Dell Inspiron N5010 with intel i3 - "Please Press any key to continue" not coming up

[fj80alex]

Hi - I have a Dell Inspiron N5010 with intel i3 processor, 4GB of RAM. When I bought this laptop (used) from someone, it needed windows password to be reset. Well, I did that and after that was going to reinstall OS (Win 7 64bit), I do have a dell reinstallation disk. I tried it a few times (F12 worked fine) but after about 10 or more minutes, it was restarting. I checked BIOS and found out that it has password (setup was locked)on it. After doing some research, I found out that the only option is to replace BIOS chip on the motherboard. I did replace the BIOS chip. I was able to do F9 (defaults), change date and time to current. I am trying to install OS and instead of a prompt "Press any key to boot from CD" getting a blank screen. I tried to boot from USB drive, the same thing. I am totally puzzled, is it motherboard, processor or???? Any ideas, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[rclarke250]

After replacing the bios chip, did you flash it to make sure it was at the latest level? Also, setting the bios to defaults, may not be what you want, go back into bios and check the options, move cdrom up in the boot order.

 

[fj80alex]

No, I didn't flash the BIOS to the latest version yet. I didn't think that I needed before loading OS. I was planning to install OS and then update bios. I would appreciate, if you would, please post the procedure how to flash the BIOS to the latest level. It's an Inspiron N5010 with Intel i3.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[rclarke250]

From Dell:

[highlight #EF2929][/highlight] Run the BIOS update utility from DOS environment (Non-Windows users) 1. Copy the downloaded file to a bootable DOS USB key. 2. Power on the system, then Press F12 key and Select "USB Storage Device" and Boot to DOS prompt. 3. Run the file by typing copied file name where the executable is located. 4. After BIOS update finished, system will auto reboot to take effect. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note 1: You will need to provide a bootable DOS USB key. This executable file does not create the DOS system files. Note 2: Please make sure you suspend BitLocker encryption before updating BIOS on a BitLocker enabled system. If you don't enable BitLocker on your system you can ignore it. [/highlight]

Link.

 

[fj80alex]

Well, I used diskpart to make bootable USB drive. I downloaded latest BIOS from support.dell,com based on the service tagnumber and saved in a root of USB flash drive.
1. Inserted USB flash drive in one of the usb ports.
2. Turned laptop on and pressed F12
3. Selected USB device and pressed enter.
4. Nothing is happening, blank screen.
5. Tried different usb port, the same result.

Any suggestions??????????????????

Thanks,
Alex

 

[rclarke250]

First thought is there is something wrong with the bios chip you replaced, or something got messed up with the system board when you were working on changing the bios chip. Check the solder connections, but it could be it just hosed up the board. I would look at getting a replacement motherboard.

 

[fj80alex]

Most likely, it's a motherboard. When I replaced BIOS chip, I removed processor and CMOS battery. So, it's not a processor, at least, right?

 

[rclarke250]

No, doesn't act like a cpu issue. especially if it was removed along with the battery before work was done.