I have a dell e1705 and it will sometimes power on to a blue screen and sometimes will not do anything at all. Any ideas what the problem is?

Your complete Dell model name is Inspiron 9400/E1705

Does the laptop battery charge ok? Does the blue screen happen on battery or AC or both? How old is this laptop?

Does the blue screen take a while to show?

The computer is 2 years old and the blue screen appears when the computer is being used heavily. I then restart the pc and it will work fine. Some days it is more difficult than others.

This may me an over heating issue... The internal CPU fans/cooling fins may be clogged with dust

The last owner of it said that he had taken it to dell and they tried doing a bios update and they looked into the computer and said it was a motherboard problem. Are they usually just full of crap. I know that anyone who works on computers is usually a crook when it comes to laptops and most problems with motherboards can be fixed easily like resodering the ac jack.

Resoldering a DC Jack is not that easy. Usually the laptop has to be totally torn down and the motherboard removed to gain access to the soldered side of the Jack. I have 2 Gateway laptops here. Both DC jacks are broken and will have to be replaced. Resoldering allowed me to charge the batteries and to check the operating condition. I had to pull the AC cord tight and place it under the laptop to get the laptops to charge

yea i have repaired ac jacks to but I don't think it is that hard to tear apart a laptop down to the motherboard. Only takes me like around a half an hour. I know dell will not fix a bad ac jack they just just replace the motherboard and charge you full price for it which is a rip off.

Yeah,
The jacks can cost anywhere from $20 to $75 and I only charge $75 labor. Most of the time I have to do cleanup on the OS and install updates and current virus and malware protection. Those teenagers and young people can really screw up computers!

I wouldn't ever replace the jack because they usually don't go bad. it is the connection at the motherboard that will go bad. I would resoder the connection before even think of spending $20 on a new jack.

You would if the jacks are cracked and the contact metal is physically broken. You are lucky if you have never seen a broken jack