Vostro 1500 Dead as dead can be...any suggestions??

Sounds like your mother board is shot. Looks like it would be something possibly in the power supply section.

As to your data the hard drive may very well be good and you could get an adapter to put the drive in and plug it into your husbands computer to be able to access your files.

To recover data, purchase a 2.5" USB 2.0 SATA drive case, mount the hard drive in it, and attach it to a working system by USB.  Copy your data.

Unfortunately, the meaning of

"One thing I have noticed though is this.  When my AC adapter is plugged into the wall but not into the computer, the light is green.  T"

is that the mainboard is faulty - out of warranty this is a $400-500 repair.  it may make more sense to replace rather than repair the system.

Well, not what I wanted to hear, but thank you both for the amazingly quick reply!  Looks like I need to start looking for a new system. 

Anything I could have done to prevent this?  I used it a lot.  Sometimes 10+ hours a day.  Is that too much to ask from a laptop?  Is is normal that it would die in under two years?

Thank you both again for your very quick response!

I have owned my VOSTRO 1500 for 18 months now and it died yesterday. Exactly the same thing: no warning, nothing, just died. I don't have the AC adapter problem you have though, and I'm almost sure this has something to do with the NVIDIA 8400M card that it's inside.

Just like you, this laptop has been like my right arm, the best computer I've ever owned and right now I feel desperate and lost. It has served me well for a wide range of different uses, from normal word processing to GIS stuff and gaming. I've used it in standard conditions so I really don't know why it failed. And dell people is asking for $250 to replace the GPU...

17 months..and mine just died...no warning. Just died. And Dell is no help...I think they have a problem. But can't get to anyone without paying more.

Haven't checked into it in a month or so, but shortly after mine died I found out that just about every other Vostro model had it's waranty extended for a year.  Every model but the 1500 that is.  The extension supposedly has something to do with the Nvidia graphics and overheating.  I would love to know if all our 1500s died for the same reason. We have the same components but the way the 1500 is designed I guess they think it doesn't overheat.  Funny, because mine used to get really hot.  In fact when mine died my son was transferring music to his new ipod and it seemed exceptionally hot.  It wasn't plugged in and I thought the battery just died, but that wasn't the case.  

Well, A customer of mine also had a 1500 die this past Friday, it was purchased on 9/15/07, just 19 months old...  It died while in the middle of use.  They state that they were in the middle of typing a word document, then they got a BSOD.  When they powered it off, it never came back on.  I checked it today, the battery is full, the power supply works.  If I hit the power button, the power light will come on for roughly 1 second, then nothing.  Pretty lame if you ask me.  The customer is now asking me about the alternatives (HP - IBM) for future business computer purchases.

When this happened to mine I couldn't get it to come on at all, but I read somewhere that if the numlock or caplock lights are flashing I think you may have a chance to save it, it is some sort of glitch or something I think, I can't remember.  I googled it and found proceedures at the time.  

Okay, so now I am just getting angry again.  I have since replaced my laptop, but after a few weeks of making my orginal post I started seeing replies like yours.  Then I see that Dell is extending the warranty on just about every other Vostro try this link - http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

I think we need advice from someone who understands how this Nvidia GPU issue affects the Vostros and if it could be causeing the problems we have encountered.  If so we need to press Dell on getting the Vostro 1500 added to the list.  I don't know how the 1510 differs, but it is on the list as is the 1400.  I believe all have the same Nvidia GPU in question.  The Direct2Dell blog mentions the problems you can encounter being no video, lines in video, etc.  Other blogs I found talked about bigger problems caused by overheating, but I'm not that techie so I don't fully understand how big the problem can be.  I need help understanding if they could cause our machines to just die as they did.  I've read this problem with Nvidia GPUs is quite a big thing and really tring to be kept on the D/L.  If it's not the GPU, is it something else that is faulty?  Are we all having the exact same problem?

Yah, this is starting to become a pattern with Dell.  This is about my 5th product that has had premature failure.  First it was issues with the laptop batteries at our company.  Then 3 of our Optiplex GX280 systems died with defective capacitors on the mainboard, they replaced the mainboards within the short extended warranty window but then about 6 months later, the new mainboards failed again, same issue - oozing capacitors.  By now the extended warranty period was over and they wouldn't replace them when we called, so we had to toss those.  6 months ago we ordered 30 dell 2208WFP flat panel monitors.  Almost all but 3 have died from backlight failure. Luckily they carry a 3 year warranty and dell has replaced all of them with refurbs so far.  Now this with the vostro 1500.  So after all of this, I have finally made the switch and am now buying strictly HP and some IBM/Lenovo.  I just ordered an HP proliant dl380 g5p and I will say it is one top notch piece of hardware.  I did have an issue with what HP specs state on their website and what was delivered with the server.  (it was missing a battery for the write cache on the RAID card, they promptly shipped out the missing part overnight).  At any rate, I contacted dell regarding this vostro 1500 to see about getting it inspected for premature failure/defect.  I pretty much got the run-around.  First few calls I was transferred to different departments that were closed.  When I finally made my case to someone about this laptop, and all the troubleshooting i tried (swapped out mem, replaced battery pack, diff power supply) and how this has to be manufacture defect (I also brought up the Nvidia GPU issue), I was told my only option was to pay a 1 time $49 fee to have him troubleshoot over the phone with me or contact warranty repair at 800-822-8965.  I also asked about how I can get an investigation going in to a possible recall or system defect, volunteering to mail my laptop in as it is useless.  I was told just to call the warranty repair dept.  So at this point, I'm wondering if we can gather some system stats (Service tags, system specs, serial numbers, etc) and somehow get someone at dell to notice.

I would love to get dell to notice. But I don't know how. Everytime I call or try to do something online they ask for my service tag, once they see it is out of warrenty I can not get any farther.

I can't believe they don't see or don't care that all these people are having the same problem with the same laptop.

COME DELL...STEP UP TO THE PLATE!!

I am yet another user with the exact same problem (dead Vostro 1500).

I purchased a new Vostro 1500 in Jan08. Within a  few weeks I notice heat issues included a yellow vertical line showing up on the screen.

i (had an RMA for that, but was on overseas business and could not afford to lose my computer for even a short time. in addition, Dell would not provide warranty service in the Vostro in the country I was at. (Taiwan ~ go figure).

I could deal with the heat issues and LCD screen issue, but at around 15 months old, it just flat out died in the middle of use. No blue screen or anything, it just quickly turned off and never turned back on.

I was just told by Dell after warranty repair the cost for motherboard replacement is $358.

Lastly, I am so extremely disappointed by this lemon that I will never, ever  EVER buy another Dell again as long as I live.    Good-bye Dell, you just lost a good customer.

Whatever you buy next, make sure you get a 3-year warranty.  As you've seen, notebooks are inherently unreliable devices and there's no statistical difference in reliability between brands - not surprising since 80% of all notebooks are made by just two companies.  They ALL fail at the rate of about 1 in 5 with a major component in the first three years.

1) Well, in response to your latest comment, what they say is that the NVIDIA GPU in Vostro 1500 and 1700 shouldn't experience the well known problem because in these models the GPU is not soldered to the mother board, but comes as a separate module instead. What I wonder is, isn't the GPU soldered to that other module? If so, the thermal stress it should experience should just be lower, and that's why our systems didn't fail in the first year, but after a few months the warranty expired. But I'm just guessing.

2) In my case, the GPU didn't die. I took it to a dell autorized service center in my city, and they told me the failure was with the mother board.

3) Then I wonder, why did it die!? I use my laptop a lot, yes, and I almost dare to say that we all that have used the vostro 1500 know that it usually gets a bit hot, but I NEVER took it over the limit. Never made any changes to the hardware, always used certified drivers, always used in cool places, I EVEN let the laptop get cool for around 15 mins before putting it into my bag.

4) I wonder what is the "normal" failure rate for these kind of systems. Maybe what we are experiencing is just the "planned" failure rate designed or expected by DELL... (that would be awfully bad of course, I just wonder that)

5) What should we do now? Do you think is there anything we can do?