HD failure system board fried??

Question

I left my Inspiron 5K on my desk for close to 3 weeks without use. I don't remember moving it, dropping it, or anything.. I went to turn it on. Power green light goes on, battery light is flashing, recharging as it should, fan spins for about 2 seconds, shuts down, A: drive seems to click once. Screen doesn't even flicker. Everything stops. WTF? I force-shut down by holding power button down for 7 secs. It shuts off as it should. I start taking peripherals out. restart. reseat memory. restart. nothing. nothing. i look up how to remove the hard drive. Uh-oh. Clicking. I turn it upside down. Something rattles inside. I think I've had my first HD failure. Oh joy. And me without backup. I ask some techie friends. They say a HD definitely shouldn't sounds like that. They suggest getting a replacement. I do.

The HD finally comes in. I put it in, get a boot disk ready. I'm all psyched.

Nothing changes. Same behavior, power on, one click on A: drive. nothing else. ugh. I bring it in to our company's IT people. They do some testing, without opening the case. They think the system board got fried when the HD failed, since they can't even get to the BIOS.

I show it to a friend. He starts taking the thing apart, we follow the Dell guide for Certified technicians (I've had this computer for way too long, no hope for any warranty. Plus it seems mad easy!). We get all into it and take it down to the system board. Meanwhile, I had written to Dell's tech support explaining the issue. They just now sent back a huuuge list of testing mostly related to video. Now I am thinking, is it worth putting it all together just to do these tests? I have neat rows and rows of screws and parts on my desk, and I feel if I just ordered the right part I could put it in and be done with it..

Anyone ever ran into something like this? Suggestions?

johnallg · Answer

All you can do is reseat everything, especially the cpu and ram.  As for the hdd, notebook drives will make that sound.  I would take the old drive, 'palm' it like a basketball, and give it a couple sharp twists.  I think is is fine.  It is acting like it has no ram - make sure you reseat them and have them fully into the socket before locking them down.

battl3g1rl · Answer

So, I put it all back together. Good news: I didn't break it further. Bad news: it's same as before.

I tried Dell's tests. Most were for video. Nothing responded. It is not video, though, since the keyboard doesn't even respond (caps on test). i replied sending comments or behavior description to each suggested test.

they replied back, suggested i install an operating system, so we could test the video further... *sad shake of head*

they also said they'd repair my stuff for me, for $269. oh, plus $700 if it's the motherboard or the lcd.

That's more than the computer is worth. By a *lot*. Danm them.

any suggestions on how to test the motherboard??

jack_scagy · Answer

Hi, I'm having the exact same problem with mine. Cept I just bought mine and it got messed up in shipping and after using it for a while it froze and died. I was told that it's most definently the cpu or memory got fried. I used a desktop to see what happens when different components are not installed. The computer responded like the laptop when there was no CPU present. Without the memory it beeped. But both of those problems keep it from getting into the bios. Best bet, buy a cheap stick of memory and, or a new CPU of memory for it from ebay *Make sure they guarentee it so if it dosn't work you can send it back* But best of luck to you. I'd like to know how it works out for you. Message Edited by jack_scagy on 09-29-2004 05:23 PM

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HD failure >> system board fried??

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