Dell Inspiron 1501 will not boot

Question

ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :)

15 Years Ago

My daughter's laptop starts only to the Dell opening screen. The opening screen just has Press F2 for Setup and F12 to enter the MultiBoot selection menu. If I select F2, the machine displays Entering Setup. . . and that's is as far as it gets. If I switch off and try the F12 option it starts to enter BootMenu but similarly it will not get any further.

If I try booting with the WinXp recovery disk the DVD player lights flash but it only gets to the Dell screen again. I have also tried to boot with a UBCD4WIN boot disk and with a Knoppix disk with the same result.

Geoff

troubleshoot-hardware

6 Contributors
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Latest Post 14 Years Ago Latest Post by carlos23

jbisono 51 Posting Pro in Training

15 Years Ago

Hi,
you saying that you can get into the multiboot selection, but you actually select the hard drive or even the cd at the time you try with the win xp recovery?

if that does not work try to go into F2 setup and check the available drive, make sure the hard drive and the cd rom is list, if that is ok then check the boot sequence in the bios.

if mention above is ok, and still does not work try to remove the RAM and put them back.

I hope this help you.

Regards.

Xlphos 16 Veteran Poster

15 Years Ago

No I can't get past the opening screen whatever I do.

Maybe something is wrong with BIOS have you tried clearing CMOS?

I think something is wrong with BIOS because you can't enter it.

If you don't know how to clear CMOS let us know.

caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions

15 Years Ago

you don't say how old it is ,but dust build up in a laptop can cause it to do what yours is doing ,overheating ,and it doesn't take much dust ,a can of compressed air and clean the fan and heatsinc

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ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :) · Answer 1 · 2009-05-09T00:30:54+00:00

Hi,
you saying that you can get into the multiboot selection, but you actually select the hard drive or even the cd at the time you try with the win xp recovery?
if that does not work try to go into F2 setup and check the available drive, make sure the hard drive and the cd rom is list, if that is ok then check the boot sequence in the bios.
if mention above is ok, and still does not work try to remove the RAM and put them back.
I hope this help you.
Regards.

No I can't get past the opening screen whatever I do.

ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :) · Answer 2 · 2009-05-09T02:44:15+00:00

Maybe something is wrong with BIOS have you tried clearing CMOS?
I think something is wrong with BIOS because you can't enter it.
If you don't know how to clear CMOS let us know.

Thanks Xlphos

How do I do that?

ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :) · Answer 3 · 2009-05-09T02:46:53+00:00

you don't say how old it is ,but dust build up in a laptop can cause it to do what yours is doing ,overheating ,and it doesn't take much dust ,a can of compressed air and clean the fan and heatsinc

Thanks Caperjack

Right I'll do that. Its dated 2005.

caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions Team Colleague · Answer 4 · 2009-05-09T04:38:39+00:00

if you can enter setup with f2 ,and set defaults ,if nor you have to open laptop and remove bios battery ,but I like overheating over corrupt bios!

ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :) · Answer 5 · 2009-05-09T04:53:17+00:00

if you can enter setup with f2 ,and set defaults ,if nor you have to open laptop and remove bios battery ,but I like overheating over corrupt bios!

Thanks Caperjack

No can't get beyond Dell screen. I'll look for dust first.

caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions Team Colleague · Answer 6 · 2009-05-09T04:59:03+00:00

Thanks Caperjack
No can't get beyond Dell screen. I'll look for dust first.

we have 3 laptops and i have been working on computer for the past 10 yrs ,and have see this happen to laptops when the heatsinc and fan get dusty!may or may not be your problem but cheaper than taking it o computer repair shop to have it fixed ,
also ,if you can try a few easy trouble shooting things,like if it has 2 ram sticks ,remove one and try it ,if no difference replace and then remove the other .all you need is small screw drive to remove back cover to get at the ram

Stephy~Lynn 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 7 · 2009-10-24T21:56:17+00:00

Stephy~Lynn 0 Newbie Poster

15 Years Ago

Did this get fixed, what was the issue?

ggeoff 4 Junior Poster- 72 years old :) · Answer 8 · 2009-10-24T23:11:10+00:00

Did this get fixed, what was the issue?

I am sorry but I thought I had replied to this thread. Caperjack's suggestion to get rid of dust worked :) If that doesn't work then I am sure that the other suggestions are valuable. Good luck!

Geoff

carlos23 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 9 · 2010-04-10T01:30:41+00:00

The thread is from 2009 but I will post it for the records.
If your inspiron 1501 won't even start up (black screen from the time you power it up) do this.

1. Unplug the AC cable
2. Power the pc on with just the battery and leave it there in the black screen for 20-30 min.
3. Shut it down, then power it up again and that should solve the problem (it worked for me).

It could be a mobo/ac/battery problem, who knows.