GE Oven Turns Off by Itself? Here’s Why (+ How To Fix)

GE ovens will cycle throughout a cooking cycle to maintain the required temperature. However, if your GE oven heats for a few minutes during a bake or broil cycle and then completely turns off by itself, there’s a problem. 

There are two possible causes of a GE oven turning off by itself: 

• A defective cooling fan blower 
• A failing display control board  

The first reason is more likely, and you should check the oven first for a defective cooling fan blower. Let’s discuss the two issues at length and talk about what to do to resolve them.

A Defective GE Oven Cooling Fan Blower

GE ovens have a built-in blower that activates to keep the controls cool during the bake and broil cycles. This is also true for the self-clean cycle in models with the auto-clean option. 

Depending on your model, the blower will be activated: 

• When the clock area gets too warm in ovens with electronic control panels 
• Soon after a cooking cycle is initiated in some models 
• During all the cooking functions in some wall ovens 

If your oven has a defective fan blower, the appliance may shut down if it detects extremely high temperatures. 

How To Fix a Defective GE Oven Fan Blower

First, you need to determine if your fan blower is causing the untimely oven shutoff. To do this, follow the steps below: 

1. Reset the oven by turning off the power and turning it back on. 
2. Push and hold down the “Broil” and “2” buttons at the same time for about 3 seconds. This will activate your oven’s fault retrieval mode. 
3. Hit the “1” button to activate stored faults. If your oven has a fan blower issue, it’ll display F350 or F352 error code. These codes indicate that the fan blower is turning slower than it should or not turning at all. 
4. Hold the “Broil” and “1” buttons simultaneously for 3 seconds to activate the ERC test mode. 
5. Press “3” to run the fan blower at a low speed and look through the vent trim at the back on the maintop to see if the blower turns. If it doesn’t or turns at an extremely slow speed, a fix is needed. 

To fix the fan blower: 

1. Turn off the oven power. 
2. Remove the maintop. 
3. Check if the blower wheel has any obstruction caused by foreign objects, wire routing, or insulation sitting on the blower’s red silicon hub. If there are no obstructions, proceed to the next step. 
4. Rotate the blower by hand. It should rotate freely without making noise or feeling rigid. If the blower turns freely, you need to check the fan blower wiring. 
5. Test the blower motor wiring for resistance. The white to black wires should show 47 ohms and white to red 31 ohms. If the wires are good, proceed to the next step. 
6. Assess the control board blower connections by running the cooling blower in the Service Mode. You’ll need to turn the oven power on to do this. The white wire (neutral) and the black wire (low-speed) should record 120VAC. If not, replace the entire blower motor assembly. 

Note: These steps can be confusing and complicated for someone without technical oven repair knowledge. As such, I recommend you call a GE oven technician to test and repair a defective oven fan blower. 

A Failing Display Control Board

If your oven cooling fan blower is sound, the only other reason your GE oven turns off by itself is a failing display control board. This happens because a faulty display board often heats up as soon as your oven starts to heat up. 

As a result, the heat overload causes the control board to shut down until it can cool. That also means your oven shuts down, as the controls’ settings are not sustained. 

How To Fix a Failing Control Board

A faulty control board must be replaced. To do the replacement: 

1. Cut the power to the oven. 
2. Remove the screws holding the oven control panel in place. 
3. Pull the panel up to remove it. 
4. Disconnect the wires. 
5. Remove the screws securing the control board on the panel. 
6. Remove the control board. 
7. Take the new control board and transfer the overlay from the old to the new board. You can also opt to use a new overlay. 
8. Follow the reverse steps to screw the control board on the panel, reconnect the wires, and fix back the control board panel. 

You can follow a visual demonstration of the above steps in this video from Repair Clinic on YouTube: