Dell Vostro Laptop seems dead (does not start up)

Hi,

I am facing a seemingly serious problem with my Dell Vostro 1000 laptop, which I bought in 2007. The computer seems (almost) dead.

This is what happens when pressing the power button:

- the LED with the 'power'-symbol goes on and stays on until I press the power button again (a short press suffices). The other two system LEDS don't light up.

- The three 'lock'-LEDS (num, caps and scroll I believe) flash once, all three of them at the same time, shortly. I think (not sure though) this is normal and like before.

- On screen absolutely nothing happens. The screen seems completely dead, like the laptop is turned off.

- I hear two beeps, which is the usual amount of beeps.

- The fan runs for a brief moment, which is also normal and like before.

- The cd/dvd-dock-light blinks a few times, which is probably also normal.

- I hear a little bit of rattling noise, which is also normal and comes from the HD I believe. However, normally it keeps on making little sounds as the laptop starts up and now these don't continue.

Further the laptop stays dead until I turn it off by pressing the power button again.

So basically I have no visuals at all + the laptop seems to hang 2/3 seconds after powering on.

Before my laptop went dead on me, something very strange happened during the last time I used it. I was watching a youtube-video (don't know if this is relevant, but anyhow) when suddenly the screen showed vertical black and white stripes and the sound was gone. The complete screen was frozen in black and white stripes of about 0,5 cm. I tried ctr+alt+del, nothing happened. Then I tried a short push on the power button, nothing happened. Then I pressed the power button a longer time to turn the laptop off. Since this happened, my laptop is dead.

Might also be relevant, but I'm not sure: now and then the laptop has shut down by itself. I am pretty sure this was due to overheating, because the laptop was very hot at the bottom and it only happened when I placed the laptop in a place where the venting-conditions were not ideal (e.g. on a mattress).


I have searched some forums and tried a few things, but nothing made me wiser:

- When I run the laptop only on battery power, the problem stays exactly the same. When I plug the AC-adapter back in, the battery-LED lights up, indicating the battery is being charged (for a short time), which is normal. After a short while, however, the battery-LED starts blinking (a short flash every seven seconds). I don't know whether this is normal and why it blinks.

- I have tried removing the HD and powering on. The problem stays exactly the same.

- I have tried removing both the two RAM-sticks and powering on. The result is exactly the same.

- I tried pressing the Fn-key (during 10 seconds) and then pressing power-on, nothing changes.

- I tried pressing the F2-key shortly after power-on, no result.

I would like to try attaching an external screen, but I don't have another screen or cable, so I can only try this in few days maybe. The fact that the startup-sounds don't continue, however, make me think the problem lies not (only) with the screen.

Can anyone help me? I don't know what else I can do to try to save my laptop. Any help would be highly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Sanne

 

Sounds like a bad graphics card.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, alexhawker!

I tried a few things (attaching an external screen, checking the RAM-cards one by one and the esd-manoeuvre) but they didn't work. So I ended up trying to 'reflow' my GPU since I had nothing to loose.

I tried it three times, first with a hairdryer, didn't work.
Then with a blow torch from a 5cm distance, since I didn't want things to melt, but it did't work.
Then a last time with the blow torch from close by for 7 minutes. I was ready to give up, but when I tried the screen was back!!

During the third try I accidentally broke off one of the metal cube's on the motherboard, but the computer seems to work so I hope it was not an important one! :/

I also found a lot of dust in the fan, which must have been the cause of the overheating an ultimately the 'meltdown' of my GPU.

I am really glad my problem is fixed!

Thank you!!

 

I would definitely back anything important up right now, and start shopping for a new machine, but glad to hear you are back up and running!