Dell Vostro 1000 Laptop Won't Power Up

[Peter Macintosh]

Good Afternoon,

A friend's Dell Vostro 1000 laptop is back in the shop today. He says that performance was getting really slow. Then the screen blinked, went out, came back on and then went out for good, system completely not responding. When he tried to power back on, he heard a couple of "noises" ... but then nothing.

I looked it over. I pulled the battery and held the power on button for a few, then reseated the battery, to clear any static issues there might have been. When trying to start up, the power button lights green, there's the noise of the CD player, and I can hear the internal fan for a second or two. The power light says on, but no further response. No screen activity, does not make it to the BIOS.

Since I used to own this machine, I remember it freezing on me like this before. Something to do with removing the battery, holding the power switch a bit, then reseating the battery. That worked then, but not this time.

Sounds like this time it could be either power supply or logic board. How might I go about troubleshooting further?

Thanks,

-PeterMac

[jdc2000]

Have you tried these steps:
Disconnect both Battery and AC Adapter.
Check to make sure the memory (Ram) is properly seated (Remove and reinstall).
Hold the power button for thirty seconds to one minute.
Reinstall the Battery and AC Adapter.
See if it powers up.


Also, try removing the battery and just powering it with the AC adapter. A shorteed or dead battery could cause this. Finally, check the AC adapter with a multimeter to see if it is suplpying the correct voltage.

[Peter Macintosh]

Hi, J,

(Thks for Thread Move ... forgot there was separate one for Laptop Hardware)

Pulled battery & AC, held powr off 60 sec, no dice. Pulled & reseated RAM. RAM inspection ok, no obvious problems, orig RAM w/laptop. Repeated battery & AC. Still no dice.

Power adapter is OEM, appears 100% ok (no meter available, may get one over weekend).

Think I'll pull HD and test on another machine using USB encl. If drive ok, will reinstall.

Something small is rattling inside (plastic part?). Will open machine up and look inside either Fri PM or Sat PM.

~ Hmmm ... screen going in/out then out ... sounds like a short ...!

-PeterMac

[Peter Macintosh]

UPDATE:

Pulled HD and tested it externally; it's working ok. Cust happy all his data is intact.

I didn't open the machine up yet, because of work schedule that may have to wait til Tue.

Interesting, can buy replacement Vostro on eBay for around $40 (less HD and adapter, of course). He might go that way if I can't revive current machine.

-PeterMac

[Peter Macintosh]

I mark that resolved ... but not in the way that I would have preferred.

The laptop still won't boot. Probable logic board issue. Power supply ok, power is getting to the machine, USB ports are active. But 'puter won't boot, won't even reach the BIOS. I reseated RAM, reseated CMOS battery .. no dice.

There are same model laptops available on eBay for < $40 ... could transfer the drive, and *-voila-* back in business. Old machine available for parts or can be resold as such. Customer would rather this risk than replacing the logic board and that turning out to not be the issue.

Happy 4th, everyone!

-Peter Mac