Topic: For the computer guys - Problems starting a DELL laptop!

[andy750]

I know a few of you are computer literate and may have an answer for this problem. I have a DELL Latitude D505 laptop that no longer boots up. Press the power button, get the initial screen (with F2 option of SETUP) and then.....nothing.....blank.......seems to me the drive may be cooked.....but can i check this? Dosent give me option of safe mode....just nothing at all......anyone know how to progress on this without calling tech support?

cheers
Andy

[Jeff]

I would say the best way to progress would be to call Dell.

Did you install anything new? Anything you can think of that you did between it working and it not working?

Jeff

[putnaja1]

When this has happened to me, I've put my ear on the case of the laptop when I powered on, to see if the drive was still spooling up..  Sounds simple, but this may tell you if the drive is just flat-out dead or just not registering.

If you have an emergency boot disc (floppy, or OS CDROM, or Recovery disc from Dell) I'd through that in the drive to see if it will boot to that.  If you can get it to boot using one of these discs, try to run scan disk.  I've actually gotten a machine to come back to booting up with that method- I used automatic fix mode for any problems identified, and I guess I got lucky..

Another technique is to find a friend who is super nerdy- they just might have a "Knoppix" bootable Linux CDROM and a memory flash drive.  If that is the case, see if they can't boot your laptop in Linux, mount both your hard drive and the memory drive, and save some of your files, etc.

Good luck!

[andy750]

Thanks guys....have determined that the fan is not working  so this is pointing to something...more research and will try the boot up disks.....

Andy

[Jeff]

If your fan isn't working, I would maybe leave it alone until you replace it. If the processor overheats forget being able to fix it.

Jeff

[eldar]

Depends on the proccessor. Most now are set to shutdown without damage if the temp gets too high. but if the fan does not work, forget being able to boot up. Procs heat up so fast now that you never make it that far.

[Glenn Stauffer]

If it is a problem with booting rather than the processor, you should be able to get into the bios setup screen.  If you get it there, let it sit there to see if the fan starts up or its busted and everything is shutting down to prevent the processor being cooked.

I have a Dell desktop system where the fan started running slow and the system would shutdown after a few minutes running; finally got a new non-Dell fan and the system is fine since.  If the laptop is out of warranty and you want to do the repair yourself, see if you can get the replacement fan from Dell - on may models, you probably get a fan and heatsink as a unit and you'll need thermal grease to do the replacement right.  Do some searching around the net on 'dell laptop fan replacement' and you'll find plenty of good DIY instructions.

[andy750]

Thanks Glenn great info. I have the Sympton Tree running in the Diagnostics and its saying the fan is working fine.... so Im currently going through this to see if there are any error messages....so far none!  .....anyway will see what happens.

Thanks,
Andy

[heffay]

i assume you're using a different comp to type?

anyway, never heard of the symptom tree... what is it?

[andy750]

Yes Im using MY laptop to type - its one of the work laptops thats gone down and Im trying to fix it  ......Symptons Tree seems to be a Dell Diagnostics item that you can access when press F12 (Boot menu).

Andy

[Bob Wessner]

Symptons Tree seems to be a Dell Diagnostics item that you can access

Honda take note.

[heffay]

aawwww man!  if my bikes only had an f12 button. 

but, i guess they already do... it's called the throttle and it stands for fun X 12  !