Vostro 1400 won't finish posting ... error #M1004

So here is most of the story.
I ordered the smart value Vostro 1400 on 8/06 and received it on 8/10 (happy me, or so I thought). After a few hours of using it I noticed that the display made a high pitch noise. I decided to send it in depot service to have the lcd replaced(also a good idea because the true life WXGA display truly sucked). It stayed in service depot for 2 weeks(I don't know why because it said 3-5 business days).
Today I received the system from service depot and after noticing that the covers from the sd/mmc card and expansion slot where missing and that the einsteins from the service depot replaced the motherboard and cpu instead of the lcd, I booted up the system(neither less to say that the lcd still made that sound). I had to reboot the system after the antivirus finished updating it's definitions and then the fun part started.
It wouldn't finish posting. And the progress bar at the begging(when posting) took longer then usual to reach the end(although it didn't reach it every time). After this the system would shut down.
Following 20 or so restarts of the system I got an error saying that the system is overheating and got error #M1004 to report to technical support. The thing is that during this, the current flow from the cpu wouldn't be even warm. I checked the system and the cpu cooler is spinning, and the heatsink seams to be fitted well.
Has anyone encounter this while using a Vostro, and if so is there any solution?

This are my system's specs:

223-1214
1 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
320-5565
1 14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
311-7287
1 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
320-5563
1 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
341-4902
1 80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

 

to be honest, its the frist time I have heard of this problem, and its starting to making be regret getting a vostro 1400, and have lost faith in dell service in general. After I receive my vostro, and if it had any problem at all, its going back

ps, sorry i couldnt help

 

So I finally got the system to boot. It's been on for over an hour now and doesn't seem to have any problems now(while in vista), what makes me think that there's a problem with the motherboard and when the system posts that problem keeps the system from booting correctly. The logic that I used when getting the system to boot was the following: I looked my self in the glossy display and asked myself: "Do you feel lucky?" and then I pressed the power button.
Leaving the joke aside I tried powering the system with and without the battery, on an air conditioner unit and didn't figured an logic answer for the thing that resulted in finally getting the system to boot. The only conclusion that I got from these attempts was that the system boot failure was definitely not because of an cpu overheat as one might thing because of the error.
When I got the system to boot it was sitting on my desk and once I got into vista I installed a program that was telling me that the cpu temperature was 56 degrees for CPU0 and 59 degrees for CPU1(this was in power saver mode).

 

I for one, let me reassure you that I haven't had a problem with mine, I've been running it 24/7 and haven't had a problem yet. I love it. no slowdowns or anything.

 

I hope I'll be luckier. My est ship date is 9/6/2007.

 

I am also getting this, though the CPU temp displayed for me is only 28 degrees C.

I put mine in the fridge, then was able to get it through the BIOS.

Dell is coming on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday in New Zealand =( )

 

I got my vostro replaced and although on dell's site there is only the A00 version of the bios, on the new 1400 I have version A01. I've read some time ago that if you get that error it's written in the bios or something similar and the only way you can get rid of it is to use some tool you get from dell's site or by updating/changing the bios(look for version A01).
You could opt for this solution if you are certain that it isn't overheating or you can simply have it replaced.

 

Perhaps that is a problem from the earlier batch. I got mine with similar configuration received on 8/20 and have no problem. I would not recommend putting the laptop inside a fridge. The temperature change will hurt the solder joints and the condensed water will kill the laptop.

 

fadianradu, this is my 2nd vostro, but 4th motherboard (Dell's replaced it). One of the ones I got was BIOS revision A02.

billcsho, Dell just replaced the board again yesterday (BIOS A00 again, weird). Then this problem started. When I mean 'put it in the fridge' only for about 5 minutes, because once the system gets into Vista, it won't automatically shut down. But I agree that it can't do anything good to the laptop.

The fan is going full time now, but the air coming out is only slightly above ambient. Temps are currently mobo: 37, CPU: 33.

I shut it down when I'm away from my desk though, just in case.

 

I thought that I had bad luck with my portable but your case sounds really horrible. I'm guessing that you didn't have your portable and mainboards replaced for the same reason.
I hope that the 5th time's the charm and you'll have a functional portable.

 

try BIOS A03: ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1400_A03.EXE