Dell Inspiron 9200 Will Not Start

[fkulikoff]

I have a three year old Inspiron 9200. Has been perfect until now. Installed Vista Ultimate 5 months ago. No problems. Last night my 11 year old son was using it and running Action Replay for Nintendo DS. Not sure what happened when he was done. The system was off when when I went to start it. The indicator lights came on but no sound from anything. After 5 seconds the system powered down. Could this be a bad CMOS battery or not. I pulled the battery today and voltage checked it. It showed 3.25V. It is rated at 3.6V. Any help will be most appreciated.

[Freaktech]

This would not be caused by a bad CMOS battery. If the battery died all you would lose is your date and time and memory settings. System would still boot with default BIOS settings. Did you get a Dell spash screen on boot? If not I suspect a dead motherboard.

[fkulikoff]

No, I get no splash screen. Nothing except the indicator lights above the keyboard.

[Freaktech]

No, I get no splash screen. Nothing except the indicator lights above the keyboard.

If you get no splash or anything it's more then likely the system board is toast.

[DellOutreach]

No, I get no splash screen. Nothing except the indicator lights above the keyboard.

What sequence are the indicator lights flashing in? Usually they will flash in a certain sequence to display a code. If you can provide me with the sequence they are flashing in we can find out what is causing the system to not boot.

Brad
Dell Customer Advocate

[mslocock]

What sequence are the indicator lights flashing in? Usually they will flash in a certain sequence to display a code. If you can provide me with the sequence they are flashing in we can find out what is causing the system to not boot.

Brad Dell Customer Advocate

Dear Brad,

I am having a similar problem, the caps lock indicator light flashs when I try to power up my Inspiron 9200. I can not find anything in the documentation to tell me what the means - can you help?

Thank you in advance.

Mark

[monkeystu]

Dear Brad,

I am having a similar problem, the caps lock indicator light flashs when I try to power up my Inspiron 9200. I can not find anything in the documentation to tell me what the means - can you help?

Thank you in advance.

Mark

Mark,
Sorry that I haven't got an answer, but I have exactly the same problem with my C840 Latitude.
I up graded the memory to 1Gb (2 x 512 crucial memory) the other day.
When I power up I get the power light and HDD light come on and the Caps Lock light flashes. This lasts for about 5 or so seconds, then it powers off. I tried putting the old single stick of memory back in but I get the same problem.
I'm under the cosh as well, because my wife is using it for her college work and is hassling me all the time.
This is my old work laptop and I remember the Dell engineer coming out to fix it a few years ago when it needed a new mainboard. There was some sort of diagnostic code to the lights then, but I can't remember what he said.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Stu.

[monkeystu]

What sequence are the indicator lights flashing in? Usually they will flash in a certain sequence to display a code. If you can provide me with the sequence they are flashing in we can find out what is causing the system to not boot.

Brad Dell Customer Advocate

Brad,
I have a similar problem with my C840 Latitude.
I up graded the memory to 1Gb (2 x 512 crucial memory) the other day.
When I power up I get the power light and HDD light come on and the Caps Lock light flashes. This lasts for about 5 or so seconds, then it powers off. I tried putting the old single stick of memory back in but I get the same problem.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Stu.

[sittas87]

hey guys
it is always a very wise idea to first check if the new hardware is suitable for your system(motherboard).
check the above mentioned

[Freaktech]

What exactly is the flashing pattern of the Caps lock light. How many times and what duration?

[monkeystu]

Hi,
The power light and the HDD light come on permanently and the caps lock light flashes 10 times.
Stuart.

[jmweith]

Hi,

My dell inspiron 9200 does the same thing with the same pattern. Does anyone know what that code means?

[kampers]

I have a three year old Inspiron 9200. Has been perfect until now. Installed Vista Ultimate 5 months ago. No problems. Last night my 11 year old son was using it and running Action Replay for Nintendo DS. Not sure what happened when he was done. The system was off when when I went to start it. The indicator lights came on but no sound from anything. After 5 seconds the system powered down. Could this be a bad CMOS battery or not. I pulled the battery today and voltage checked it. It showed 3.25V. It is rated at 3.6V. Any help will be most appreciated.

Did you ever figure out what was wrong because my Dell Inspiron 9200 is doing the same. It was upgraded to Vista by the previous owner. Thanks

[EMCCleveland]

10 Flashes generally means an issue with memory or motherboard.

Your best troubleshooting will be to use one memory module in one slot and then the other slot testing the module and slots in this way, then doing the same with the other memory module if you have one.

Also try and make certain the module is seated fully. An improperly seated module can cause a variety of issues and this error to appear also.

All of this being said if memory does not correct the problem then it is likely a MotherBoard issue.

[grayzor69]

What exactly is the flashing pattern of the Caps lock light. How many times and what duration?

The ram card was loose in the slot. reinstalling it fixed it.
Thanks