Dell laptop won't start 1

[riskassessor]

I have a 3-year old Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop running Windows 2000 that will not start. (The battery has been dead for over a year, so I always use it on AC power). The 3 green lights for power, hard drive and battery come on, I hear the hard drive spin up but after about 7 or 8 seconds there's a click and the machine turns itself off. Nothing shows on the screen and there are no beeps. What is likely to be wrong?

 

[geektime]

I agree with Bill about the importance of the proper screws and to make sure that they are all tightened accordingly. According to Dell Support, the screws start to loosen themselves up with use, i.e, heat building.

Riskassessor, you may want to try a BIOS update. I had a customer with a problem with the backlight from the screen not turning on from a cold boot. Or, the computer would turn on then 'appear' to be off (blank screen), but the three green LED lights still on (no beep codes). I flashed (updated) the BIOS and all went well. I also made sure the bottom screws were secure.

Note, you may need to have a fresh battery pack to do the BIOS update.

Another simple check to perform is to make sure the memory is reseated in its place. Often, this leads to some boot problems. The memory becomes unseated during use and transport.


Good luck,

Patrick
GeekTyme Computer Services
Dell Certified Systems Expert (DCSE)

 

[geektime]

lroy12,

Let us know what happens in your case.

I had another customer with a similar problem. I had to turn off all his power save features from the BIOS setup and Windows configuration. Also, he had a set of memory from a different vendor that was causing other intermittent problems.

Patrick
GeekTyme Computer Services
Dell Certified Systems Expert (DCSE)

 

[lroy12]

I cant get into my bios to disable any power settings. The Laptop doesnt boot up at all. Just 4 seconds or so with the LED's on and the screen turns on to a black screen and then it dies. I have purchased a CPU and I will hope to get it on friday!

 

[ithinkjoseph]

Yes, me too. I had this problem 6 months ago. At the time i tracked it down to overheating although never confirmed this as it spontaneously started working again. i'll check all screws etc tonight but if anyone has found a solution snice jan 17 please post it.

thanks.

 

[lroy12]

I got my laptop working!
It turned out i needed a new motherboard and one of the RAM sticks was bad. You guys should try taking out one of your sticks of ram and see if it boots. Thats what I did and... tada!

 

[ithinkjoseph]

Lroy12

so did you just take out a memory stick or did you have to get a new motherboard and then remove one of the memory sticks?

Can i ask how much the new motherboard was?
Was it difficult to install?
which motherboards would be compatible?

thanks, mine still up the creek.

 

[lroy12]

various laptop parts sellers have the motherboard for sale on ebay. just search . also, find a dell pdf document online on dissasembling your laptop for extra help. I got mine off of dell.com of course.
My "new mobo" was actually refurbished.
I am not sure what mother board would be compatible with yours because i dont know the type of inspiron you have. in my case i searched ebay for "inspiron 3800 motherboard". It was a little difficult to install at first, but i worked on the thing so much i leanred to take that thing apart and put it back together in 15 minutes .