Dell Inspiron 1100 dead

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Ok this is the mother of all problems,

My Inspiron has suddenly stopped working. By this I mean when it's turned on all the LEDs light up as they should but the screen is completely dead. I don't think it has something to do with the screen because I have tried connecting it to another monitor but nothing shows because the keyboard doesn't execute what I press. (the caps lock light doesn't light up when I press the key if that means anything). Well that's all about I can tell you that I have done. I tried running just with the battery reinstalled the battery tried using an external keyboard but nothing happened. Another thing is that I used to keep it on alot maybe even for several days I don't know if that might have killed an internal battery even though it used to sleep and I only had it for a year.
any Ideas?
 
D... Quote

"Another thing is that I used to keep it on alot maybe even for several days I don't know if that might have killed "
Do you hear any Fans ?
Portables are not like Desktops , in that it is not good to leave them on for days at a time .I realize they shut power levels down ,If the APM is set right.
If you are not seeing any screen including boot screens ,just call Dell and make arrangements to send it back for repair (Sounds like your under Warranty)
Don't tell them you leave it on for days , just say it stopped.
BTW Welcome to Techspot!
 
It *may* interest you to know that Dell have had problems with the 1100's mainboard, specifically in this case the MEMORY BAY connections leave a lot to be desired and can fail at any time...mine did!
A work-around until you send the machine back for repair is to swap the memory module from BAY#1 into BAY#2 or if both bays are occupied try removing bay#1 memory...see if it boots...if not, try same procedure with bay 2.

DELL will replace the mainboard free gratis as long as you are within warranty. :giddy:

Edit, my first posting and I find that a sneaky ad for Pipex has been added to my text c o n n e c t i o n s...plus another for E-bay a'la.. m a i n b o a r d ....not a good start Mods! :suspiciou
 
Much appreciated....

Bluetracker, thanks for the tip, my Inspirion was doing the same thing. I swapped the memory modules around, and bang, it worked fine.

(If you even remember this thread from 3 years ago...)
 
i have one that is completely dead, being told it doesnt do anything even with a new battery and AC power supply.

its not in my posession but i was wondering if i swapped these things around such as the memory and also clearing out the fan and dust to see if it would improve things ?
 
I have an Inspiron 1100 with a Pentium 4. My computer's screen also "died" from backpack juggling: not even a hard bounce! It boots normally, though; the drive light sequence is unaffected by a grey screen of death. I enter in my Windows password and the sucker even gives me the WinXP entry sound and everything.

Also, the LCD screen is connected and working still because I see the Windows XP logo for a second or two at the same instant during repeat boots, albeit all kludged-out and over a red background (!).

It's something in the the BIOS I think, but I'm going to try and swap the memory module from Bay 1 to Bay 2 and report back with the results. If that doesn't work I will USB Flash a BIOS and see if it takes.

What a piss-poor time for the thing to break, too; it's got three years of calculus and college Econ work on it that I use daily.
 
Okay, I opened it up and I saw that I had two DIMMS in two bays, both stock Korean 256MB memory boards. I switched one with the other and instead of booting to a black screen, I got a red screen. The computer otherwise booted normally; the drive light sequence was proper and I even entered in my Win XP password blind and got the welcome sound and everything.

I'm guessing that something in one of the DIMMs broke.

Since the Timonium Computer Show and Sale is this weekend, I'm going to go and get new memory for it: two 512MB DIMMs. What the heck, it needs it anyway. Vendors there can inspect the sucker on-site, too, so I can determine before I buy the memory if that will fix the problem.
 
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