5150 DEAD after 1 year.

Question

I was talking to a few people on aim last night, with 1 window of firefox up and a word document of approximately 12 pages. the touchpad and keys go dead and the screen absolutely freezes. Nothing is happening AT ALL. I turn it off and restart. all i get is a black screen with the blinking cursor. Keys still don't work and nothing happens. figuring it got too hot or something i let it cool overnight. Still no good. same situation. zero keys work touch pad doesn't work black screen flashing cursor. this is obviously very serious. harddrive? motherboard? ??????????? It is a dell insipirion 5150 that is approximately 1 year old. P4 with 3.06, 80 gig hd, 512mb ram, etc etc. any ideas on why this could have happened? it didn't seem to have any virus, i didn't open any weird emails or anything. all i basically used it for was typing papers, and screwing around online.

fenderguitarguy · Answer

I hate to say this but, get used to it. I can't believe you went a year without problems. The 5150 has got to be one of the worst laptops ever. It has so many problems and heat issues that its almost not worth even having. I hope you are under warrenty and if you are, extend it before it runs out.

NemesisDB · Answer

sounds like the motherboard or ram. try reseating the ram. if you have two modules, remove one and try booting -- if it doesn't work, switch the socket it's installed in. if that fails, try the other module in both sockets.

to be absolutely sure, remove all user replaceable parts (hard drive, cd drive, modem, internal wireless card, and all attached devices) and try to boot

try with just the battery or just the ac

if all of this fails you will likely need a new motherboard...

I forgot to mention, if you're under warranty, obviously call dell and they will take care of it

Quadcammer · Answer

ok, you are gonna have to dumb this down a bit for me. how do i remove all of this stuff? im not what you would consider computer savy

Quadcammer · Answer

ok, ram has been removed. harddrive is also out anything else? what do i do now? sorry for the dumb questions

NemesisDB · Answer

this should help you out ... start with the ram as it's a likely possible cause. removing the other parts is unlikely to help you, but if you're looking at a motherboard replacement it's good to cover your bases.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins5100/en/sm/index.htm

as always, if you have specific questions, feel free to ask :)

Message Edited by NemesisDB on 05-02-2005 11:40 AM

NemesisDB · Answer

I'm not sure.  do you see the dell screen at all?  typically if the ram is bad it will power down within 1sec and you will not see anything

Quadcammer · Answer

ok, when taking out the ram in slot A, it turns on, and the A light at the top of the keyboard flashes. When you put the ram back into slot A, its back to the other nonsense.
when you move the ram from A to B, and do not have ram in B, it does the blinking cursor thing.

any thoughts on this.

NemesisDB · Answer

sorry if this wasn't clear earlier, but you have to have at least one stick in to boot.  if you only have a single stick, you can't really test whether it is bad or not

Quadcammer · Answer

yeah, i understand that part.
i have had one in there at all times.

however, now it will turn on, the light flashes (no cursor) and then it shuts off after about 15 seconds.

does this sound like a motherboard problem to you?

Quadcammer · Answer

is that a real pain for someone of my knowledge level to replace?

i found a few on ebay. can i just buy any of the ones for the 5150 or do they have to match the stuff thats on my computer(ie processor speed, ram, etc)

thanks for the help

fenderguitarguy · Answer

I know that the older latitude cpi's required a motherboard that would support the same screen size. I do not believe this is the case for the i5150

NemesisDB · Answer

you can buy a new one on ebay -- the directions are in the same place as that link i sent -- i've never done it before so I'm not sure how hard it is

buy with paypal and ensure that there is no bios password on the board you are buying -- if there is, it's as good as a paperweight

Message Edited by NemesisDB on 05-02-2005 01:50 PM

NemesisDB · Answer

i'm guessing it's the motherboard, but i can't tell for certain

Quadcammer · Answer

no dell screen

Frankieh · Answer

If your having the 5150 shuts down on boot or when touched problem, this post I've been putting everywhere may help.

--------------------
I recently had the "5150 shuts down when bumped" problem and after some searching around I found some instructions here:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/43678/

I followed the advice, with the exception that I didn't pull my laptop apart, I did it all just by removing the C panel and the wireless card.

Its been working perfectly for a couple of days since and I updated the post above with my own steps. It took me 10 minutes from removing the C panel to putting it back on again, I've been carting it around while it's running and I can use the palmrest again without fear, it has not shut down once since I performed the repair.

Hopefull that will be of some assistance to people. Its certainly cheaper then paying Dell for a new motherboard.

rgds

Franki

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