computer question

[tims]

Well, my parents dropped off a Dell laptop/notebook. inspiron 1100.
it has power, but the screen stays blank, they spoke with dell i belive and were told the processor was bad, it has a celeron by intel in it. they told meto do what i can and i can have it.
sooooooooooo computer people... what can i do? how can i make sure it is the proceesor?
when i turn it on i do see the power light come on, i can hear something on in side it. but nothing else happens

[tashier]

Tough call, lots of possibilities. Does it give any beeps when you power it on? Does the hard drive light flash at all? You may need some spare parts to trouble shoot.

[tims]

i only get the power light on in the front and one button on the top console near the screen that does something.
it is possible to usb it to my computer and access the hard drive?

[2turtles]

plug in an external monitor, do you see anything? note you may have to toggle the CRT/LCD, (hold down the FN key and press the CRT/LCD key sometimesit is the same as F8) Does it boot from a CD? Try removing any added RAM then try to boot.

[tashier]

OOHHHHhh, this is a laptop, haha. Makes things a bit more complicated and usually more expensive to repair. Yes, as suggested try an external monitor. You cannot use the USB ports unless windows boots up.

[avalanche wolf]

A lot of laptops have a system recover drive partitioned on the harddrive . To access it some have you hold F10 or F2 to access right on Powerup.

If you are not getting the bios system information on boot could be a bigger problem like the CPU .

When booting try either holdingdown F8 or F1 to show the system bios information. If it shows they it is hanging on post when windows ( or other OS ) is trying to load.

Not to sure with the dell , have only used HP's but hope that helps.

[tashier]

Even if you have a failed CPU, the MB or Bios should give you some sort of reply on the screen or beeps or something IMO.

[tims]

nope get nothing at all.

[mitchelWB]

I don't know anything about the machine, but my first guess would be to replace the CPU anyway. Without seeing the actual chip and the numbers on it, I can only guess, but it appears to be a 2ghz chip... depending on the mother board, it may accept a faster chip even. But you can pick up a celeron 2ghz mobile cpu on ebay for about $15...

I'd start there

[Afish4u]

OK Stop Probably the last step is the cpu. Regardless if it is the cpu the have and audio code error the you WILL hear a beep (code if the chip is fried) Look at the obvious first. When you say the screen is blank. Is it black? Do you see what looks like back lighting on the screen? if you can't see light or screen stays black. That is your first spot to start with.

If you are only looking for trying to recover Data from the HD you can get an adapter off of ebay for about 10.00 includeing shipping. I must they do work great and are a life saver.

If it is the cpu its best to open the laptop first to figure out what type of chip it is. There are a few different board designs out there. They are not all swappable. Before this I would look at the screen. Then add an external monitor. If you still don't see/hear anything then its time to start pulling parts. Remove the ram AND hard drive. Power up the laptop. This is to rule out any options at this point when it powers up you should Definetly hear some beebs. If not Then you are looking at the main board which would still include the cpu. If need be then we can trouble shoot further.

By the way when you turn on the laptop does the power light stay on or does it shut off after a little bit?

[tims]

i will have to play with it more tomorrow if i can.
when the laptop is "on" the green light on the front stays on until i turn it off. i get no nothing on the screen at all. i can "hear" the fan ( ithink it is the fan) running

[tims]

oh i woudl actually like to see if i can use this laptop no just save what ever my parents had on it

[Twitterbait]

i agree, start with the scrwwn. check your flat cable connection to the screen for starters.

[tims]

and how do i check the flat cable?
is that inside it?

[tashier]

Ya, it's a little flat, sometimes transparent with traces in it. They are extremely fragile and the connectors are very easy to break. Since most laptops have a mainboard with everything on it, CPU, video, etc. I'm going to venture a guess that you need a mainboard. If you can hook up an external monitor sometime that would help ruling out if it's just the screen. You should at least see a little bit of light around the edges of the LCD when you turn it on if it is working.