Hello I'm trying to fix my sister's inspiron 5100 but have no clue what I'm doing.
when I plug in the adapter all 3 lights in the front blink, with or without the battery.
what's wrong with it?

Does everything work?

no it does not, sorry i didn't specify. The laptop won't start at all.

On the very front i take it ones the power and one is the battery if there flashing somthing is going on.does the hardrive spin can you hear it? or is it just right out dead except for the lights.sorry for the questions it helps me help you.

I am also having a problem with my Dell Inspiron 5100 and was wondering if you could help when i turn it on, the first screen (the black screen with the big DELL logo on it) the bar loads up to nearly full, but then freezes. I've tried giving it a full charge and tried again and i've tried to turn it on with the charger in but nothing is working. When i turn it on, everything seems to be working fine, i can hear the hardware etc. start up. Do you have any idea whats wrong? thankyou

my friends laptop has done the same thing have found out about a lawsuit on it http://www.lieffcabraser.com/dell-inspiron-3.htm

You might try doing this:
Remove the battery and press the power button on the laptop, hold it down for a few moments. Than pop the battery back in. Sometimes a laptop will get stuck in standby mode.
Note:
Of course remove the AC adapter from the laptop too when performing this procedure.

Your case does not sound like a hardware issue. I think it has more to do with some virus or something like that.

When you turn you computer on press F8 and start the system in safe mode. See if that works for you. If it does start up then i think it could be a virus or something like that. You would need to scan the system to sort this issue out. Let us know how you get on.

Raj

If thats the case than it might just be hardware.can you try to backtrack to what was done before the prob accured?
also in reply tell me do you hear the hard drive spinning any signal from within your notebook?
??

Hello, I actuallly have seen this problem before on several Dell Inspirons of this associated series before. This often has to do with one of two different things depending on what kind of flash codes you are getting, but the most common failure reason is improper voltages detected, this means of of three things has happened. First the power adapter could be failing and sending improper voltages this can be tested by going to most smaller computer stores where they are likely to have a comparable adapter to substitue in place of yours and test it. Second it is possible one of the legs on the DC jack could have a broken solder joint or similar problem and you will end up needing a new DC jack (estimated cost of repair $100-200 US). Finally it could be part of the intigrated power distribution system, ie the parts on the motherboard that regulate and convert voltages from one level to another and send it to the various parts, this is a motherboard replacement item and you might as well consider getting a new laptop. The hard drive in the laptop should still be good though and the data can still be retrieved from it.