[mfarre03]

So a friend from work gave me his computer to work on, he said he had problems with it staying on and figured it needed everything reinstalled....so I brought it home and it won't stay on for more then a few seconds, everything seems to start up and then bam nothing. I figure he may have a PSU problem but maybe its a thermal problem? Would the cpu overheat that fast? If I do decide to replace the PSU what ones do I have to choose from? I had heard that Dells are proprietary.

Earthwatt 500?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

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A CPU would shut off that fast if the cooler was not attached to it. The CPU has very little mass and will heat up very quickly. If it was dropped or hit very hard that might loosen the cooler. It's certainly easy enough to check that out. As for the PSU, some Dells are proprietary and some are not. On some models Dell actually gives the pinouts for the PSU and you can switch the pins on a stock supply. I think Google will be your friend on the PSU.

[Tyger]

A CPU would shut off that fast if the cooler was not attached to it. The CPU has very little mass and will heat up very quickly. If it was dropped or hit very hard that might loosen the cooler. It's certainly easy enough to check that out. As for the PSU, some Dells are proprietary and some are not. On some models Dell actually gives the pinouts for the PSU and you can switch the pins on a stock supply. I think Google will be your friend on the PSU.

[mfarre03]

I talked to him today and said that whe they were first having problems that they saw something about a Thermal warning. They blew out the heatsink and cleaned the computer, so maybe they jarred the heatsink. I have some artic silver that I am going to try on there.

If after the heatsink is reseated and there still is no change do you think the CPU could have fried? Would that keep the system from turning on after a few seconds?

Thanks,
Mike

[Tyger]

In a case like that where it shuts down quickly nearly anything can be the problem and the difficulty lies in narrowing it down to one thing. But the thermal warning would focus it on the cooler. You don't need much arctic silver on the cooler, just enough to spread a very thin layer. The main thing is that the cooler/CPU surfaces be matched up evenly.