Dell laptop has power but won't boot - please help

I have a 2006 Dell E1505 laptop (with Windows XP Home Edition). The computer has been running fine lately (no viruses, no bsods, etc.). This morning, after leaving the computer in standby mode, I came back about an hour later to a computer that would not come back into operation. After turning it off and trying to restart it, it shows there is power to the system, but the hard drive doesn't work (the hard drive light flickers just once after I hit the power button, then goes dark). The power source is working fine.

I've tried rebooting and hitting F2 or F1 multiple times to try to get into BIOS and reset the boot order so I could use a recovery CD, but I can't even get into BIOS. Literally nothing ever comes up on the monitor.

If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. I'm a novice with computer repair, so anything that involves physically taking the computer apart may be over my head, however I'm willing to give it a shot if it's not too complicated.

 

Well the first thing I'd try is a cmos reset,you'll have to take the side off the computer though,disconnect from the mains and find a small coin shaped battery,remove it for 20 secs then replace and try booting your computer.

We'll go from there

 

Rikky, it's a laptop.:-D

 

Of course I know its a laptop I was just testing yourolleyes

Pull the battery out and try to boot with just the power cable connected,then pull the power cable and try with just the battery connected.

 

Sorry JAFL,my reading skills are questionable at this time in the night/morning.

 

No worries, I appreciate the help. I tried restarting both ways, but the problem still exists.

 

Try this. Remove the battery. Unplug the computer if connected to AC. Hold the power button down for 30 seconds. Plug the computer back in but leave the battery out. Press the power button.

 

Tried this, doesn't work. Fwiw, my battery hasn't been able to hold a charge for more than 3 minutes for the past 4 years, I've just been relying on ac power.

 

Ok, I took the hard drive out, reinserted and no luck. Reseating the ram may be getting out of my realm of technical ability. Are there any good guides/vids out there that show one how to do this? Thanks.

 

This should help. Edit: Sorry gloozit.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/sm/memory.htm#wp999869

 

Ok that was pretty easy, thanks for the info. Unfortunately though it didn't work, but worth a shot. This is a process of elimination I guess.

 

At this point I would get a multimeter and test the power supply and the battery,its not hard if you have multimeter,set your multimter to volts,plug in the power pack and put one probe in the centre and one probe on the outside of the plug that goes into the laptop,make sure it matches what it says on the power pack.

That's the first test,the second test is to test the current,set your multimeter to amps/current,put one probe in the centre of the plug and BRUSH the other probe quickly on the outside of the plug,the meter should jump up quickly to 1-2,don't hold it there or you'll blow you power pack.

If your power pack passes this test you can eliminate to about 90%.

The battery test is more complicated but you already know your battery is pretty much dead anyway,you may want to consider ordering a replacement to try,if it doesn't work and you decide to bin the laptop return the battery.

The next thing I would try is a cmos reset,this is much harder on most laptops as it usually means diassembly,open all your expansion covers,if it can be accessed its usually under the memory cover but check all of them for a coin shaped battery,remove for 20 secs with the power and battery removed then replace and try to boot.

You can also test the battery with your multimeter,if it reads less than 3V replace it.

 

I tried another ac power adapter that I had used previously at times on this computer, and even with that I am still having problems.

Question, why would a charged battery make a difference? Is this in case the internal ac connection/supply is some how bad, at least we'd know the battery connection is fine?

I'll give the cmos a try this week. The advice I'm getting on other boards is that the computer is probably dead, but I'd like the rule out whatever I can before burying it. Thanks for your help.

 

You'll have to describe in more detail what's happening,have you tried a power supply that has the EXACT spec of your current one and exactly the same things happens?

Also are you saying that with the battery in or out the laptop does the same thing one blip from the power/hd light? BTW this symptom is one of a dead battery and no AC connection.

When you connect the AC does a power light come on anywhere on the laptop,either on the front or near the power connector to display power is connected? You said in your first post it has power is this how you know?

 

The other ac power supply is not made by Dell, but I've used it before on this computer and it's always worked fine. Exactly the same things happens.

Yes, the computer does the same thing regardless of the battery being in or out. I've tried every possible combination to start it. Both ac and battery, just ac, just battery, etc.

When I plug in the ac power with the computer turned off, there is no light on the laptop. But I'm not sure there's supposed to be, I've never paid attention to that in the past. When I hit the power button on the laptop, the laptop power-light lights up and stays lit up, the fan comes on, and the hard drive light flickers once before going out.

 

Ahhh right then its not power issue/battery issue its a display issue,I say display but it could be something more serious.

For testing remove all but one stick of memory in the first slot '0' try to boot then put the other memory stick in same slot,do the same with both memory sticks in the second slot '1',remove the hard drive and don't put it back until you get something on the screen or finish testing its not needed.

Does it have a VGA connector for an external display?If so try connecting to an external display such as a computer monitor or HDTV,then try to turn it on.

Other than that I'm back to cmos reset and I would still eliminate the power supply by testing it properly.

 

Tried all that, no luck.

Yep, tried this too, no luck.

This will be my next step later this week when I get a chance to take the machine apart. Sounds like I'm running out of possibilities though. I'll come back here and let you guys know what happens. Thanks again for your help.

 

Update: I did a CMOS reset but it didn't work. I forgot to test the actual cmos itself with a multimeter, could this cause the problem if it's out of juice?

Another board suggested reseating the cpu, but I'd rather not go to all that trouble unless there's a good chance it's the cause. Other than that, not sure what else to try.

 

BTW, do you guys if most repair shops/techs charge to just diagnose a computer without actually repairing it? I'm assuming they do. And if so, what's a normal charge just to diagnose?

 

Call the shop and ask.

 

Greetings, JAFL...

Most shops would merely rehash the steps you and the other guys have already tried (quite thoroughly, I might add). My shop would have to charge you a minimum of $100 for a CPU reseat and/or a motherboard burn test - and that's with no guarantee that the problem(s) would be resolved...

At this point, I'd be leaning towards cutting your losses, grabbing a cheap USB HD adapter to salvage any data you can't do without, and saving your pennies for a new Windows 7/8 machine...

 

Thanks Caliban, I appreciate your helpful response. I've been leaning that direction anyway, considering how cheap laptops are these days.

 

I have a similar problem. My main DELL computer won't boot up. It says something like boot 1something. don't remember) boot 2: failure, and it is the same all the way through. My mom thinks it's a virus, but all I did was download something... Any suggestions? From anyone? Nope? Okay. That's cool.

 

MilleniumMeister, please start your own thread. Hijacking another's thread is against forum policy.

:major

 

Gah! Sorry. Only just made this account. All my stuff is on that computer, so I was freaking out a bit. I read the rules, I just suck at remembering stuff.