Dell Inspiron 1501 Three LEDs Flash

Question

Heres the story:   I have an inspiron 1501 and its motherboard died after a partial BIOs update or more like BIOs wipe.   I bought another (broken) motherboard on eBay with bottom unit of the 1501 cost me £20 but I got a xp media centre edition COA so was worth it.   So I rebuilt my laptop with the other motherboard in it, worth a try.   What happens wjhen I power on this time is the fan and disc drive churn. The caplocks num lock and scroll lock LEDs flash extremely fast, and thats all nothing on screen, I plugged in an external monitor also nothing.   The guy who sold me it said he had problems with it powering up.   So heres my questions, is this also a BIOs problem, or is it a power problem, although placed a fully charged battery in it are there any parts I can transfer from one motherboard to the other to get a fully functional one, ie soldering parts on and off or are the BIOs in both corrupt making them both redundant.   I appreciate any help advice, thanks.

Davin · Answer

This might give a clue:   Additional Information The system utilizes LED codes for diagnostic messages that will help determine what issue the system is experiencing. These flash codes will occur on the Number lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock LEDs.   Num Lock Caps Lock Scroll Lock Error Indicated Off Flash Off The memory is believed to be good but it's about to be exercised (such as when shadowing the BIOS and when testing / zeroing all memory). Off On Off The system is performing diskette and hard disk initialization. Off On Flash Flash USB controller initialization. Off On On No DIMM is installed. Flash On On EC turn on Pentium. Flash Flash On Call option ROM for Video. Flash Flash Flash CMOS initialization, SMI initialization, timer, gate A20, and mouse. On On On POST has completed and the BIOS is about to jump to the PSA module.    NOTE: The LED error codes for the Inspiron™ 1501 are unique to this platform. These error codes should not be used for reference on any other platforms, and other platforms should not be used for reference on this system.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Hmmm they just seem to be flashing repeatedly, do you think I should just leave the laptop on for a prolonged perod of time and see if anything happens then?

Philip_Yip · Answer

Its flash flash flash contiously

johnallg · Answer

A suggestion - make sure the ram modules are in and fully seated.  It looks like it never really gets to start a POST.  Same for the cpu, make sure it is fully seated.

Philip_Yip · Answer

RAM Modules and Processor are securely seated , it has been tried with 2 different processers aswell.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Hmmm I tried the CMOS battery swap still the same result and no warrenty on either systems, I was going to see about extending the warrenty but don't think they'd let me since all I have of the service tag is the motherboard which is broke and the rest didn't have a tag.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Do you think it would it be possible to take apples from one and oranges from the other to come up with a functional fruit basket then?

i.e. repairing the second motherboard with parts from the one with the bad BIOs flash (not other way about since first one had dodgy graphics)?

Philip_Yip · Answer

Lol same here but it can't be that hard, do you know where the BIOS Chip  is on the motherboard?

Philip_Yip · Answer

Thanks for taking the time looking into it I may take them to a local computer shop and see if they have any idea.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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