Member Avatar for trainfan99

I have a Dell inspiron 5160 laptop computer that won't boot properly. Upon power up, eveything thing seems to be working properly. The computer startup up on the POST. (BIOS SCREEN) and the status bar starts to fill. when it is approx. 75% full it stops to the fill and the computer freezes and locks up.

I have tried:

Re Seating all memory modules.
Starting up both with and without the memory modules in place, Booting with and without the battery via AC adapter. as well as booting with and without the HDD. I have tried pressing F12 to enter the boot menu, and or f2 to enter setup but have been unable to enter either.

Shortly after it freezes, you can hear the exahust fan power down, then after a few minutes you hear it start to run again.

I think this could be a bad processor or motherboard in this machine but am not quite sure.

Does anyone out there have any ideas? (other than trash the machine and buy new!)

Any help would be greatly appricated.
The computer has BIOS Rev. A07 installed (factory)

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Brief recap and targeted next steps (builds on points from , , and others): the machine reliably stops around the same POST percentage and the fan dies/restarts. That pattern most often means the BIOS completes the memory test but then hangs while probing or powering an onboard device or when a power rail/embedded controller trips. Since RAM/HDD/peripheral swaps and basic thermal checks have already been tried, focus on isolation and power/board checks that give new evidence.

Practical checks to try next:

  • Test the AC adapter and DC jack: measure the adapter output with a multimeter (or try a known-good Dell adapter). A flaky voltage or a loose/worn jack will cause mid-POST hangs.
  • Visually inspect the motherboard with the bottom cover off: look for bulging/leaking capacitors, burnt components, corrosion or liquid residue around the power/VRM area. These faults are subtle but common failure points.
  • Remove internal add-on modules one at a time (Wi‑Fi/minicard, optical drive, card reader, modem) and try booting. Devices with bad firmware or shorted connectors can freeze POST even with the HDD removed.
  • Capture diagnostic signals: listen for any beep pattern at startup or note any power/LED blink sequence. If there are beeps/blinks, record the count/timing — they narrow the fault to a subsystem. If possible, attach an external speaker to the board speaker header to hear codes.

Safety and next steps: always disconnect battery and AC before probing, ground yourself for ESD, and only do basic visual/multimeter checks unless comfortable with board-level repair. If the adapter, caps and internal modules check out but the hang persists, the fault is likely a board/embedded-controller failure; at that point compare repair cost vs. a donor motherboard or professional board repair.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for ramjo

Have you tried to reset the bios to see of it's the bios having the problem

Member Avatar for ebarrera

sounds like it is overheating to me.

or possibly the CPU or mobo is bad.

Member Avatar for smith2martin

I'm troubleshooting a friend's machine, same machine and symptoms as the OP. Only difference is the BIOS is Rev. A08.

Any ideas or resolutions to this? I've attempted all of the same fixes as the OP with no success.

Thanks.

Member Avatar for Suspishio

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/bootSequence-c.html

The above link is a very useful explanation of the boot sequence.

I don't see a bad processor here because it is executing to the 75% point in your CPU. Bad RAM is unlikely based on what you've said. I suspect that it is getting hung on a device for which it can't find a proper BIOS address.

What happens if you remove all USB devices? If it boots, try re-plugging them one by one.

Member Avatar for smith2martin

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately there are no USB devices connected. I've tried booting with minimum specs, removing the hdd and ram sticks in all combinations. The only time I get a message is when I remove ram sticks; just before 75%, bootup sequence stops with the message, "the amount of system memory has changed," and cannot proceed past. Otherwise, with ram, no hdd and no other peripherals, get the hang at 75%.

Member Avatar for BDickinson

I've seen this issue with Dell Laptops before. It's possible your HDD is shot.

Edited by BDickinson because: n/a
Member Avatar for JemB

This is very symptomatic of the cpu heat cutout kicking in try putting some fresh cpu heat paste on and cleaning the cpu fan

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