Dell Inspiron 1521 - Boot issues

[d97]

Hi everyone,

I'm having issues with a Dell Inspiron 1521. Basically, when I hit the power button it power on, the CAPS LOCK flashes 45 times and then shutsdown. I get no display at all on the LCD. I hear the HDD spinning and the dvd drive responds when I hit the eject button. I tried reseating the memory and hdd, nothing.

Anyone have any suggestions? I found a site with a bunch of dell error codes, but none of them relate to the CAPS flashing 45 times.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

 

[Triton101]

what was the last thing that was done on the pc? Overclocking? added new hardware? etc....

clear bios/cmos?

unplug everything you don't need.... even HDD/Cdrom drives

just power / cpu/mem/video/mobo

make sure the if the CPU requires the 12v line, it's plugged in

do a look over on the MOBO to see if there are any Capacitors that are bulging (as other posts suggest).





__________________________________________________________
Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. - Confucius

 

[d97]

Sorry, it's a notebook/laptop. I couldn't find a forum for laptops so I hope this is the correct forum.

Basically, nothing at all was done to it prior to it busting. At first, the LCD was acting up, stopped working for a bit, then it started working again and now it's completely dead.

 

[vacunita]

Perhaps the LCD is dead. Have you tried plugging the Laptop to an external monitor? You might need to use the keyboard shortcuts to send the image to the external monitor.

If it works then, then you pretty much know its a screen issue.

Also try without the HDD plugged in.

Do you get any audible beeps?

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[d97]

Yes, I will definitely try that when I get home but do these symptoms occur when an LCD is dead...45 flashes and an automatic shutdown? I forgot to mention that I tried without the HDD in, same reaction. No audible beeps at all, just 45 CAPS LOCK flashes and then then laptop shuts off.

 

[Triton101]

No idea... but rule of thumb is , if everything is unplugged that is not necessary (even flash cards/pcmcia/battery (just try ac adapter) and you still get nowhere (with the external monitor like suggested, then i would see if there is any co-relation with the flashing cap lock being informative...

45 flashes seems like a lot to stare at, and it does not seem useful....

beep codes are usually limited to just a few beeps, so i would imagine the 45 flashes seems like it's in a specific state, like power save or something....

turn on the laptop and right after it starts flashing, press and hold the power button for 5 sec or so till it turns off... see if that has a diff effect.

__________________________________________________________
Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. - Confucius

 

[goombawaho]

45 flashes (not 44 or 46!!!) regardless seems like some bizarre behavior that is NOT a normal malfunction indicator from what I've ever seen.

Are you sure it's not the hard drive light you're looking at that's flashing instead of the CAPS lock light???? That would make a lot more sense, but then again it wouldn't if you said you removed the hard drive and it still did the flashing routine.

I'm thinking dead motherboard if you can't get any output on an external monitor both with and without a hard drive present.

 

[d97]

Hey,

Thanks a lot for the responses. So basically, this is what I have tried.

Connection from a/c to mobo seems to be ok.

I removed the memory module out of the notebook and I tried it on another which has built in memory with an open external slot. When I did that, the working laptop was dead. So I figured, the memory must be dead.

Today, I bought a brand new kingston memory module. I replaced it but it did not fix it. BUT, the CAPS lock flashing 45 seconds is gone, it doesn't do it anymore. When I put the old module back, it went back to the 45 flashes but I now have the new one installed and the 45 second incident is gone.

Right now, when I power it up (with no battery installed)..I hear the fan spin for about 2-3 seconds and then it stops and nothing happens. The Power light and the green light on the DVD remain solid. The notebook doesn't respond to any keystrokes (for eg caps lock. the light doesnt come up). It responds to the power button (turns off when I hit it). I hooked it up to an external monitor and I get no signal.

Any other suggestions? I'm thinking maybe a dead HDD? Should I maybe try to buy an external closure and see if my PC detects it? Or is their any other way I can test it?

goombawaho, the laptop should still successfully boot and display something, even with the HDD not installed?

Thanks

 

[goombawaho]

goombawaho, the laptop should still successfully boot and display something, even with the HDD not installed?"

Yes, you should see POST messages and progress and you can go into the BIOS with no drives (optical or hard) attached to any type of computer. That's why I'm suspicious of the board. Therefore, it's not a dead hard drive. That wouldn't whack the machine out that much. But remove it anyway to rule something out.

It's a shame you bought more memory without testing what you had.

First, I would pull the hard drive out and see if it makes any difference in the behavior.

Second, I would pull ALL the memory out in addition to the
hard drive and see if the machine beeps. It should do a beep code basically complaining "I don't have any memory".

If it doesn't, I suspect dead motherboard because a healthy motherboard will cry out with beep codes if there is no memory installed.

Then see my first reply here on how to test memory (in another laptop if necessary). Then try booting from it on the machine in question. I doubt it will even boot, but give it a try.

 

[goombawaho]

Sorry My first reply here:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1618875&page=1

 

[d97]

I booted with no HDD - same symptoms
I booted with no HDD and No Memory - same symptoms

So, looks like a dead mobo

 

[goombawaho]

Unless anybody else has an idea, that would be my conclusion because motherboards definitely have beep codes for when memory is not present.

 

[G0AOZ]

The only suggestion I can make, although most unlikely, is to try clearing CMOS. May not be worthwhile unless the battery is easy to get at. It usually isn't...

Laptops sometimes use a small lithium cell like an ML1220 which is about 12mm diameter. Disconnect PSU connector from laptop, unclip main laptop battery, then remove the CMOS battery. Now short out the CMOS battery terminals on the motherboard. This zeroes any residual voltage being held by on-board capacitors.

Now put battery back and see if it makes any difference...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadBigBen]

Q: have you attempted a Hard-Reset?


How to Hard Reset a Laptop

http://www.ehow.com/how_4450822_hard-reset-laptop.html

other than that, the mainboard may very well be TOAST..

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

Why are we giving toast a bad name??? When did this happen?