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Hoping someone can assist.

I helped a friend out recently by reinstalling Windows XP on his laptop. As part of that we also used an air can cleaner to clean out the vents and found they were so clogged (cat hair mainly) that we got the vacuum out too and masses of dust and hair came out.

Anyway, things seems fine however the Laptop when switched on starts to try and boot several times, usually half a dozen attempts each time getting no more than a couple of seconds into the boot process but keeps retrying to boot-each time a clicking noise can be heard as it switches itself off and tries again. When it does finally boot it works fine (and the clean up has stopped its overheating issue).

Could we have caused more damage by the vigourous cleaning of the vents and fans that could cause this boot up issue? Loosened something maybe or dislodged dirt, dust or hairs which are causing a short or something.

Any help greatefully received please.

somebody else is having this same problem with his dell, but apparently dell is going to fix it. i'm also having these problems with two completely different machines. here's the post: http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthrea...d=1#post466179

Now that you've booted successfully, are you having failures on subsequent reboots?

Yes. If I switch off it will always take several failed starts before completing the boot up.

hhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm ... interesting.

Sounds like a hardware issue. Not sure where you should start. What does the POST report?

Thanks for that but those issues are a little different. This one boots for no more than a second or two then clicks and starts rebooting. It doesnt get as far as booting into Windows.

Since this didnt happen before the cleaning Im sure its connected with that in some way. I havnt taken the thing apart as Im worried about doing so in case I have trouble getting it back together or make the issue worse.

POST report? Sorry not sure what you mean

POST = Power On Self-Test

When you start your system, the BIOS first runs a POST to see of the Mobo and devices are working. Usually the results are displayed but it depends on the manufacturer and the BIOS settings. If something doens't pass POST, it'll report it right on the screen.

ah right. no it doesnt get that far. there is no text on screen as it literally restarts within a second or so until after several attempts it starts up fine.