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23055
Dell Inspiron M5110 no USB or Wifi
Hi everybody, I just bought a bright and shiny red Dell Inspiron M5110 on Ebay, "For Parts Or Not Working". It came to me with the charger only, no discs, and the reported problem was that in BIOS it showed "No Hard Drive Found". I dismantled it and found that the HDD was broken so I slipped in an Hitachi 320GB, reassembled it and it loaded Windows 7 from another Dell disc in my possession so an hour later it was in working order. However the Wifi/ Ethernet cable and USB ports on both sides do not work so I cannot connect to the Internet but the Bluetooth does work. Using the Bluetooth I flashed the BIOS by transferring A05 from my Desktop but if I try to enter BIOS it requires a System or Administrator password , neither of which I have.
I have stripped it again and rechecked the antenna connections and the I/O board - motherboard connection, removed the CMOS battery but nothing solves this. If the WLAN card is broken I have another from a Dell Studio 1558 - could I replace it with this? However the fact the USB port on the other side is not working suggests it is something to do with the drivers.
So, how can I get a System Password and get the Wifi/USB working?
Please remember any solution cannot involve connecting to the internet though I can send files from my desktop via Bluetooth.
Alan Lewis
23 Posts
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August 16th, 2013 12:00
Well now some good news. I had taken a photo of the WLAN card and I searched for (serial number) Driver and found the correct one then Bluetoothed it my lappy and it installed fine so now I am connected to the internet. The usbs are not working but apparently for that I need the AMD Chipset Driver.
Alan Lewis
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August 14th, 2013 14:00
Oh and by the way the "Aerial" light is lit on the front of the laptop though I suppose that may mean the Bluetooth?
dallascowboyswo
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August 14th, 2013 14:00
BIOS password requires proof o ownership so you will have do a transfer of ownership from the seller unless Dell representative on this forum can help you.
Alan Lewis
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August 14th, 2013 14:00
I suppose I could track the original owner via the Seller on Ebay but its unlikely. According to the Service Tag it was constructed in January 2012 and shipped in June 2012. I'd have thought the fact that I can supply photo's of the serial numbers inside was reasonable proof of my ownership?
dallascowboyswo
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August 14th, 2013 15:00
Go here and enter your service tag and you can look up the manual for your laptop.
www.dell.com/.../19
Alan Lewis
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August 15th, 2013 16:00
Thanks for your reply but the Service Manual only tells me how to dismantle the laptop, which I already know, and the setup manual is aimed at Joe Public who has the discs (I don't). I phoned Dell Support today and was told that they would sell me a Driver disc for £29 but received no reply to my question on the System Password.
This is in contrast to HP who, when I had one of their laptops 2 years out of warranty, offered to send me both discs free of charge.
dallascowboyswo
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August 16th, 2013 12:00
Glad you got it working, but how were you able to get by the system password?
Alan Lewis
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August 16th, 2013 13:00
No not yet but that is a relatively minor concern. I will deal with it as soon as I can but the main thing is that it is functioning normally now and I haven't had to give away £29 of my hard earned!