inspiron problem -- urgent -- please help

Question

Hi , i'm beginning to wonder that this isn't a motherboard issue .. it's with my Inspiron 1150, which is OUT of warranty. :~( Months ago, just as the PC was out of warranty, I moved and somehow my AC adapter cord was damaged. I didn't want to pay the $80 or so for a new adapter .. so instead, I slapped a piece of electrical tape around it and prayed. It did have a negative effect on the PC as I would have to position the cord in a correct manner as sometimes when inserting it, the PC would not recognize the Adapter. Anyway, after a few months of this, the PC finally cut out one day and would not power back on. I removed the battery and tried it again to no luck. I WAS able to get it to go back on for short bursts, but it would variably stay on for short amounts of time and cut to a blue screen with different errors, about IRQ's and memory faults .. The one that advises a customer to remove all new hardware, disable BIOS shadowing, and the rest. The problem is that the laptop rarely even gets to the BIOS screen. Sometimes, it will. If it does, it will 99% of the time, take a longer time to load the BIOS and then come back with an INVALID CONFIGURATION error -- sometimes, when I try to look at the Setup with F2, the computer freezes all over again. I DID finally get a new AC adapter and this did not solve the problem. I am at a loss at what to try next. It seems as though there would have been some sort of power problem that fried the motherboard? Or something. Please give any advice possible.

ejn63 · Answer

You could have a memory or hard drive problem, so run the Dell diagnostics if you can get the system to boot at all.

If those check out, and you need a mainboard, sell the system for parts and replace it - it's simply not worth putting $500-700 into a notebook like the 1150 to repair it.

andreaUT · Answer

I have an Inspiron 1100, and after about 1 year the battery went downhill fast.  I could only keep power for about an hour.   My power cord also became damaged somehow, the cord split right at the connection to the battery pack, and I tried electrical tape too since cords are so expensive.  It worked for a couple of weeks until my computer went black also (right in the middle of my finals).  It would turn on for a few minutes then suddenly cut off again.   I bought a new $190 internal battery, which seemed to solve the problem temporarily.  I think the power cord must have killed my first internal battery.  But soon after this first purchase my power cord also completely quit working, so I had to replace that for $90 more.   It seems ridiculous to have a computer for only a year and already have so many problems with it.  I don't play games or watch movies on it - just take notes during class.  I am very disappointed with this purchase and the lack of service options.   My only suggestion to you is to buy an internal battery if you think your defective cord may have 'shorted it out' like mine did.

tmieczkowski · Answer

well .. i had an extra battery, stupidly enough.. . using that instead did no good. neither did running the laptop solely off the new AC adapter. i tried running some diagnostic tests. the PC shutdown during the memory test. but i don't know if that is unrelated or not. it shuts down during everything, usually. i'm going to try it a few more times and see if it is the same . i'm praying, anyway .. blargh

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