Inspiron 1100 Laptop Won't Boot

Hi,

This laptop has problems booting.

At first, when powering on, the screen would be black the battery light would flash amber repeatedly, then it would eventually power down.

I since removed the battery, the memory, and the wireless cardbus adapter and no change. I left it for a few days without doing anything, then powered it on again and the display lit up, but there was nothing on the display (no characters, etc.), then it shut itself down. I powered it again and this time it booted. It stayed up for about 10 mins. then froze. I tried rebooting and back to the same problem again. It won't boot, won't post, just a lighted display with no characters on the display, no HD activity, no posts, and after a while it shuts itself down.

Any suggestions or is this thing dead?

Thanks.

 

I was able to get into the bios.

The screen came up for a short time and it told that there was no primary hard drive found. This seems strange in that a failing HD shouldn't disable the video. Maybe it's a bad MB?

 

Try removing the hard drive and see if bios will stay up and running. ed

 

Thanks tunered.

I removed the HD, and the BIOS stays up & running, no prob.

 

I put the battery and HD back in. The BIOS doesn't recognize the HD nor the battery. It does see the memory.

 

Try running on AC power and remove the battery. This should work OK and at least you eliminate the battery and charger as the problem.

How old is the laptop? Could be the internal CMOS battery died.

 

Without the battery, the hard disk is not found. primary disk 0 not found.

 

"I put the battery and HD back in." ??

OK, so without the harddrive, the video stays on and it doesn't matter if the main laptop battery is in or out. But anytime the harddrive is in, the video comes up and then dies.

So the harddrive is killing the video? Is there a fan and does it keep running or not, as in the laptop is shutting down?

The harddrive could be bad and drawing too much power, causing the internal power supply to shut down. Or the power supply (motherboard) is bad and can't supply enough power.

I would remove the harddrive, charge the battery. Then, remove the main battery, put the harddrive back in and note how long you get video (with harddrive in) on AC power only. Then I would put the main battery back in, unplug the AC (still with the harddrive in), and note how long you get video from the main battery only.

If there is little difference, then I would guess a bad harddrive, assuming that the main battery is charged and OK.

Entering BIOS setup could be halting the bootup and preventing access to a bad harddrive, and the video stays on.

 

With all of the removing and putting back in, I haven't been able to reproduce the "no video" or shutdown. Now the bios always responds that there is no hard drive found.

I'm assuming that maybe the harddrive was failing before, but now is completely dead? The battery I think is no good as well. The bios doesn't see the battery or the hardrive.

 

14.8V, 6,450mAh battery and 3 year warranty.

A bad power supply on the motherboard may not fully charge the battery and would not be enough to power the harddrive. I'd try charging the battery overnight then check the battery for abnormal heat and voltage.

Somehow I'd find a way to run the laptop on a fully charged battery. If the laptop boots with a full battery, then the motherboard is bad. If not, then I'd try a new harddrive.

Lacking a full battery, I'd take the laptop apart and measure the charging voltage for at least 15.5v with the battery in, check the same voltage with the battery out. If neither is above 15.5v then bad motherboard, else at least a bad battery.

 

Tried charging the battery over several nights. The battery indicator always flashes amber, either while charging or not, and can only power up while plugged in. Powering up now only tells me that there is no hard drive found.

Entering in the bios tells me there is no hard drive and no battery.

Measuring the charge is something that is beyond me. I've never done that, nor do I have the tools. I'd have to get a technician. If I can, I'll post the findings.

Can this battery or hard drive be used in another dell laptop to see if the bios sees it? I know laptops aren't very good with things like this. Are there any dell 'compatible' laptops to the inspiron 1100?

 

The obvious is to replace the harddrive. Also the battery if you plan to use the laptop without AC power.

The display works and you can get into BIOS setup. Both good indications that the laptop itself is OK.

Unless the laptop has been sitting in storage for a year, you should have seen the battery failing over a period of several months and the harddrive should have given errors for several days before completely failing. Removing and re-installing harddrive, battery, wireless, and memory could have cleaned electrical contacts and changed the symptoms since your first post.

A paid technician would likely replace the harddrive and see what happens. You can do that yourself.