ABS G3 Mayhem laptop won't turn on (fear overheating)

Hey guys,

First off, I'm new to these forums, so allow me to say Greetings! =)

Introductions aside, my problem has to do with my ABS G3 Mayhem laptop. I purchased it 3 months ago, and up until yesterday, it was working fine. It got hot a few times, but nothing of the skin scalding sort. Anyway, I was working on it last night when all of a sudden it just dead out crashed on me. The screen zapped and had a bunch of bands, which slowly dissipated into a blank screen. Unable to get a responce from the laptop, i manually turned it off my removing the battery. When I attempted to turn back on the laptop (after putting back in the battery, of course...I do know a little bit of tech stuff ^.^), the system would not power on whatsoever. I had a pressing dinner that night, so I just left it to "cool". When I came back and tried to power up my laptop, it would get turn on for perhaps 10 seconds before shutting down. Now this is next day morning as I'm writing this post, and it won't turn on whatsoever again.

I googled some common hardware issues and I'm speculating that it may be because my laptop is overheating. I also suspect it may have something to do with the video card...when my laptop was able to turn on for 10 seconds before shutting down, my the portion of my laptop that holds the video card got EXTREMELY hot. Hotter than if I were to use my laptop for all day, and this was only after 10 seconds.

Unfortunately, plugging back in the battery is basically the extend of my techie knowledge. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can fix this, I'd really appreciate it. I read on some of the forums how overheating may be due to a faulty fan or dust clogged in the system. While they give solutions to fix it, it usually involved opening the laptop or something of that sort. I thankfully still have my warranty, but my warranty will go void if I "break the seal". Anyone know how I can fix my laptop short of opening it/sending it back to California to ABS (I'm in NYC). I'm a recent college student and unfortunately, most of my work and notes are in that laptop, so the sooner I get it fixed, the better. Thank you in advance for reading such a long post, I eagerly look forward to your advice.

-Pseudonomen

If parts of the laptop are getting very hot after only ten seconds, I really don't think you will be able to do anything but send it back under warranty.
You should be able to get the hard drive out & put it in another laptop so that you can get your work off.
The hard drive will probably be under a plastic cover with a couple of screws.
If you have only had the machine for 3 months, I can't see that the insides have become blocked with dust to cause this sort of overheating.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I think the warranty option is your best, if not, only option.