Dell Laptop Blank Screen Problem 2

[PMRiley]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop that is now semi-retired and is just used as the 'Living room internet browser'

I have Win XP Pro installed on it and it has been working perfectly since I originally bought it.

During the last month or so, it has started to have problems when starting up. Sometimes it will start up fine and continue working for as long as wanted, but other times you can press the power button and the fans etc make the normal start up noises but the screen just stays off. Windows does not load up and there are no BIOS beep codes sounding.

Following another post (That I made on the Win XP forum by mistake) it was suggested that this could be being caused by the hard drive being on it's way out. I have now replaced the hard drive (Which I was going to do anyway as it happened) but the problem still occurs.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[ski]

It could be caused by a bad MB, CPU, RAM, or video card.

 

[bcastner]

Pull out the battery and press the test button. If the battery is dead or nearly so you can have this issue.

 

[PMRiley]

Have tried both with and without the battery inserted and have even put the spare battery in with no luck.

 

[billy71]

Have you tried connecting a External Monitor? The screen may have went dead.

 

[bcastner]

And if you try without the AC adapter connected, does the problem change at all?

 

[PMRiley]

Thanks for the suggestions, have tried both of these suggestions (Including my spare AC adapter) and still have the same problem.

 

[petermeachem]

Dodgy cable to the screen? This was the problem on a customer's Dell laptop. Replaced the cable and al lwas well.

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[geektime]

PMRiley,

Go to Dell.com and go to the support downloads. Download the latest BIOS firmware. I had a customer with a Latitude C600 (a cousin of the Inspiron) that had the same problem. After I flashed (updated) the BIOS, it seem to have worked fine.

~GeekTyme

 

[geektime]

From the version notes when I had updated the firmware BIOS for the Dell Latitude C600:

The following updates were made to the A13 & A14 BIOSs to create
the A16 BIOS:

5. Fixed intermittent issue in which the LCD backlight fails to turn on during a cold boot.

 

[fandaz]

Have exactly the same problem on my Dell Inspiron 5k. Tried all of the above, apart from updating the BIOS. If some one can tell me how to update the Bios on the above Laptop I would be very grateful. But please remember it wont boot. Same as the start of this thread, it comes to life but briefly, fan spins then all stop. No Video, No Beep, No POST.....Nothing. Could it be a virus that has damaged the BIOS chip? If so can the chip be replaced?
Thanks...

 

[bcastner]

Flip the laptop upside down and tighten with a jeweler's screwdriver every case screw found.

The critical screw is roughly at left-center of the case, and is the frame ground for the whole deal.

 

[PMRiley]

Fandaz - While the BIOS update may help one or two other minor problems, it certainly didn't help with this problem on mine.

Unfortunatly, tightening the screws underneath didn't help either. Thanks anyway bcastner!

One trick that I have found that occasionally helps is to open the laptop screen up as per normal, hold the front right hand corner ONLY (Where the HDD is) and lift the laptop completely off the desk /table etc. Once the laptop is in the air, place it back down on the table left hand side of the machine 1st.

 

[fandaz]

Thanks Guys, PMRiley how did you update your BIOS if your system was dead?
Any way I tightend all screws as mentioned (thanks bcastner) and did the trick of lifting the corner ETC....and "hey presto" it booted up. Reading the trick sounded like joke or a wind up but it's fixed something. Dodgy earth maybe? Thanks so much I'll keep you posted with any updates. Has Dell got anything to say about this strange BUG?
Fandaz

 

[PMRiley]

Updated the BIOS by getting the laptop to run by using the 'lift up' trick, waiting for Windows to load and then downloading and running the BIOS update.

I know that this 'trick' sounds like a wind-up, but it seems to work most of the time (Or at least until you desperatly NEED to do some work on the laptop!)

 

[fandaz]

Now I understand regarding BIOS.....Think we have latest on here but anyway, after the Laptop booted it froze up and since then we are back to square1, although we have your trick to play around with. So what's going on inside the laptop? Loose connection or earth. I'm going to strip it down later today, so if you have any advice regarding a strip down please let me know. Interesting challenge. I think this laptop has been dropped at some point as there are one or two cracks in the plastic, what about yours?

 

[majorqt23]

my boss has a dell inspiron 5100 and he uses windows xp. unfortunately the past few weeks it has been crashing and freezing. the last time it had crashed which was last night, it will not turn back on. we hold in the power button for a few seconds and the screen just stays black. what could be wrong and how do we get it to turn on if we cant get to a menu to reboot it?

also thank you for all the information that has been listed on this site already. its helpful but we need more specific step by step information and terms. thanks

Majorqt23

 

[ski]

Connect an external monitor to it.
If there's a display, then your laptop's screen may be bad.

If there's no display with an external monitor, then reset CMOS with a MB jumper.

If no luck, then replace the CMOS battery.

If no luck, then disconnect all drives and remove all cards except the video card.
If there's now a display, then reinstall all drives and cards one at a time until the problem resurfaces. The last item installed is the cause.

If no luck with the above step, then either the MB, CPU, RAM, or video card may be bad.
Swapping them out is recommended for finding the culprit.

 

[majorqt23]

PMRILEY- thank you very much for your advice on the "lift up trick" i unplugged my bosses laptop and then turned it upside down to see if there was a restart button so i could restart it and i heard the fan click on. when i hooked it back up it seemed to work.. but i would like a permanent solution to the problem not just a temporary one. although i am thankful PMriley!! thank you!

 

[PMRiley]

Update on this one for everyone else that are experiencing similar symptoms...

I have finally got annoyed enough with this problem to do something about it and as it seems to have worked so far(Fingers crossed!) I thought I would let evryone else know what I did.

Basically, I took the laptop apart (following the instructions on Dell's website) up to and including the processor board (As this is where I suspected the problems were being caused) and carefully put everything back together.

Seems that my problem must have been caused by a bad connection somewhere on the processor board which is probably why my 'lift-up' trick seemed to work occasionally.

Hope this helps.