Dell Computer Overheating: Thursday, July 30, 2020

Recently, my Dell Inspiron was overheating and shutting off. I couldn't even make it through an entire hardware scan in the pre-boot system diagnostics.

System Diagnostics

There were no codes, errors, or alerts telling me that my fan or ambient air temperature sensor were missing or malfunctioning. I figured the most likely cause had something to do with the fan since it is a component with moving parts. So, I watched a YouTube video on how to remove it. When I separated the fan from the heat sink, I found a thick layer of dust that was completely blocking the exit port, keeping heat trapped inside my laptop. After removing the dust and reinstalling all the original components, my computer has not had anymore overheating issues resulting in a shutdown.