My Dell laptop will not boot. It begins as normal but about 3/4 of the way through the start-up process, it shuts back down. I heard that it could be a fan problem, has anyone heard of this before or had this type of problem?It could be a lot of things but none of them good. Is it still under warranty? If so, call them at once. How about some details on the machine, it's age, and what preceeded this?Will get info on the machine tonight, it is at HOME. Nothing preceeded this it was working fine until I tried ONE day and nothing but partial start and then shut down. It seems to make it to the same point EVERY time and I'm guessing about 3/4 of the way through the start process then everything just shuts down like I never hit start.
The reason I asked about the fan is because a friend of mine said he heard on a television forum today a person called in with the same problem and he was TOLD it was the fan. Hard to believe isnt it, no way it gets HOT that fast is there? Or does it look for a fan run status, I wouldnt think so?
It is not a new machine so no warranty.Laptops do heat up and there are fans in there. Unfortunately Dell has no way to monitor system temps in a laptop, but you can run Everest Home (if it will run) and find out all that and a lot more:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

If it won't run at all, you should probably take it to the shop to have it looked at. Laptops should not be monkeyed with by the inexperienced. If the fan IS out an Intel CPU will shut down to save itself. (Since that is a Dell it is an Intel chip!) There are other things that could cause this as well.can you tell so i can i that for my knowlegde...

thanks,
unlovedwarriorBad power supply, defective battery shorting out, defective hard drive, defective motherboard come to mind quickly.thanks