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Computer crashed...need diagnosis help

Discussion in 'Technology' started by mmadej87, Feb 11, 2011.

  1. Feb 11, 2011 at 6:56 PM
    #1
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    i have a dell inspiron 1420 (service tag JWV2YF1 for anyone that wants to look up specific specs on dells site)

    a few days ago i was watching true blood online (streaming through a site that i had watched from many times) when all of a sudden the colors distorted and the computer froze, completely...no flickering/solid HDD light, just locked up

    in order to get it to shut down i had to do a hard reset (hold power button for 5 seconds) i waited about 2 minutes, tried to boot it up. lights turn on, monitor turns on, no dell bios splash screen. i turn computer back off, let it sit for about 5 minutes, re-attempt to to boot computer back up. works..

    about 2 hours later, does it again..was able to get it to boot back up a couple more times after this happened and now it doesnt want to boot AT ALL..no dell bios screen. power, bluetooth lights stay solid, HDD light flickers for about a minute then goes off, no activity, num lock light turns on during initial power up then turns off 15 seconds later

    i was able to get it to boot up once yesterday, and i ran the dell diagnostics disc on the computer, everything checked out ok (from what im assuming it did, no errors popped up)

    my first thought was because of the distorting colors it was the vid card that was bad...but i should atleast get the bios screen or be able to enter set-up

    now my thoughts are either bad RAM or motherboard..

    anybody else have thoughts on what could be causing this problem?

    Thanks in advance
     
  2. Feb 11, 2011 at 7:03 PM
    #2
    907taco

    907taco Alaskan Assassin

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    can you even get it into safe mode? doesn't sound like it but if you can turn on pressing f8, boot up in safe mode, then using restore to a previous day would be my solution. i only have had spyware starting to take over computer and i always start back up in safe mode and go back a day on restore and always fixed my problem. i know its a different problem but good luck bro........... i like your sig vid.
     
  3. Feb 11, 2011 at 7:08 PM
    #3
    ruler

    ruler Well-Known Member

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    Any beeping error codes? Most likely hardware related issue, try opening up the chassis and disconnect everything,power supply cable to mobo,memory,cmos battery, for a few minutes ,reconnect and power on
     
  4. Feb 11, 2011 at 7:15 PM
    #4
    oofy15354

    oofy15354 Proud Tundra *****

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    damn i like your sig...

    anyways, if you can boot in safe mode, that rules out the vid card because it runs on integrated graphics at that point. intermittent failures are the hardest to diagnose just because even replacing parts doesnt always fix it. about 1 in 20 times my custom built rig refuses to start. but it always works the next time


    anyways, the failure sounds similar to when my computer used to overheat after gaming due to a poor application of thermal paste on the CPU. eventually the hard shut downs caused a sector of the HDD to become corrupted and i had to do a reinstall.

    try making a boot CD for linux and see if you can get that to work. if so, save what you need and reinstall windows.

    however, since you can't get to the bios screen or anything, sounds like the mobo to me. maybe it was an overheat that damaged something? or a bad connection somewhere causing the intermittent nature.

    to test RAM, run with one stick at a time (if you have more than one) and see if it will reliably boot on some but not others.
     
  5. Feb 11, 2011 at 7:17 PM
    #5
    oofy15354

    oofy15354 Proud Tundra *****

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    oh, the first thing to try: turn off the computer and unplug it from the back. hold the power button for about 10 seconds. plug it in then try to tun it. its amazing how much power is held in all the caps and that can keep stuff in memory for quite some time. this will drain all that power and truly clear the ram
     
  6. Feb 11, 2011 at 7:38 PM
    #6
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    thanks for the advice everyone, however i have tried all of the above, including the cmos battery, i left all the basics in (all that what i could get to, damn laptops)

    however with getting the safe mode, i would need to see the bios screen to do any of that, of which my computer does NOT go to..so there fore, no booting to cd, no booting to set up, no booting to safe mode, no booting system restore partition, etc etc
     
  7. Feb 11, 2011 at 8:38 PM
    #7
    Goober

    Goober Earthlings are fun to watch!

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    I think this system is a goner. JMO, but it's exhibiting a hard failure. I see it's a laptop from the service code. Were you in the habit of using it on your lap? If so, you would be blocking the vents and the laptop would run hot. Heat is the #1 killer of laptops. Because it's not doing something consistent, stopping at the same place every boot suggest a flaky chip. Probably the processor. Sounds just like the problem I had with a file server. New processor fixed it.
    Hope you had your files backed up. Anyone else reading, if you don't have a backup, go buy an external drive and copy everything you don't want to lose. You could take it to an authorized Dell service center and they will give you an estimate. Good luck.
     
  8. Feb 11, 2011 at 8:43 PM
    #8
    CopDoctor

    CopDoctor Well-Known Member

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    that actually sounds like one of my dells when the motherboard went out
     
  9. Feb 11, 2011 at 10:14 PM
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    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    Well I have the knowledge and experience to replace a motherboard/CPU the mobi is 130 on eBay...which is definately worth it to me to buy since this computer is still better than most laptops that are still being sold today...I just don't have the spare supplies to test if it's the CPU or mono or RAM
     
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  10. Feb 11, 2011 at 10:16 PM
    #10
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    Sorry for typos and bad writing, I'm on my phone
     
  11. Feb 11, 2011 at 10:18 PM
    #11
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    And yea, all my stuff is backed up, got a 1TB external, I may lose some recent pictures that I didn't get a chance to back up but oh well, maybe I can get it to boot once more to let me do the xfer
     
  12. Feb 12, 2011 at 9:11 AM
    #12
    psmcn

    psmcn Well-Known Member

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    Don't rule out the Power supply. I've driven myself crazy more then once trying to figure out what is wrong with a machine when it was the power supply. If you have a known good PS that you can put in, try and see if you still have the problem. always work backwards, meaning the PS is first, then the Vid card, Memory, CPU fan, vid card fan. etc........I have found that it is rarely the MB but its not out of the possibilities, it is the last possibility though .
     
  13. Feb 12, 2011 at 9:58 AM
    #13
    Xaks

    Xaks Cranky & often armed sysadmin

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    I deal with a lot of abused laptops at the office.

    Dells are a bit twitchy with the batteries, FYI. Like, if one overheats and goes bad, the lappy won't boot. Pop the battery and go to straight AC power and it works fine (I had this happen last week with two; a D600 series and a newer inspiron). Got replacement batteries...one was fine, one had a bad charging circuit connection and wouldn' tboot with ANY battery in place.

    Its a longshot, but hey, give it a whirl.
     
  14. Feb 13, 2011 at 7:46 AM
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    coffeesnob

    coffeesnob Well-Known Member

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    dell had a big recall on some of their laptop batteries
     
  15. Feb 13, 2011 at 7:55 AM
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    alx_alx_69

    alx_alx_69 Well-Known Member

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    Step 1. Place Dell under front tire of Tacoma
    Step 2. Drive Tacoma forward and backward a few times.
    Step 3. Purchase a new laptop

    just in case you were looking for something less technical
     
  16. Feb 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM
    #16
    coffeesnob

    coffeesnob Well-Known Member

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    what do you have against dell?
     
  17. Feb 13, 2011 at 11:31 PM
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    slmgt

    slmgt Well-Known Member

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    Since the system won't boot, you are undeniably experiencing a hardware failure (of some variety).

    First, remove the battery and use the power from the wall alone. Does that change anything?

    Second, check with a flashlight as much of the motherboard as possible - look for anything out of the ordinary, such as leaking capacitors. If possible, check close to the A/C input and chipsets.

    My suspicion is that heat played a role in this problem, most likely because heat plays a big role in many sudden laptop failures. I could not find useful information on the page linked to below about what type of motherboard or video chipset was included. I see you have a T7250, which is a Core 2 Duo - but I want to know what motherboard you have, namely the series chipset and video chipset.

    If you want details about your laptop using the service tag you provided, see here
     
  18. Feb 14, 2011 at 10:08 AM
    #18
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    yea, i have tried removing the battery and running just off AC power..no luck..i have read online about a few people that left the battery out and unplugged for a couple days, then had went back to power on and they said it has worked ever since...ive had it like this since friday, ill be checking it when i get home today.

    as far as the motherboard, i beleive it is KN548
     
  19. Feb 14, 2011 at 4:42 PM
    #19
    kris77

    kris77 Born in the Backwoods

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    THIS....
     
  20. Feb 15, 2011 at 6:51 AM
    #20
    mmadej87

    mmadej87 [OP] Mayday

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    Ok well about the power supply...I did a search and all I'm getting for results is batteries and power adapters, I've never seen a power supply for a laptop, ive done more work on desktops, anybody know what a laptop power supply looks like?
     

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