Laptop will not post. *help please*

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Hello everyone,

I've got a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop here that seems to have serious issues. Thing is, when trying to power up the laptop i can't even get it to post before the thing shuts down, automatically. If the laptop sits for about ~2 hours without trying to boot up, it will startup fine (although if you moreless touch the laptop during POST it will completely lock). After trying to restart the computer again, you can hear it power on briefly for 3-4 seconds then automatically turn off again, followed by a brief beep. I've trying running straight from the battery, no battery, without all drives, etc etc. I can't even boot to a floppy. I've got to windows on the laptop twice, and it operated seamlessly. No lockups, no hangups, worked perfect. There's got to be something hardware related that is loose/broken. Has anyone heard of something along these lines? Any help/suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[FlyingPenguin]

You sure it's not overheating? Is the fan running?

You'll just have to open it up and see if there's any frayed or loose wires, or anything that might be shorting. Blow it our with canned air - might be a metal particle shorting something intermittently.

If it dies when you touch try tapping it with a screw driver handle and see if you can isolate where it's touchy.

Hope this helps...

 

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I'm starting to think it's a bad mobo or RAM.. The laptop as far as i know shouldn't be overheating, especially with only 3 seconds of use, literally. I can't even post - must be a RAM or mobo issue

 

[Utterman]

Have you changed or done anything since the time it was working until it has stopped working?

 

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Originally posted by: Utterman
Have you changed or done anything since the time it was working until it has stopped working?

not my laptop, and to the best of my knowledge there was nothing changed since it was working fine. I tried pulling out a stick of RAM at a time and trying different slots to see if it was possibly bad RAM - didn't help. If it does get to the "Dell" boot screen, it just locks up. I'm thinking the motherboard is screwed - but then again i could be wrong.