Faulty CPU fan on laptop and sudden shutdown seconds after turning it on.

[decimus785]

Hello everyone.

I would like to get a second opinion on an issue i'm having with a acer aspire 5050 notebook. Seconds after i turn it on it shutdowns suddenly( after passing the POST screen). And i've noticed that the cpu fan isn't working and cause overheating problems. So.. is the faulty fan causing those sudden shutdowns right after i turn the laptop on?
or could the problem lie somewhere else??

[saxmaster49]

If you are hearing some beeps followed by a shut down, odds are it is just overheating because the cpu is not being cooled. Check the beep codes first.

[rubberman]

I disagree with saxmaster49 about this, if as you say, it happens immediately after turning the system on. In that case, it has not had time to heat up. Yes, a non-functional fan will cause the system to over-heat. That may have been the root cause of the problem. What you are experiencing now is likely some other component failure that the original overheating caused. Time to take it into the repair depot and let them figure out what is the cause, and how much $$ it will cost you to fix, if not still under warranty.

[saxmaster49]

In response to rubberman, thats why I said "If you are hearing beeps". I have personally run into a situation where, because of lack of cooling, the system would post, beep then shut down within seconds.

[rubberman]

Back achya... :-)

I don't agree that "hearing beeps" and (almost) immediate shutdown may indicate overheating, but contend that previous overheating may have caused a component to fail, which is the root cause of the symptoms observed. In any case, we are in agreement that overheating was probably the root cause of this problem. :-)

At least, this is what my experience as an EE and computer systems engineer is telling me, without further evidence to the contrary. Even if a laptop fan is non-functional, lacking additional component failures, it would generally take some time (minutes to hours) before the system overheats to the point of failure. This is basic thermodynamics.

[saxmaster49]

Ah, I am just an EE. I actually tested this out a couple months ago with a single core pentium 4 and just a heat sink to see what would happen. I got 4-5 seconds past post before an overheat beep code and shutdown. Might have been some safety factor built into the motherboard, I will check it out.

You are probably right that it is something else. I just happen to see, 9/10 times that fixing the overheating fixes the problem, but thats just my experience which is by no means extensive.

[rubberman]

I agree that 9/10 times that fixing the overheating addresses the problem (it worked for me when my overheating memory sticks were causing system problems), but as I said, if the initial overheating caused additional component failure, then all bets are off! :-) Anyway, thanks for your feedback saxmaster.