Hello everyone,
I'm having a serious problem with my laptop right now and I'm fearing the worst: a bad motherboard, a problem which I have found to be pretty common with 1525 users through Google/forum searches. Hopefully someone out there can relate and has a remedy that will save me money/time/hassles with my laptop, which by the way has been out of warranty for about 6 months.
I purchased the 1525 last April (2008) direct from Dell. Here are the vital specs: Inspiron 1525, Intel Core 2 Duo T5550, 1.83GHz, 667Mhz, 2ML2 Cache. I've never really had any problem with it until yesterday morning. I woke up and pressed the power button after allowing the system to hibernate the night before. The power LED lights up in the bottom left and the touch-sensitive media buttons flash from side-to-side like normal. I hear the optical drive "click," the fan whirs for a few seconds, but there is no action on my screen whatsoever. Pitch black with no flashing or any indication of life. A few seconds later, the computer powers down suddenly. I was stunned, and tried countless times after that but got the same result every time.
Figuring it was a battery or A/C adapter issue, I removed the battery (which is in fine shape, by the way), and tried powering on through just the A/C adapter. Same thing, no luck. Then I tried just using the battery. No luck again. Frightened that something might be wrong with my hardware, I immediately went onto another laptop to search the internet for people who've had similar problems. I read that it could be any combination of the following: bad RAM, bad peripherals, or a bad motherboard. I come to the conclusion I'm having a pre-BIOS failure, where one or more of the checks the computer does before booting is resulting in failure.
So, I turned over the computer and reseated the RAM, including taking out one stick at a time, switching ports, and even using other modules. No luck there. I read that it could be a faulty connector with the monitor, but I couldn't find anything wrong with that in the front panel. I also read a suggestion to hold down the power button for 30 seconds with the battery out. Did that, no luck. Also heard it could be the CMOS battery dead, though I would think that would be unlikely after only 18 months? Still, I'm gonna have to basically disassemble my computer to change that thing.
If anyone out there could help or has any suggestions, please send them along. I must also note two weird coincidences. The fact that it occured the night of Daylight Savings ("falling back" an hour) and that I upgraded to Windows 7 a few weeks ago. I made sure my computer was compatible and that I installed the right version, but I can't help but think it isn't compatible with my motherboard/integrated graphics card? Maybe, maybe not.
Thanks in advance for the help!
-Bill
I'm having a serious problem with my laptop right now and I'm fearing the worst: a bad motherboard, a problem which I have found to be pretty common with 1525 users through Google/forum searches. Hopefully someone out there can relate and has a remedy that will save me money/time/hassles with my laptop, which by the way has been out of warranty for about 6 months.
I purchased the 1525 last April (2008) direct from Dell. Here are the vital specs: Inspiron 1525, Intel Core 2 Duo T5550, 1.83GHz, 667Mhz, 2ML2 Cache. I've never really had any problem with it until yesterday morning. I woke up and pressed the power button after allowing the system to hibernate the night before. The power LED lights up in the bottom left and the touch-sensitive media buttons flash from side-to-side like normal. I hear the optical drive "click," the fan whirs for a few seconds, but there is no action on my screen whatsoever. Pitch black with no flashing or any indication of life. A few seconds later, the computer powers down suddenly. I was stunned, and tried countless times after that but got the same result every time.
Figuring it was a battery or A/C adapter issue, I removed the battery (which is in fine shape, by the way), and tried powering on through just the A/C adapter. Same thing, no luck. Then I tried just using the battery. No luck again. Frightened that something might be wrong with my hardware, I immediately went onto another laptop to search the internet for people who've had similar problems. I read that it could be any combination of the following: bad RAM, bad peripherals, or a bad motherboard. I come to the conclusion I'm having a pre-BIOS failure, where one or more of the checks the computer does before booting is resulting in failure.
So, I turned over the computer and reseated the RAM, including taking out one stick at a time, switching ports, and even using other modules. No luck there. I read that it could be a faulty connector with the monitor, but I couldn't find anything wrong with that in the front panel. I also read a suggestion to hold down the power button for 30 seconds with the battery out. Did that, no luck. Also heard it could be the CMOS battery dead, though I would think that would be unlikely after only 18 months? Still, I'm gonna have to basically disassemble my computer to change that thing.
If anyone out there could help or has any suggestions, please send them along. I must also note two weird coincidences. The fact that it occured the night of Daylight Savings ("falling back" an hour) and that I upgraded to Windows 7 a few weeks ago. I made sure my computer was compatible and that I installed the right version, but I can't help but think it isn't compatible with my motherboard/integrated graphics card? Maybe, maybe not.
Thanks in advance for the help!
-Bill
