Dell Laptop Problemo

ondafly

Hi all, I have a Dell Inspiron 7500, running Win2K and a full backup of my website ;( , Anyway, its deceided not to turn on anymore , When i press the power on button, nothing happens, except the power switch blinks, and the battery switch blinks. Then nothing. I've tried switching the power on , while the mains is plugged in, and same problem. The battery is fine, it has a tester at the back to tell you what power is left. So has anyone out there experienced this problem before ? i remember my cousin have a similiar prob with a Toshiba, but he was never able to sort out.

I know i cud send it to dell, but first wanted to make sure it wasnt something simple, Cheers All

Ondafly

Jackoman

First is the warranty out. If not call Dell and they will tell you what is wrong with it. We have loads of laptops where I work and whenever they go dead like that, generally the motherboard needs replacing. Just recently one unfortunately was out of warranty and its gonna cost the company about €500 to get a year warrany for parts and support and to get the motherboard replaced.

Looks like you might be heading down that same road, sorry to say. Good luck anyway!

ondafly

yeah, my gut tells me its the motherboard, but twas all very strange, one minute its working, and get something from the kitchen, come back, and its dead as a dodo. The warranty is well out i suspect, its more than a year old. Oh well off to hunt ebid for another one, cheers

darthmise

I had the exact same problem with my Dell laptop when i got it at first.
Try removed the Cd-rom drive and see if it turns on then for you.
THe problem with mine was the metal casing was a little nit bent from being pushed in too hard and was touching off the area around the pins, and this was kind of short circuiting the machine.

The lack of technical terms would be due to the fact that i'm not too well up on my hardware.

Saruman

I will tell you what the problem most likely is and how to solve it.. the way you go about trying the solution is up to you...

Problem is the cpu.. but its unlikely to be dead... it needs to be reseated... now most laptops you can do this unless its hardwired into thew board... Dell does not do that, identical parts to Gateway only different outer chassis. So get out a screwdriver and do this.. if its under warranty do NOT do this unless you call Dell first and get the go ahead from them and a log number or whatever they give out saying its ok.. if its not in warranty then nothing to loose! Usually you take off the keyboard then a plate with the heatsink attached and then cpu (will be near the fan!).. take it out and pop it back in.. dont bother putting back together just plug in power and try it again... will work 95% in my experience...

Bear in mind i have fixed this exact problem hundreds of times and it has only failed on my about 5 or 6 times so its not just a maybe factor!

zAbbo

If this was a PC, i`d be going with what saruman says and also i`d reseat ram and reset bios, buts its a lappie and i`m not sure. The probelm sounds fixable.

Give it a go!

Saruman

Just to point out when i say i have done this hundreds if times in mean on Laptops and not desktops... Also if you are opening it up take out AC adapter AND battery!!

also if you want to start easier reseat other stuff like ram, hard drive, cdrom, floppy etc... of any of these are loose it can have same symptoms in a laptop... but its more likely the CPU... generally a cpu reseat will fix it.

JustHalf

I wouldn't open it yourself, considering that some laptops are so tightly packed when you open them bits fly everywhere.

Saruman

Yeah it depends on the laptop, and how comfortable you are yourself... if you are not comfortable opening up a desktop then dont do this... I have never had bits fly everywhere but you can loose the screws sometimes.. very small... its ok if its not lost in system... if it gets stuck in there... well enjoy...

Anyhow... Dells are generic, as in they dont make them themselves.. some other little company makes the laptops and badges them as Dell... same went for gateway and would go for others like Packard Bell and so on... Check with their tech support.. just email them even if you dont want to be holding on for a techie.

mayhem#

I have the same problem with a slightly older Inspiron that is unfortunately out of warranty. The only way it will fire up is if I connect it to the mains and remove the battery.
Would suggest that you contact Dell if it's still under warranty....

ondafly

Cheers Saruman, im pretty confident about opening it up, i've built 3/4 PCs from scratch, well from parts. Was just narrowing down all the possible fixes, the old process of elimination and just in case there was a simple answer.

I'll let you all know how i get on! probably in a few hours!

Nietzschean

Well i've a Latitude CPT and i had the same problem its probally the mobo...i had an engineer out and he replaced it for me(i caused havok on da fone..wasn't in me warrenty to get enginners...only CAR) but anyway what Saruman said sounds fairly ok.....there seems to be lots of space inside the dell laptop's....fairly easy to remove keyboard and that on em...should be much of a prob.....but if in warrenty just get a CAR faster and safer

ondafly

went and removed every possible screw from it. and couldnt get the top off. I suspect its something like a clip that pops out, but i dont feel like cracking the plastic or watever rite now. I'll give it another look at the weekend, Cheers again folks for the advice