Dell Inspiron 2500 not booting up

so, this is LCD or videochip failure. can you post a picture of this pattern?

Anybody please help me to get my bios password. I need bios password for del latitude d810.. this is really urgent.. I need to change the operating system from windows XP to windows Vista, but the boot sequence cannot be changed, it is locked. I bought this laptop from news paper, when I called the guy about the password he say that He don't take any responsability once you pay. Please help me for the password, I will not forget your kindness and hope you would help someone that is very frustated person..

Please help me.. thanks..
Service Tag : DKFSZ1J
System Number : DKFSZ1J-595B
Express SERVICE Code: 295-340-399-11

Please help me.. thanks..

Yes Roland. What you do is start your own thread with "bios password for del latitude d810" as the thread title.
Then people will see your need and respond.

Unfortunately so far I can't get it to start up again.
I shall continue trying, and as soon as I succeed, I'll grab a photo and post it.

John

Screen photos

After about 6 hours "warming up", I got it to boot up. It went straight through the normal sequence, but with the laptop showing a striped screen. I could see the correspondence of the stripes to what I would expect on screen.
When it had finished booting up, I took the first photo, then used the F keys to switch to monitor and took the second.
I've now alterred the power settings so that it wont shut down unless I say so, to give me more time to experiment.

Is there a setting in bios that would let me use the external monitor as the default display ?
This might be useful if I can't fix the problem.

I notice that only one fan comes on when the processor is working. Is this normal during light usage ?

I've got Everest loaded as a diagnostic tool, and it shows a X against a 3D accelerator(whatever that is) and Xs against all the directX entries.
Is this significant ?

John

this is videochip failure. it's 100%. tell me, what's the videochip in this laptop?

I've no idea, but I will try to discover it.
Does the video chip only generate signals for the lcd display bu not for the external monitor ?
Can you give me any ideas of the type of chip I am looking for, or its location.
Will it have a designation that will be given in my system diagnostics ?
Regards
John

it generates both signals. look in windows device manager to know your videoadapter.

Thanks lamo.
I'll now start today's 6 hour "warm up", and when it finally boots up, I'll post the info.

John

EDIT
I just switched on and it booted the lcd screen to the first Dell splash page showing "press F2 for setup" in full color.
However it has frozen on that, and wont go further.
I've tried starting again, but it wont repeat, just shows the black screen, so I'll now wait.

Left it on for 3 hours before trying again.This time it booted up straight through with no problems.
Stripes on screen so I switched to monitor and read off the video info.

Graphics controller Intel 82815
Video Adapter Intel i752

Within a few seconds the LCD screen came on, even though the monitor was still working normally !
The LCD got very bright, brightest round the edges, but still with the stripes in the background.
I tried switching back to the LCD, but the Function/F8 didn't have any effect.
I switched off, then rebooted, but the current situation reappeared.
So I've now switched off for an hour, and will start again later, to see what happens next.
John

wow! according your data, this is northbridge failure(the videoadaptor is integrated in northbridge). the full diagnosis will be only after replaicng LCD and LCD cable. i hope that the problem is in LCD-assembly

Left it on for 3 hours on the mains adaptor before trying again......

The LCD screen comes on, with narrow stripes on a dark background, and the monitor also comes on, but shows a normal booting up sequence. This is without using any function keys.
The LCD then gets very bright, slightly brighter round the edges, but still with the stripes in the background.
The Function/F8 still has no effect.

This performance can be repeated by shutting down, then immediately powering up, as long as the machine is not switched off for more than a few seconds.
If this happens, I need to go through the 3 hour warm up.

I think I shall next take the display to pieces to see if there is any sign of damage to the flexible connector to the screen.
John

I've now found my way through to "Graphics properties", a window I've not discovered before, and have an explanation of at least part of the symptoms.
The facility of having both screens on is one the options, and inexplicably it became the chosen one. This explains why the F8 key was having no effect !
I've now switched to just external monitor, and that works, but still only with the 3 hour warm up.
So I shall proceed with an examination of the display module, but more importantly, see if the laptop will boot up without the display connected.
I planning to load Linux on it, and a remotely mounted screen would work well for what I want to do with it, so that's the idea.
However getting it to boot up properly would be preferable to leaving it permanently on.
Switching to standby doesn't bring a quick reboot, by the way.
John

The laptop is now running with only a 1/2hour "warm up" time, before switching off/on successfully boots it up.
The LCD screen still shows the stripe pattern before the boot up sequence swiches the video to the eternal monitor.

Some of the symptoms continue to evolve with time, so I've no idea what the eventual outcome might be.

fanmaker, i have an idea. you need to replace the northbridge chip. or do reballing of the northbridge.

Good grief lamo
I'd have to think about it, as I know what is involved.
But before I even think about it, any suggestions on where I find such a chip ?

The second question - "do reballing of the northbridge" - EDIT I've just read what this means. Buying a new mobo would be cheaper I think.

Regards
John

Edit I've just switched on the laptop to use Everest to identify the northbridge, and it booted up instantly.
One thing I've not mentioned, as I don't know if it's relevant, but the stripe pattern is obviously a distortion of the proper screen, that is each of the many stripes seems to be a squashed version of the whole display, about 2mm deep, and repeated every 10mm.