Hoping someone might have come across the problem with a Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop.
When I press the power button nothing much happens: two LEDs at the front (power and hard disk) light, and the 3 caps-lock, num-lock, scroll-lock keys flash once. Apart from that nothing – no video, no fan noise. Tried it connected to an external monitor and nothing on that either.
This is with the (dead) battery removed and only the power supply connected.
To rule out anything else I’ve removed the hard disk and memory but it’s still the same.
Here’s a video:
Some of the suggestions I’ve had:
- bad power cord – No. Tested and working on another Inspiron 1300.
- bad cpu – No. Tested and working on another Inspiron 1300.
- bad ram – No. Tested and working on another Inspiron 1300.
- badly seated ram – No. Removed and reseated. No change.
- touch pad/lid magnet fault – No. Tired with touchpad disconnected. No change
Someone pointed out that the machine would not boot without any ram. Of course this is true, but the correct sequence with no ram fitted is as follows (tested on another working 1300):
1. Power indicator on. Disk, battery, wifi lights off.
2. Num-lock, caps-lock and scroll-lock flash and then caps-lock and scroll-lock stay on.
3. Stays like this for 10 seconds (nothing on screen, no fans).
4. All LEDs go off.
So, it seems the faulty laptop is failing before this. Adding ram doesn’t change the sequence.
Suggestions welcomed.
Tags: 1300, dead, dell, faulty, inspiron, led, no power, stuck in standby
did you get this figured out? I am having the same problem.
Did you find the solution?
Sadly not. It must be a motherboard fault, but I haven’t found any suggestions about trying to diagnose the faulty components. I managed to fix a faulty Dell Inspiron 5150 previously by re-flowing the solder on one of the chips under one of the compartments, but can’t find any info about this model.
Hi,
might be a problem in the power supply connection IN the laptop. I had a similar issue on an other dell laptop (as well as the faulty chip issue) and I did some ironing on the power supply connector inside the laptop. And then you have to check with a multimetre if power runs normally.
hope this help (and sorry for my english, i’m french).
I am thinking that it is a motherboard or processor failure. If you are pretty knowlegeable about laptops, then you can go in and check all of your pathways with a testing tool. (you can get one on ebay for 10).
Let us know when you find out what is wrong, as i am having a simular problem with a HP DV7.
I had same issue – memory was not seated correctly, opened up and reaeated. Started fine after that.
Thanks for the suggestion. As in the post I tried that and it made no difference. I removed the memory from another Dell 1300 and compared the startup and it seemed to be failing earlier in the sequence.
Where is the memory located on the computer, which compartment I mean??
If you pause the video on 12 seconds, the open compartment roughly in the middle is where the memory goes. It has DIMM A and DIMM B written in white (upside down in the video). The other open slot is where the wireless and bluetooth adapters would go.
So at 12 seconds the compartment I see is the one I have to fix?? how do you fix it?
Well, as I said in my post, re-seating the ram didn’t fix my laptop, but it’s worth a try.
Remove the cover, and you’ll see one or two rectangular circuit boards with a few black chips on them. Make sure each memory stick is pushed all the way into the white connector.
If you want, remove the memory stick completely and re-fit. There are little metal tabs that hold them in place.
Did you ever get your dell inspiron computer fixed??, If I wanted to fix it how much would it cost to buy the new part??
Do you have the same problem? There are a few suggestions on this page about things to try.
I never managed to fix my laptop. I think the issue with mine is something on the main board – probably the most expensive part to fix. Better off buying another faulty one (with a smashed screen for example) and swapping parts, or just get a new one.