Inspiron 1501 Failure to Boot After Flash BIOS Upgrade

If a BIOS flash goes wrong it can cause the system board to become inoperable.  I do suggest troubleshooting the system first though just to make sure there isn’t another cause.

1. Check that the system has a power light.

2. If the system has no power light, ensure it is plugged into AC power. Remove the battery.

3. An incorrectly seated memory module may cause a no-POST situation and not display an LED error code. If the system has power but nothing else happens, reseat the memory modules in the unit.

4. If the system has power but is not performing a POST, check if the keyboard status lights flash to indicate a successful POST.  Press the caps lock or num lock key and see if the corresponding LEDs come on. If they do it indicates that the system is turning on, there is just no video.  Plug an external monitor and power up the system and see if you get an image on the external monitor.  Otherwise if the LED s doesn’t light, continue troubleshooting.

5. With the power off and the system unplugged, remove all easy accessible devices (ac adapter, battery, the device in the media bay, the hard drive, system memory, the modem, and the wireless card) from the system and reconnect the AC adapter to the system and try again.

Basically the idea here is determine if this is a power issue or not.  If the system is still getting power then the idea is to isolate the system board as close as possible to verify if the problem is the system board or something else.   Often enough it could be some other device that may be shorting the system out, that may be causing the issue and may have stopped the BIOS update from completing.  Reseating the device may correct the problem and get the system up and working again.

If you verify that the system board is inoperable shoot me a private message with the service tag and your contact info and I will research any possible service options.

TB