Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop won't power up

[stokey7873]

hey guys,
my laptop has just died and i have no clue how to get this fixed. the laptop started having problems charging the battery i think prior to it collapsing. the power light does not even turn on stating that there is power to the laptop. is there a home fix to this or is this something that needs to be taken back to dell?

thanks

 

[amdskip]

Take it back to Dell if it is under warranty. I'm guessing it's the power supply or power adapter.

 

[prosaic]

That particular Dell notebook (I have one.) has a little "paper-clip hole" on the right side of the case. If you shut down the computer then insert an appropriate tool there (Don't use anything that might break off -- like a pencil or toothpick!) and press in gently you'll reset the BIOS. I don't think it's likely to help, but it's possible, and it's certainly worth the attempt.

The problem you're describing is probably not due simply to failure of an old battery but, rather, to charging subsystem failure or misconfiguration. If you're lucky the BIOS reset will fix it, if you're slightly less lucky a battery and recharger replacement will fix it, and if you're not lucky at all then a MB repair / replacement will be required. That's an old system, probably not under warranty still, right? Mine just went out of its three-year warranty last month. It has suffered two motherboard, two hard drive, one screen and two hinge failures. Not one of Dell's better efforts. My experience with more recent models is scarcely better. I've had it with their portable computers. Most of the failures, I'm convinced, are caused by the cheap, flimsy chassis / shell materials they use. The flexing they undergo during normal use causes connectors and electronics to go through hell, hence the high failure rate. I'll never again buy a notebook in which I can feel any flex whatsoever when I pick it up.

I'd try the BIOS trick then, if that doesn't work, talk with Dell about it.

Good luck!

- prosaic

Edit: Oops! While cataloguing the failures of my Inspiron 7500 I forgot to mention the video card failure. I had the next-business-day service agreement. Not one of these failures took less than a week to resolve! I think that, if I ever do business with Dell again, it will be for desktop systems or, possibly, servers -- but not for portables.

 

[stokey7873]

nope no luck...
you think it might be something with the motherboards onboard battery? i think i remember running into problems on my desktop when that died. thanks for the advice tho

 

[prosaic]

Well, just to be sure -- I'd remove the power adapter, I'd remove then reseat the drive in the removeable drive bay, I'd do the same with the battery, and I'd remove and reseat the hard drive. Then I'd plug in the power adapter and try to start it again. If that didn't work I'd try the same stuff but without the battery in place. There are several points of failure that can cause (approximately) this behavior. I've even seen a hard drive controller failure on this model cause it to simply not power up, though it did try to turn on, as evidenced by a brief flash of of the power light (the left one on the front of the unit) before it lapsed into dead silence.

But I think that, if none of this works, you will have to have a technician with the proper tools / manuals / parts inventory look at it. That almost certainly means sending it to Dell, unless you know someone who REALLY knows his way around notebooks. (Note that I didn't say anything about finding someone who says that he really knows his way around notebooks. The latter greatly outnumber the former -- if you get my drift.)

I think that you should at least call Dell to see what they charge for the service. I'm assuming that you're out of warranty with the unit, judging from what has transpired in the thread so far.

Please post back to this thread to let me know how this is turning out. I strongly suspect, from your description, that this is the charging system. But the point is that if the external power converter module had failed gradually and you ran the system down all the way, you could get the same behavior. It would be much nicer, as in less expensive, to just replace the brick nad its cord than something within the case.

Good luck!

- prosaic

 

[LiLithTecH]

Its more than likely the Battery.

When you remove the battery and press the status
button on the battery charge gauge, how many of the
charge-level indicator lights illuminate? (each lights indicates 20%)

If it is the original battery, there was a recall on a large percent of them.

 

[stokey7873]

its has no reading when i pull the battery out. i tried reseating all the components and still no luck. i think i'm gonna have to cave in and try to get dell to take it. this laptop was sent to us by way of wrong address so its not under our name. don't hate us cause we tried to send it back but they were very difficult to deal... not really worth our time, so we just held onto the laptop. i am not sure how they are gonna react to finding their missing laptop. do you know if they honor third party owners, say if i bought this off someone and its still under warranty?

thanks for all the tips guys