Inspiron 3521 Booting Issues.

Question

*Sorry this may be confusing but I do not have photos available to help show what is going on so I am going to do my best to describe everything that I am seeing. So please read carefully. Towards the end, I listed the screens in steps to help facilitate what I am seeing and at what time.* Hello, I have an older Inspiron 3521 (touchscreen) that will not boot up. It has the original Dell battery but says that it is not a Dell battery. I do not know why. Even removing the battery and replacing it (this is the ONLY battery I have) it still doesn't read it as such. Having it removed also does not help me advance past the problems stated. I did remove the battery and tried to boot it up but keep getting stuck in a 'Checking Media: Fail' loop and that there is 'No boot device found'. It is important to note that there is no CD or DVD in the disk drive, no SD card in the SD card reader, no USB cords connected to the computer. The battery (when I tried to boot up with it attached to the computer) is original and came with the laptop when it was bought brand new. The power cord used to power the laptop is also the original power cord from Dell. This laptop has no missing or damaged keys, screen, etc. It is in tip-top condition as far as the inside goes. The disk drive however keeps popping out the disk tray and has been pushed back into the computer (with care) and taped up so that it can not pop out. When my laptop would boot up this was never an issue with the computer. So long as that tray is pushed into the computer and is kept shut the computer registers it as closed. From the beginning: This is after I first turned on my laptop and got to the Dell Logo screen, it did the rotating dot icon at the bottom like it was about to move on to the login screen but instead gave me an error message. I hadn't at that point turned or had this laptop plugged in in almost two years. The second round of trying to boot it I got the same message as before but managed to get this blue screen (unfortunately) I only managed to get into once - though I did not get a good photo of it and can not get back to that screen to snap a photo of it now. This blue screen allowed me to see the Dell Logo and get to where I could select my options using the F-keys. The photos of the F-keys are what my options were to select, but I exited without making any saved choices. (This is WITH the battery - that wasn't being read - still attached to the computer). On my third round, I kept getting stuck in the cycle of getting the 'checking media: fail' and 'no boot drive found'. On my fourth round (without the battery) I just kept getting the 'checking media: fail' and 'no boot drive found'. Is this perhaps a hard drive issue? Or what can I do to work around this? This is verbatim what the screens say: *Steps* taken and what is seen '...' written on each screen The Black screen immediately after hitting the power button: One: 'WARNING: The battery cannot be identified. The system will be unable to charge this battery. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run setup the utility.' *Pressed F1* Now solid black screen. Two: Black Dell Logo screen with a dotted circle loading icon. Three: (can't remember how I got to this but I wound up on this solid blue screen with white-colored font) Solid blue screen - reached after Dell logo/black screen appeared with a dotted circle loading icon just below the Dell logo. Unfortunately, this is the screen I did not get a good photo of and can not reach again. I also can not recall anything it said. Four: 'Checking media [Fail] Checking media_' Five: 'No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot the machine_' Six: Solid black screen. Seven: Black loading screen with Dell logo (no dotted circle loading icon). Eight: the battery warning screen/F-keys screen. Nine: F2 hit - Setup Utility Menu: Ten: Back to black Dell Logo screen. Eleven: Now I am checking out the option to load into the InsydeH20 Setup Utility menu which shows (all the text below) beneath each tab. (Note that nothing was selected, changed or saved before exiting this menu). 'Main' tab of the InsydeH20 Setup Utility *White text* System Time: [14:47:07] *Blue text* System Date: [05/07/2021 ] *Black text* BIOS Version: A07 *Black text* Product Name: Inspiron 3521 *Black text* Service Tag: (numbers)(Letter)(number) *Black text* Asset Tag: *nothing listed* *Black text* CPU Type: Intel Pentium CPU 2127U *Black text* CPU Speed: 1.90 GHz *Black text* CPU ID: 306A9 *Black text* CPU Cache: *Black text* L1 Cache: 0032 KB *Black text* L2 Cache: 0256 KB *Black text* L3 Cache: 2048 KB *Black text* Fixed HDD: Hitachi HTS(numbers)A(numbers)E(numbers) <500GB> *Black text* SATA ODD: [Not Detected] *Black text* AC Adapter Type: <65W> *Black text* Total Memory: 4096 MB *Black text* System Memory Speed: 1600 Mhz 'Advanced' tab of the InsydeH20 Setup Utility: *White text* Intel SpeedStep: *Blue text* Virtualization: *Blue text* Integrated NIC: *Blue text* USB Emulation: *Blue text* USB Wake Support: *Blue text* SATA Operation: *Blue text* Adapter Warnings: *Blue text* Function Key Behavior: *Black text* Battery Health: *Blue text* |> Micellaneous Devices: *nothing listed* *Black text* 'Security' tab of the InsydeH20 Setup Utility: *Black text* Admin Password : Not Installed *Black text* System Password: Not Istalled *White text* Admin Password: *nothing listed* *Blue text* System Password: *nothing listed* *Blue text* |> HDD Password: *nothing listed* *Blue text* Password Change: *Blue text* Computrace 'Boot' tab of the InsydeH20 Setup Utility: *Black text* |> LEGACY BOOT: *nothing listed* *White text* |> UEF I BOOT: *nothing listed* *Blue text* Secure Boot: *Black text* Load Legacy Option Rom: *Black text* Boot List Option: *Blue text* Secure Boot Mode: *Black text* Restore Factory Defaults: *nothing listed* *Black text* Delete all Security Boot Keys: *nothing listed* *Blue text* Add Boot Option: *nothing listed* *Black text* Delete a Boot Option: *nothing listed* *Black text* View Boot Option Properties: *nothing listed* 'Exit' tab of the InsydeH20 Setup Utility: *White text* Exit Saving Changes *Blue text* Save Change Without Exit *Blue text* Exit Discarding Changes *Blue text* Load Optimal Defaults *Blue text* Discard Changes Without doing anything in the Setup Utility menu I keep getting the: 'Checking media [Fail] Checking media_' screen and then right after the 'No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot machine_' after the black screen with Dell logo (no dotted circle loading icon). This is a constant cycle and nothing changes. The blue screen mentioned above is never reached again. I have done this with and without the battery (which again) is the actual original from the factory when the laptop was purchased brand new; the laptop battery and its the original cord. I also made sure I had no USB cords connected, SD card reader slot is empty as well as the CD/DVD ROM drive is also empty. Is this a hard drive issue? Is there any way to get this laptop to boot up past this? I don't get the option to boot into 'Safe Mode' (which is how I think I got that blue screen in the first place). Could the hard drive be salvaged via an external hard drive reader? Thank you all so very much for any and all help!

ejn63 · Answer

Press F12 a few times at powerup.  You're very likely going to find your hard drive has failed.

R.W.Ott · Answer

Thank you, I will try that tomorrow.

If my hard drive has failed - that means all my files are lost?

I am not overly concerned about getting the laptop back into working order as I have recently purchased a new Dell Inspiron - but without an external hard drive reader - I have no way to get my files off my old laptop unless I can get it to boot up and get to where I can log in and startup wifi and do a file dump to a cloud site.

Again thank you!

Inspiron

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