Dead Inspiron 1520-HELP

My parents bought a Dell Inspiron 1520 a little over a year ago. They used it at their place in Florida but put it away for about 6 months when they came back up north. When they tried to turn it on again they got nothing. No sound, no screen, no sign of any life. Even the LEDs on the right side of the laptop don't light up. I have a 1520 also and I put my charged battery on their computer but got nothing. I hooked up my power adapter and as soon as I plug it into the computer the green LED on the adapter goes out. If I unplug the adapter from the computer the light stays out, but if I unplug it from the wall socket as well and then plug it back into the wall the LED comes back on, but as soon as I plug it into the computer it goes out again.

The warranty has expired. Anybody have any idea what could be wrong? Thanks

 

If the light goes out on the power brick when you plug it in, you're most likely got a short somewhere. It's really a little strange considering the laptop has been doing nothing for six months, but these sort of things usually end up being the result of a dead motherboard. There's possibly some conductive debris inside the machine, in which a nice blast of air will get the thing going again, but this is unlikely and you'll probably have to replace the motherboard.

 

Unusual...

It could be that it was stored in a moist environment, and any moisture build up is shorting it out.

All in all, put it out in a dry warm place for awhile, make sure it's all cleaned out inside and try it again.

Worst case, the mobo is boned.

Look on eBay you likely can find them on the cheap.

 

Thanks. I thought it might be the mobi but was not looking forward to the time or expense of replacing that thing. Even on eBay they are $150-180 and I'm figuring 1-2 hours for a novice to replace. Aside from removing the board and putting a new one in is there anything else to do? Does the mobo need to have the bios flashed? thanks again

 

If the board is actually dead, there's pretty much nothing you can do short of replacing it. You could try to fix it, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. If you get a board off eBay or the like, it'll have a BIOS, but it may not be the newest BIOS, in which case you'll need to flash it only if you want the newest (or a newer) BIOS.