Help! P6831FX GPU fan won't start

I have a year and a half old P6831FX which has worked like clockwork. I recently bought a T8300 to give it a bit of a boost. Just before that the HDD crashed, so I upgraded that too. The install went fine and I was installing Windows updates when the laptop just shut itself off.

I initially thought it might be linked to Windows Update, so attempted a boot into Safe Mode, but even before I could get to System Restore the system shut off again. After that it just wouldn't boot up again. I let it rest for a couple of hours and then it started again, so I ran a hardware utility to check temperatures, and saw that within 5 minutes of startup the GPU temperature crept up steadily to 105 degrees C, at which point it shut off again.

After that I've been trying to reinstall Windows, but even before all the installation files can get expanded during the install process, the system will shut off. The GPU, at all these times, has felt like it was becoming hotter and hotter. The fan doesn't seem to turn on at all. What do you think it is? The GPU fan gone bust? The BIOS not being compatible with the new processor? The new HDD creating issues? I'm at a complete loss for solutions here.

 

Update- I let the notebook cool off for an hour, then started reinstalling Windows, while blowing air into the GPU fan from the bottom so that the air would go out of the side vent. Eventually the fan restarted as it spat out a lot of dust from the vent. The notebook works like new now!

 

Dude, that's scary. You just resuscitated your computer. Clean your freaking fans more! Clean the CPU fan right now. Don't do anything else, just clean that now. In fact, spray every vent you can find.

 

oh wow, that must have been a lot of dust!
Good thing your all better now

 

Yeah, I'm going to clean the fans every month from now on, just to make sure this doesn't happen again!

 

compressed air is a life saver...well notebook saver... make yourself a schedule haha