Member Avatar for jtkennel

This is my dads laptop so i dont know what the specs on it are.

He closed the lid to it to send it into standby and didnt use it for about two days. When he opened it back up it was frozen on the other users are logged on are you sure you want to shut down. He manually turned it off and now when he turned it back on the fan ran for one or two seconds and then shut off but now the fan doesnt run at all. The green power light stays on and i still have power to the cdrom. It also doesnt run POST and the screen stays black.

Im totally stumped on this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

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A concise, safe troubleshooting path that goes beyond the prior suggestions from , , and . If the simple resets tried so far did not produce POST, work through these checks in order to determine whether the fault is an adapter/connector, a replaceable board component, or something that needs a technician.

Start with the power supply and jack: verify the adapter label (voltage/amperage) and, if available, measure the barrel output with a multimeter while plugged in. A dead or intermittent adapter/jack can let LEDs light but fail to provide stable rail voltages. If a spare adapter with the same rating is available, try it.

Isolate internal components next (only if out of warranty and comfortable opening the case). Remove nonessential devices (HDD, optical drive, wireless card, PC card) and try a minimal boot with one memory module installed. Reseat memory and test each DIMM in each slot one at a time. Bad RAM or a bad slot commonly prevents POST and is quick to verify.

Check POST and display paths: attach an external monitor to rule out an LCD/inverter failure, and listen closely for BIOS beep patterns or watch for any diagnostic LED blink codes. Record any beep/blink pattern exactly — they map to specific failures on Dell systems and are useful to a technician.

If none of the above yields results, and the laptop is under warranty, contact Dell with the service tag. If out of warranty, request a bench diagnostic from a reputable shop before replacing the motherboard; bench testing can confirm whether the fault is a discrete replaceable part (power MOSFET, DC jack, RAM slot, etc.) or a full board failure. Safety note: avoid internal work if unfamiliar with ESD precautions or if the unit is still covered by warranty.

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Member Avatar for HoustonIT

Try removing the battery and AC power for about 10-15 mintes, then plug the AC power back in. Can you boot in that scenario?

Member Avatar for Quargar

how old is it? I had an old laptop that overheated, and i just let it cool for a while and it booted up fine. if it feels really hot (especially if it is old) this could very well be the case

Member Avatar for jtkennel

i removed the battery and ac power for about 15 minutes replaced and it did the same thing.

the laptop is less than a year old.

Member Avatar for dusty604

try running it with the ac power unplugged. mine is doing the same and i am trying to find out why the ac power is blacking out my screen. let me know if you find out anything

Member Avatar for caperjack

i had one like that last week ,and it was the motherboard gone bad .

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