Inspiron 1100 No power up

[bithead9]

Hi folks,
Anyone ever fix one of these Dell piece of junk laptops ?
Will only power up for 1 or 2 seconds and fan starts. Even got the Dell LCD disply once. The battery is not charginf properly. The LED is no on as you would expect when charging. I downloaded a BIOS update that says it correct bad POWER charging problems. Except I cannt charge the battery to pu on the flash update! Figures. I am trying to get a friends battery (hoepfully matches) to try the bios upadte. I thnik the unit will start with a FRESH battery. I tried everything, taking out HDD, memory reseating, etc. Cannot power up with AC mains in with or witout battery installed. Unit was taken to CompUSA (before I got it) and they say main board problem. But those tech usually are not the MOST knowledgable.

Any suggestiongs o hints on this unit ?

By the way the unit IS out of warranty (1 miserly year).

 

[franklin97355]

I'd say it's a lost cause and you should cut your losses.

 

[ronnyjljr]

Dell laptops are worthless. They are noisey and poorly designed (unlike their Desktop powerhouses). Be sure that your contacts on your battery are touching the contacts inside, I have had to juggle a few batteries around in order to get power.

-Ron

/**************
Me: When will the project be finished?
Them: What project?
Me: The one you have been working on for the last 3 years!
Them: Ohh, we can't finish it?
Me: Why?
Them: We don't know how to program...

 

[willcomp]

Had similar problem with Inspiron 1100. Bad motherboard. Was replaced under warranty on this one.

 

[bithead9]

OK final question on this unit. Does anyone out here know how the ON/OFF printed circuit board on this unit works ? It has a couple of SMD LEDS and carbon switches. Used to turn on, etc. I am wondering if maybe this assembly is BAD. Is there any way to bypass the board and tell the mainboard to power up ? I've seen the boards on sale in Ebay too. Thanks to eveyone for their responses so far!