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

JAFL

New Member
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.
 

biscuits

New Member
since the hard drive light isn't on i'd have to suggest opening the laptop and unpluging the ram and harddrive and replugging it and if this doesnt work im guessing your hard drive is dead
 

JAFL

New Member
since the hard drive light isn't on i'd have to suggest opening the laptop and unpluging the ram and harddrive and replugging it and if this doesnt work im guessing your hard drive is dead

Do you know of any service guides or diagrams that show how to do this? I'm a computer repair newbie, so as easy as it sounds, I wouldn't know what to look for. Thanks.
 

JAFL

New Member
Couple questions?
Did you try starting in safe mode? Restart then tap the 'F8' key then start in safe mode when the menu comes up. On another note you likely have a button battery on the motherboard that likely needs to be replaced. try looking here. http://search.dell.com/results.aspx...&~srd=False&ipsys=False&advsrch=False&~ck=tab

I can't try starting in safe mode because nothing ever appears on the screen, it's black. I'll look into the button battery, thanks.
 

wolfeking

banned
if there is nothing on the screen, try booting with a external VGA monitor. That will tell you some very useful information. It is possible that your LCD that is built in has failed, or may have become unattached from the power or data cable.
 

JAFL

New Member
if there is nothing on the screen, try booting with a external VGA monitor. That will tell you some very useful information. It is possible that your LCD that is built in has failed, or may have become unattached from the power or data cable.

I'll see if I can find an external monitor to try this on, but at the moment I don't have access. Just wondering though, even if it was a monitor problem, wouldn't the hard drive still show all signs of going through it's normal bootup? (i.e. light flickering on and off, being able to hear it, etc.).
 

wolfeking

banned
that it would, but i am trying to narrow one issue at a time. If we can get it to show video, then we can test the hard drive for problems. baby steps is what is required with computers.
 

JAFL

New Member
that it would, but i am trying to narrow one issue at a time. If we can get it to show video, then we can test the hard drive for problems. baby steps is what is required with computers.

I found a working vga monitor and just tried it. Still no video on the other monitor either. Also tried reseating the hard drive and ram, but no luck.
 
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wolfeking

banned
if you are not getting video, then I do not think there is much a tech could do with it. It may reinforce our diagnoses though. I would say it may be worth it, as he may be able to think of something to try that we might have overlooked.
 

tigerboy1999

New Member
Try these:

Does bios appear on screen?
Try connecting an external monitor. If the screen burnt out this will fix.
Try taking out the battery and power, holding the power button for 15 secs, then plug in and boot up!
 

JAFL

New Member
Does bios appear on screen?
Try connecting an external monitor. If the screen burnt out this will fix.
Try taking out the battery and power, holding the power button for 15 secs, then plug in and boot up!

I've tried all of this but no luck.
 

JAFL

New Member
Update: I removed the CMOS for about 20 minutes, reinserted it and did a reboot attempt. Still nothing. Another board suggested trying to reseat the cpu, but that requires taking apart the machine and I'm not really up for that unless there's a good chance that would work. Sounds like I'm out of luck unless I pay someone to diagnose it.

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?
 
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