Inspiron 2650 booting and freezing problems

Question

Hello,

I have an inspiron 2650 that several times for the past day has refused to start. I press the power button and the notebook starts but the screen is blank and the machine does not boot. The power light does stay on after pressing the power button. I can also turn the power light off with the power button.

I reseated the memory and that helped but after a while the notebook fails to restart again. It seems that it works only if it is started when it is cool. Once it warms up the problems start. Sometimes it would reboot by itself and hang.

This occurs with AC and battery power.

I tried to run the diagnostics but it freezes before I have a chance.

Is there a chance the memory is bad or is this a mainboard failure? The notebook has a single 128MB chip. This model was ordered in Jan 2003 and obviously its warranty has expired. I hope the problem is just a bad memory chip but I suspect something may be losing its connection when it expands due to heat.

any insight will be appreciated.

LaBella · Answer

I had to add the fan controls,18kfangui now it never gets too hot to run like before maybe that would help? Although I did have a keyboard freeze once since then...

Zeke2 · Answer

Hi.

I have EXACTLY the same problem with my 18 month old 2650. It worked flawlessly (except for a very loud fan), until a month ago. I began getting blue screens every couple of days... then every couple of hours... Now, I can't get it to even kick-up the BIOS. For a while I was able to start up the lap top (when it froze like this) by removing the battery... unplugging the AC... waiting 15 seconds, then reinstalling the battery. This worked for a while, but even then It'd usually blue screen after a few minutes.

At present, my 2650 is a paperweight. It gets power, but can't even get to BIOS.

Funny how this stuff always happens within a few months of the warranty expiring, huh?

Zeke2 · Answer

Hi again.

Bad news at my end. As I said, I had similar behaviour.. finally took apart the laptop to see what was going on... and found my Intel Microprocessor had literally melted - it was black, and the surrounding green mounting was blackened as well.

I am now debating whether the expense of replacing the processor on an 18 month old laptop is even worth it... especially since the next processor I put in may melt as well (if by chance it turns out that the laptop has heat sinking problems in general). The only thing keeping me from throwing my 2650 into a lake somewhere is my concern for wildlife and the environment.

My loyalty to Dell is being tested right now; If I can't find a cheap Microprocessor replacement, then I will have to give new consideration to the other brand alternatives that I turned my nose up at.

Hope you don't find what I did.

parkerti · Answer

Zeke2 - Wow, sorry to hear about your 2650. Bad luck for sure. Whatever brand you decide on, or if you just repair your 2650 (check Ebay for parts maybe?) remember that a very loud fan condition on any notebook is a signal to the user that there is a heat dissipation issue going on within the machine - probably with the CPU. Often a little regular maintenance (cleaning the heatsink fins with canned air) to get the crud and dust out will make a big difference. I'm probably preaching to the choir by now but sometimes we tend to ignore the obvious if we don't know it's an issue.

Best of luck.

Tim

flyerx · Answer

Thanks for the replies,

I called technical support and the person on the phone was rather helpful. After removing memory, HD, CD, and battery it booted properly while connected to AC power. It seems that the memory chip was damaged.

I went to Crucial and got a replacement memory chip. Right now I am using the notebook with no problems with 128 MB RAM (1/2 of its original) while the new memory chip arrives.

later,

FlyerX

parkerti · Answer

Great news FlyerX. Here's to a long, trouble free life for your machine. Tim

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Inspiron 2650 booting and freezing problems

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