Member Avatar for jsmerdy

I dropped my inspiron 1150 (windows xp home, pentium 4), and after much fiddling with it and a $40 call to Dell, ended up needing a new hard drive. Before I installed the new drive, on boot up it would go to the Dell logo, and even let me reinstall Win XP, but only partially, it would freeze at a certain point and not go further.

Now I have the new hard drive (80G) and when I go to boot it from CD in order to reinstall the OS, it goes straight to a black screen with a curser, I don't even get the Dell Logo. I have tried pressing F12, that doesn't work. Even though there's a cursor displayed, no text comes up when I type.

One more thing...when I first had the new hard drive installed, after that the power cord wouldn't work and so I had to replace the little thing inside that the cord plugs into.

Thanks for your help!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Greg_z

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— Because you now get a black screen with a single cursor and no Dell splash (and the one‑time boot key didn't respond), the fault looks like something that breaks startup before the OS or even the BIOS menu runs. 's point about bad install media explains freezes during setup, but your symptom is earlier — start with hardware/POST checks first.

Try these steps, in order, to isolate the problem:

  • Power/CMOS reset: remove AC and battery, press and hold the power button 30 seconds to discharge. If you can safely access the coin cell CMOS battery, remove it for 10 minutes then replace it, reconnect power and test.
  • Minimal hardware POST: power on with the HDD and optical drive removed, no PC cards, and only one memory module (try each slot/stick). If the splash returns, add parts back one at a time to find the failing device.
  • Keyboard and boot‑menu check: press Caps Lock/Num Lock to see if LEDs toggle (verifies keyboard input). If the built‑in keyboard seems dead, try an external USB keyboard to hit the boot key.
  • External video and visual inspection: connect a VGA monitor to confirm whether the BIOS splash appears elsewhere. Open the case and visually inspect the area where the DC jack was repaired for cracked solder joints, loose ribbon cables (LCD/keyboard), or burned components.

If none of these bring back the splash, the motherboard or BIOS was likely damaged (common after a drop or a stressed DC jack repair). At that point consider professional motherboard repair or a replacement board. Before any repair, remove any original drive you want to keep and copy data using a USB drive enclosure. Take static/electrical safety precautions if opening the chassis.

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Member Avatar for DarlingNikki

I worked for Microsoft support and had to deal with Dell quite frequently, not the best of times. They always result to saying something to do with needing a new hard drive after an hour of money and time wasted describing and troubleshooting. It sounds like there is a problem with your software and that one of its files may be corrupted or missing. Ask Dell to send you out a new Windows XP disc, and try that before doing anything else. They will send this to you for free. Sometimes after having these discs for a while, or after a one time use, files become corrupted or the disc is damaged.

Good Luck!

Member Avatar for anh.le.5076798

you can press f2 for setting up the bios, than in the boot menu tab , using spacebar for checking boot 1st ( will be yellow ), restart laptop , it's ok

Edited by anh.le.5076798
Member Avatar for Greg_z

anh.le.5076798. this is a dead post from over five years ago.

Edited by Greg_z
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