Laptop screen blank

[gfrobe]

Hi,

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop that I'm having problems with. Yesterday I turned it on and after a few minutes, my mouse froze. Restarted and freezing happened again. Restarted once more and now screen is black. When I start, I can hear the fan kick in, the front power light comes on and then about 30 seconds later, the fan winds down but the power light stays on. A few things I've tried:

- hooking up to external monitor and hitting FN +F8 to activate. No signal to external monitor.

- have removed and reseated RAM chips, removed battery, hard drive and DVD player.

-Purchased new power adapter today (old one had a faulty wire) but still no luck.

- tried connecting to machine via network when power light is on but other PC doesn't see it. So don't think it's just an LCD problem.

A few times since yesterday among the many times I've restarted it, the screen actually did come on and the machine booted. Within a minute of two though the mouse froze again and of the last 20 or 30 restarts, I have not been able to get the screen to come back on again.

Any suggestions? Or is this just sounding like I need a new motherboard?

Thanks,
gert

[gfrobe]

Have been searching the boards here for an answer and might have left out a bit of important info.

The problem started when I left the machine for a few days in standby mode (lid closed) with the AC cord unplugged. So I suspect that I drained the battery down fully. When I came back from holiday, computer problem kicked in.

That said, have now purchased a new power supply and still not working with or without battery in. Does a laptop need a battery to function even with an AC plugged in?

[MatEpp]

I think the AC charges the battery so it would require a battery in order work.

Your problem sounds memory related to me, but without the spare RAM to check it I can't tell you how to verify this.

[gfrobe]

I think the AC charges the battery so it would require a battery in order work.

Your problem sounds memory related to me, but without the spare RAM to check it I can't tell you how to verify this.

But if the AC is working fine, why would I even need a battery at all? I'm just wondering if I should try purchasing a new battery before giving up on this laptop. However, don't want to spend money on a battery if that has nothing at all to do with the problem.

[StressFree]

Have been searching the boards here for an answer and might have left out a bit of important info.

The problem started when I left the machine for a few days in standby mode (lid closed) with the AC cord unplugged. So I suspect that I drained the battery down fully. When I came back from holiday, computer problem kicked in.

That said, have now purchased a new power supply and still not working with or without battery in. Does a laptop need a battery to function even with an AC plugged in?

I saw a resolution to very similar problem when searching out my overheating issue. They had the same situation where a laptop battery went low while on standby, and then wouldn't work. The solution was to disconnect the CMOS battery with regular battery and AC disconnected. Leave CMOS disconnected for 10 minutes and plug it back in. This reset the BIOS and things worked fine again. The CMOS is usually a round button type battery with a little cable or just in a clip. If with cable, likely a colored plastic cover is over it (yellow or blue?). They are usually under the keyboard which pops up with little tabs at the front - watch out for the delicate keyboard ribbon cable! I hope this may help in your case too. Best of luck.

[gfrobe]

I saw a resolution to very similar problem when searching out my overheating issue. They had the same situation where a laptop battery went low while on standby, and then wouldn't work. The solution was to disconnect the CMOS battery with regular battery and AC disconnected. Leave CMOS disconnected for 10 minutes and plug it back in. This reset the BIOS and things worked fine again. The CMOS is usually a round button type battery with a little cable or just in a clip. If with cable, likely a colored plastic cover is over it (yellow or blue?). They are usually under the keyboard which pops up with little tabs at the front - watch out for the delicate keyboard ribbon cable! I hope this may help in your case too. Best of luck.

Thanks for that. Will give it a shot and report back. I've actually figured out a way to get it on and that is to first hold power button down with AC and battery disconnected. Then put battery in, connect AC and try to start. This doesn't work. Then I pull the battery out, hit start button and, lo and behold, the screen goes on. However, it typically then freezes completely within a few minutes and I'm right back where I started. And if I deviate from that entire startup sequence, I can't seem to get the screen to come on at all. Very weird.

The freezing thing though makes me think it's probably a motherboard issue. But at this point I'm willing to give anything a shot so will seek out that CMOS battery.

Thanks again.

[gfrobe]

Hmm, can't seem to locate this CMOS battery. I've got the whole thing open at the moment and can't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction here?

Thanks.

[StressFree]

Not too sure if it's not visible under the keyboard or the easily accesable covers on the bottom. Sometimes your manual will talk about it, but often not. Also, threads have pointed out that the CMOS batt will charge only when laptop is on (not just plugged in). Often the result of dead CMOS is simply "check sum" errors. Reading back through your posts, I have a similar symptom with the power coming on, but no POST, screen, or boot. I've got a generic WalMart brand laptop (ECS G900), so maybe different issue. In any case, my DVD/CD will try to run making spin up noises repeatedly. It won't read the CD's though, not even the system disk. I removed the DVD/CD player, and everything works now. I'm not sure if my power supply is beginning to fail and loads down with everything - fans, cd, etc trying to initialize at once OR maybe it's the CD player or connection. I got a successful boot about every 20th try with it in. Once booted, everything works fine. I will have to mess with it some more to see if just dirty contacts in the connector.