Inspiron 6000 not coming on - improperly opened laptop

[aguy007]

Hi,

My Inspiron 6000 was giving a hard drive error, so I decided to open it up to check it out. Of course, I did not read instructions on how to open it. I had trouble opening it without removing the hard drive and optical drive. I screwed it back together, read instructions, opened it partially after removing the hard and optical drives. Now when I turn on the power, the lights come on but then they go off, in like 2 seconds. Previously, when it was giving the hard drive error, it would go up to the DOS screen.

Does anyone have tips on what I could do to fix this? Now that I can open it up in the recommended fashion, I should be able to troubleshoot/replace parts.

Thanks,
John

 

[Mark56]

It sounds like you may have dislodged an internal connection, have a good look inside and check all the ribbon cables are still securely in place. Also remove and reseat the RAM modules. If you get it to boot to the POST screen then you can try and run the diagnostics as instructed below. You will need another PC to make the disc.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/



ExcelStor: http://www.excelstor.com/eng/support.php?sub_id=3

Hitachi/IBM: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html

Toshiba: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=ServicesSupport/FujitsuDrivesUSandCanada/SoftwareUtilities

Seagate, Maxtor & Quantum:http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads

Western Digital:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

 

[aguy007]

Okay, I have opened up the laptop. I notice that once I turn on the power, lights blink and then turn-off. No beeps. I don't have the circuit diagram of the motherboard to run any checks. The fan does not turn on. Could this be the issue as the fan coming on could be a system check?

 

[Mark56]

The fan not turning on is not a good sign. I'm not to sure but you may be right in thinking it is shutting down because the fan has failed, only way to find out is to use another fan and see what happens.