I was planning on cooking a nice 15# bone-in prime. I turned the cooker on and five minutes later it was dead

You checked the breaker, right? How old is it?

Welcome to the forum.

What kind of cooker? If it's a CS, call customer service - they are great people to work with.

"You checked the breaker, right? How old is it?"

Yes the outlet has power, it isn't 3 mos old

Like Mike said, you didn't say what cooker?

If it's a CS, did you call Customer Service?

What model?

Its a CS 150

So what did they say when you called?

pig,
you said it was a 150. did you by any chance have it set to 300f? the only problems my two 150's have ever given me is if i use that temp setting and they will shut down due to temp over run.
try this unplug it and open the door
walk away for 10 mins
turn on and hit reset
set temp and time
should fire right up
learned this lesson the hard way and experimented with no wood, full load, no wood, no load and mine just hate that 300f setting
jack