[94SupraTT]

I have a 5 year old GE dryer which will not turn on. Sometimes when I turn the start knob the dryer tries to start up however it stops. It cuts off fairly quickly. I've tried to hold the knob turned to see if it would stay on however it does not. Please help me troubleshoot this issue. Thank you.

[kayakcrzy]

Provided you have full power to the dryer, you most likely have a bad thermal fuse. If you unplug the dryer, and take the screws that hold, the top down, and remove it, then look in the back in the right hand corner, up top, and you will see the thermal fuse. It is about the size of a dime, and has 2 wires coming to it. If you want to check, and make sure it is bad, take the 2 wires off, and put the terminals ends together, and put some tape around it, so it does not hit metal, and see if it comes on. If so replace it. DO NOT run the dryer with the fuse jumped out. It is the only thing between you, and burning down the house. Tom ApplianceEducator.com

[94SupraTT]

I found a resistor however I'm not sure if it is the thermal fuse behind the control panel. It had 2 white wires coming out of it. I put the wires together and wrapped them in tape. I tried to turn the dryer on and it tripped the breaker.

[denman]

Here is your parts breakdown
GE DX2300EB0WW

Sounds like you shorted the resistor
Usually this is used during auto dry cycles, it reduces the 240 volts from the heater to 120 volts for the timer motor. When the heater shuts off the timer now gets voltage and advances. In timed dry mode a different set of timer contacts provides 120 V to the timer and it advances

When you shorted it out you placed 240 V across a 120 V device therefore the breaker blew also there is a good chance that it blew the timer motor's winding.
Best way to check this is with a meter.

The thermal fuse is under the dryer's lid on the heater assembly not in the console.

Could you describe "when I turn the start knob the dryer tries to start up however it stops" a little better. Does it just hum, does the drum turn, if you retry it does it do the same thing etc.?

By the look of it you have a belt break switch so this may be turning it off. Try rotating the drum by hand should rotate fairly easily. The belt tension may be changing for some reason causing the switch to open.

The motor has a thermal protect built into it, so if it does not start (just hums) it will overheat, the protect opens and it will take a while to reset so the unit will seem totally dead until it resets.

I do not have a wiring diagram for this unit so troubleshooting is a little difficult.

Usually the motor startsup when it reaches close to operating speed a centrifugal switch on the motor disconnects the start winding so only the run winding is in circuit through a set of timer contacts. If the run winding is open then the unit would stop even with the start switch closed as it is out of circuit.

Could also be a bad door switch, switch opens when the dryer starts to vibrate.
But would not expect this to be as reproducible as yours is. Try holding it closed and starting the unit

Hope this is of some help, here is a good site with dryer repair help
Dryer Help Sections, repairing dryers, Kenmore, Whirlpool, Maytag, Inglis, GE, Frigidaire, White Westinghouse, Magic Chef, Norge, changing a 3 prong cord to a 4 prong cord, no heat, electric dryers, gas dryers, how to take apart my dryer, what can st

PS: If the motor is shot, may be advisable to look at a new unit especially if the timer is also gone.