9 replies to this topic

[DBest]

My mom came home today with a Dell inspiron 600m that her boss gave her, and basically it's an "if you fix it then you can have it," situation. I looked it over, and I believe that there is something wrong with the battery, (rechargeable li-ion battery type c1295) because the charger is fine but it won't take the charge. Her boss commented that there was something wrong with the motherboard, but I know that when a repairman takes a look over a broken laptop, their usual excuse is the mother board, and a new one will cost hundreds of dollars. Overall the computer refuses to turn on, and I'm wondering if anybody might know a cheap alternative or solution to fixing it. If not, maybe you have an idea what's wrong with it.
If I bring it to school, do you think any of the administration or club can look it over? (probably a bad idea)

[SoLR]

DBest, on Sep 13 2008, 05:26 PM, said:

My mom came home today with a Dell inspiron 600m that her boss gave her, and basically it's an "if you fix it then you can have it," situation. I looked it over, and I believe that there is something wrong with the battery, (rechargeable li-ion battery type c1295) because the charger is fine but it won't take the charge. Her boss commented that there was something wrong with the motherboard, but I know that when a repairman takes a look over a broken laptop, their usual excuse is the mother board, and a new one will cost hundreds of dollars. Overall the computer refuses to turn on, and I'm wondering if anybody might know a cheap alternative or solution to fixing it. If not, maybe you have an idea what's wrong with it.
If I bring it to school, do you think any of the administration or club can look it over? (probably a bad idea)

It's really hard to tell what's wrong with the laptop without physically seeing it. It could be a lot of reasons including a faulty battery, mobo, ram, cpu, etc. Also, how do you know that the charger is working? Did you try it with another laptop or what? Just because the green light is glowing on it, doesn't necessarily mean that it's working properly. If you come to the BTHSNews meeting on September 22nd I could take a look at it. Best of luck fixing it, laptops are much more annoying to troubleshoot than a regular desktop.

[Chiyeung DjChi Lau]

HAHA SERGEY, nice way of promoting BTHSNEWs. subliminal messaging

[djharkavy]

DBest, on Sep 13 2008, 06:26 PM, said:

My mom came home today with a Dell inspiron 600m that her boss gave her, and basically it's an "if you fix it then you can have it," situation. I looked it over, and I believe that there is something wrong with the battery, (rechargeable li-ion battery type c1295) because the charger is fine but it won't take the charge. Her boss commented that there was something wrong with the motherboard, but I know that when a repairman takes a look over a broken laptop, their usual excuse is the mother board, and a new one will cost hundreds of dollars. Overall the computer refuses to turn on, and I'm wondering if anybody might know a cheap alternative or solution to fixing it. If not, maybe you have an idea what's wrong with it.
If I bring it to school, do you think any of the administration or club can look it over? (probably a bad idea)

If there is something wrong with the battery, but the computer and charger are still working, it is likely that you can start up the computer with the charger in.

[Ryan N.]

DBest, on Sep 13 2008, 06:26 PM, said:

My mom came home today with a Dell inspiron 600m that her boss gave her, and basically it's an "if you fix it then you can have it," situation. I looked it over, and I believe that there is something wrong with the battery, (rechargeable li-ion battery type c1295) because the charger is fine but it won't take the charge. Her boss commented that there was something wrong with the motherboard, but I know that when a repairman takes a look over a broken laptop, their usual excuse is the mother board, and a new one will cost hundreds of dollars. Overall the computer refuses to turn on, and I'm wondering if anybody might know a cheap alternative or solution to fixing it. If not, maybe you have an idea what's wrong with it.
If I bring it to school, do you think any of the administration or club can look it over? (probably a bad idea)

If you'd like, you can bring it to the library period 1 and meet me there. I can see what is wrong with it, and probably fix it. I've been fixing problems like these for a while. Check out my site, www.geekcenter.org for more info. If you're interested, email me (ryannarod@gmail.com) or (ryan.narod@geekcenter.org)

[Wizard]

if you goto support.dell.com and enter the service tag and goto downloads you can find a dell diagnostic CD for laptops. This includes a long list of hardware tests that you won't normally be able to isolate (ie, touchpad vs pointing nub). It may be some use to you.

-Francis

[Jae]

My apologies for bumping but it seems I've encountered a similar problem. While transferring data to an external drive, my laptop suddenly shut down and would not power on at all (no lights or anything.) I use my laptop like a desktop; I attached a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to it because the monitor is cracked inside and the mouse and keyboard are not functional anymore (missing keys, etc.) I don't use the battery because it died so I just use the AC adapter for power.

I brought it in to a technician for a free analysis and was told that the AC adapter doesn't work anymore. He used another to test the laptop and it still doesn't power up. There's probably many reasons but I was told it was either the motherboard frying or the power output is no longer functioning. Either way, if I were to replace the parts, I would have to pay at least a hundred dollars. Could it possible that there's another reason?

If the laptop cannot be fixed without having having to replace expensive parts, I wanted to at least retrieve my data from the hard drive; 50 gb worth. Can anyone give me some tips as to how I will be able to do so? I know I need to get some sort of external enclosure >.>...

[xyz]

Yes, putting the laptop drive in an enclosure is usually fruitful. However, first, you need to see what kind of drive it is, because that depends upon the type of enclosure you'll eventually need. Note that I'm not so much talking about 3.5" vs 2.5" but IDE vs SATA, etc. So, it's sounds like you're up to taking the laptop apart, or, if you're lucky, there is a simple compartment that you can open/unscrew/etc to reveal the hard drive. Some have easy removal some nightmares, so be careful in pulling this or that. Anyway, if you're still not sure once you get the drive out, post all the brand and model number info and somebody will be able to help.

[Jae]

I have removed the harddrive. It is a Hitachi SATA Model: HTS541612J9SA00. A problem that can occur with the enclosure is accessing the data if the files are password-encrypted. The technician asked me whether I set a password on the original operating system and said it might be difficult if I did. I think I either misunderstood him or he was lieing but after some research, I found that the operating system password will not affect the hard drive... or does it? I'd like to make sure.

Also, does anyone know whether the MouseSquad will have an enclosure I may borrow? I don't want to buy one since it's over my budget (I'm only allowed to spend $10 or less >.>) My friend told me about them and said they had spare parts.

[xyz]

I haven't done from Windows to Windows copy of this nature in a long time, but if I understand you, the "OS password" should not prohibit access from a SATA enclosure, however, you may need to change file permissions (I know that's what I needed to do myself with a SATA drive originated from Windows USB connected to an Apple). However, if you encrypted at some other level, I guess it would depend upon exactly how they were originally done.