Laptop shutting down while booting

[Opits]

Few hours ago, I disassembled a laptop in order to blow dust from it and change thermal paste. I assembled it again, turned it on, great - windows booted, working good, i checked temps, they were way lower than before. I restarted it to get into bios and install new OS, it gets stuck on the display that shows "Press F2 for setup, F12 boot options, etc.". Loading bar is loading, then just gets stuck. In the beginning fans are not loud, working as they should, after about 20 seconds, they just ramp up like crazy, and laptop shuts down. And now every time I turn it on, that happens. I read online that it might be a heat problem, but I am sure it is not because the fan is blowing cold air out and  I JUST changed thermal paste, like few hours ago. Laptop is 10+ years old, not mine, guy wanted me to blow the dust and "refresh" the OS of his laptop. I am screwed. Please help. 

 

Laptop is Dell Latitude D630

[LexCalifornia]

Have you reseated the RAM and checked all cables again? That's where I'd start.

[Opits]

3 hours ago, LexCalifornia said:

Have you reseated the RAM and checked all cables again? That's where I'd start.

Checked. Everything is plugged in, took out RAM and then put it in again. Still, 7 out of 10 times it fails to boot when i turn it on. I can't even access bios, i press F2, fan starts going crazy and laptop shuts off.

[LexCalifornia]

12 hours ago, Opits said:

Checked. Everything is plugged in, took out RAM and then put it in again. Still, 7 out of 10 times it fails to boot when i turn it on. I can't even access bios, i press F2, fan starts going crazy and laptop shuts off.

Hm kay. Then you're on the hunt now.

 

Now you gotta go step by step.

 

First remove battery and AC power as well as the CMOS battery then press and hold the power button for at least 20 seconds to drain all residual power left in the system. Sometimes BIOS settings can become corrupted, this way you'd reset BIOS settings.

 

Another thing you can try is to boot without CMOS battery connected. I can't remember if the D630's beep or show LED codes tho. But you can find the service manual here.

 

Next step would be to remove all hardware that could be faulty meaning HDD, CD drive, RAM.

Without RAM the system should at least give you an error. It really is just a way to see if one of the things connected to the motherboard is at fault.

Then you'd go step by step and reconnect things again. Start out with putting one RAM stick back in (do the one under the keyboard last). Try these steps without the battery connected, only AC power. And so on.

 

If that all pans out to not be the culprit you could try and run diagnostics via F12 at boot for the boot menu and then selecting the diagnostics option if available (I don't remember if the 630 has this tho).

 

If that all fails the next step would be to test with known good RAM, known good AC adaptor and so on.

 

What you also could try is to reflash the BIOS. If it's corrupted that could help as well.

[Opits]

6 hours ago, LexCalifornia said:

Hm kay. Then you're on the hunt now.

 

Now you gotta go step by step.

 

First remove battery and AC power as well as the CMOS battery then press and hold the power button for at least 20 seconds to drain all residual power left in the system. Sometimes BIOS settings can become corrupted, this way you'd reset BIOS settings.

 

Another thing you can try is to boot without CMOS battery connected. I can't remember if the D630's beep or show LED codes tho. But you can find the service manual here.

 

Next step would be to remove all hardware that could be faulty meaning HDD, CD drive, RAM.

Without RAM the system should at least give you an error. It really is just a way to see if one of the things connected to the motherboard is at fault.

Then you'd go step by step and reconnect things again. Start out with putting one RAM stick back in (do the one under the keyboard last). Try these steps without the battery connected, only AC power. And so on.

 

If that all pans out to not be the culprit you could try and run diagnostics via F12 at boot for the boot menu and then selecting the diagnostics option if available (I don't remember if the 630 has this tho).

 

If that all fails the next step would be to test with known good RAM, known good AC adaptor and so on.

 

What you also could try is to reflash the BIOS. If it's corrupted that could help as well.

I just reset the CMOS and it seems to be working a lot better than before. I also applied a bit more thermal paste, it seems to be cooler than before, but still, gpu is overheating no matter what, it stays in 60-70 C when browsing the internet and doing normal stuff. Sometimes, laptop overheats in bios and shuts down, i have no idea why. It still turns off from time to time when booting, like maybe once in every 10 times, but still, a lot better than before. Thanks!

[LexCalifornia]

1 hour ago, Opits said:

I just reset the CMOS and it seems to be working a lot better than before. I also applied a bit more thermal paste, it seems to be cooler than before, but still, gpu is overheating no matter what, it stays in 60-70 C when browsing the internet and doing normal stuff. Sometimes, laptop overheats in bios and shuts down, i have no idea why. It still turns off from time to time when booting, like maybe once in every 10 times, but still, a lot better than before. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure you can't adjust thermal limits in that BIOS. Last BIOS for the D630 was A17 available here. Maybe it's worth updating it?

What OS is that thing running? If it's any Windows, you could try if ThrottleStop can limit the GPU so it won't overheat. (Did you apply thermal paste to the GPU as well? - That's the other cute chip that should be covered by the heat pipe.)

 

While laptops are charging batteries they get hotter than usual btw because the charging process heats up the battery. So you could try with AC adapter only.

 

But anyways, it's a what now? 14 year old system? Sometimes it's time to throw it away and start with something new. Print a sticker that says that and slap it on. Ha.

 

Also don't forget that with such old hardware, things can fail without warning. 

 

Good luck with the D630 anyways!