting on my part.  The laptop is plugged in, so it's not a battery issue and the plug/outlet are fine.  I can restart the computer and everything appears to be ok, so I don't think there is a software issue.  Could it be my internal fan?  That is, the computer is getting too hot (the fan is awfully loud, but always has been) and just shuts itself off?  How bad is the problem, and how much longer do I have with this computer?

Thanks,

Kelly

[nalee]

That could be an issue, with the fan, make sure its seated correctly as well as the heatsinc, but normally what I've found is that if your fan is loud, alot of times its dirty and needs to be blown out.  Hopefully this will help.

[Broni]

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab (Vista: click Advanced system settings).
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.
4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.
5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

You may be able to see some error mesage.

Navigate to: C:\Windows\Minidump folder.
If you see any .dmp files, zip all of them, and attach zipped file to your next reply.

[kingearl]

I'm not exactly sure if I did this correctly, but attached please find the .dmp zip files.  Good luck, and thank you so much for your help, Broni!

Kelly

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Broni]

Did you follow the first part of my advice?

Unfortunately, your dmp files won't help, because they're old story. Two of them are from 2006, and the other one is from 2008.