I probably did something stupid to my laptop

[wynjara]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 (which seems to be the first problem ) that likes to overheat pretty much constantly. Recently it added a fun red line down the center of the monitor. I'm more or less used to these, so while they're annoying I could deal.

On to the dumb thing. Last night I took the keyboard off to clean the dust mammoths out of the system. I'm assuming something didn't get resettled right, maybe, because when I tried to start it this morning it won't. I get the 'your computer has shut down because it overheated' message some tries, sometimes not. The furthest I managed to get was it started in safe mode, but cut out as soon as it was started. The fan goes at hyper speed the whole time, too.

I have no idea what other info to give. I have Windows XP, if that matters, and the system's about 5 years old.

Any suggestions? And if the suggestion is 'get a new laptop', any suggestions for how to get the rest of the stuff off my harddrive?

[LionMan]

Offhand, I would suggest removing those items you removed before and put them back. Many times when taking a laptop apart I find I don't get things in the right place. In your case it seems like the heat sink wasn't quite placed back on correctly or it might have moved on you a bit.

[SteeleDragon78]

as for getting the info off the old laptop i would get a hdd enclosure and use it as a backup drive, theyre like $60 at best buy last i checked.

[lordlundar]

The red line is a failure of the display. one of the vertical signal transmitters is dead. That issue cannot be repaired outside a clean room. To fix that, you need to get the screen replaced.

The overheating could be any number of factors, ranging from a clogged fan, misaligned heatsink, even the surface it's on. Given what happened when you replaced the keyboard, I'd be inclined to agree that something got jostled when you put it back on.

[wynjara]

Thanks all My friend who knows way more than I do about computers has declared that the memory, harddrive and power sources are fine, but something else isn't. Since the display is going, the touchpad has been threatening to, the enter key doesn't always work, etc., we decided I'm going computer shopping. Sigh.

[Geek King]

The fan zooming sounds like the heat sensor for the chip has given out, causing the system to think it is overheated all the time. I also agree the screen is probably going to need replacement anyway. You might consider a new laptop at this point.

[lordlundar]

I concur with getting a new one. Given all those problems, most techs would declare it a write off.

[technical.angel]

Given all those problems, most techs would declare it a write off.

Help the economy, buy a new one.

Nothing better than new computer day... except maybe new cell phone day.