Need help with Dell N4010 sicko notebook

I seem to be in hardware purgatory these days.... partly deliberate as I bought a handful of non-running systems trying to yield 2 decent running systems for needs I have.

this is a Dell Inspiron N4010 - fairly recent vintage that ostensibly shipped with Windows 7 Home Premium. It won't boot anything but test cd's. currently running "Inquisitor". Though there is a windows 7 load on the HDD, it will not come up in any sort of useful fashion. Once by accident I got it to a point where it wanted to do a repair routine but never got past that point.
UBCD, trying to load various tools, would report [I guess via the linux dervative that was needed to mount the called-for utilities] things like "no sensors found" or "device not found". I tried BIOS reset utilities... 4 of them - all failed. none of the commands would work. I put a Windows 7 Home Premium DVD in and started it but it failed giving a "bad device" error.

anyone familiar with this system? I am pretty well familiar with dell support etc but here's one I haven't encountered: when I punch in the Service Tag to Dell support, it identifies the system as a Dell Inspiron 14R. Are those two monikers for the same machine? [N4010, 14R]?
Pulling up images and some details, they do look at the very least similar if not exact.

Some of my cryptic utilities may be too threadbare for this later hardware... is that a possibility?
If any of you know of the "best of the best" in modern test suites, I'd love to hear it. The system bios [assuming its not corrupt...] indicates it can boot from just about any device, and it has a sd card reader as well as the typical usb ports and dvd drive.

all ideas appreciated!

 

From your description I would guess at bad hard drive,that's the first thing I check when the only symptom is windows installation lockup,double check your disk is free from scratches also.

The best way to test it is to remove from the laptop and connect to a desktop sata cable,make a note of the make and model of the drive and from there download the manufactures diagnosis software to check the health and functionality of the drive,post the make and model if you can't find the software.

Has the computer ever locked up while in the bios? If so it could also be a memory issue,you can make a mem test boot disk which will run on start up and check the memory without the need for a windows installation,you can also run it with the hard drive removed if you experience problems.

http://majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d4226.html

 

you are good guesser. the hard d is sickly... basically I went back to bios and turned off every device I could and still have it start/run, then was able to get a Win 7 dvd up and going. the HD could not be formatted/reformatted. Pulled it [good grief.... ever done that on one of these "disposable Dells"?? you dismantle the entire thing] - could not get Disk Management to find it on one of my systems - slaved it to my old 'go-to' mule and it is trying to format but I don't think its going to be a go. probably ditch it and replace.

while we're on this subject, however, let me ask this: I have a second ill notebook that is a Asus X83V. It will power up but after a welcome/logo screen it will eventually go to BIOS on its own. Usually will stay alive for a minute or so, but the keyboard commands have little/spotty effect. I was able to get it to accept a F9 to load defaults, but I'm not sure it really took effect. Basically after invoking anything at all, it will freeze while in BIOS. Cannot get any other normal keyboard function while in bios - can't change tabs, cant scroll through selections at all - it will just freeze without shutting down - just sit there.

My assumption is that the processor got cooked to death somehow - should have had a thermal shutdown. But I could be wrong - a very terribly corrupted BIOS could manifest like this, but that is really rare. what think thou?

 

Are you running a business fixing laptops? Don't forget my cut Yup a lot of laptops require total disassembly to remove one component.

Usually a corrupt bios won't let the computer start at all,check the health status of the CPU in bios if possible for a temp reading,make sure the ccpu fan is spinning and warm air is coming from the vent.

Again remove hard drive and add in cards,use one stick of known working memory.

Run bootable memtest,the symptoms sounds a little like a stuck key or has had liquid spilt on keyboard,disconnect laptop keyboard and connect an external usb or ps2 keyboard.

 

"running a business" and "fixing laptops" or desktops... is an oxymoron :-D
I mainly got in the current hole by trying to get one working something for a charity, then at the same time my daughter's venerable thinkpad T61 died .... like dead, stone cold dead. so I found these several diseased but at least blinking laptops and trying to yield at least ONE working frankenstein :cool

will keep trying