Dell Vostro 1500 wont start, any guesses?

[Cola]

Hello,

I've got a Dell Vostro 1500 which I got from my sister after it wouldn't start anymore. I have taken it completely apart, so the only thing that's still together, is the chassis and motherboard.

It just won't start. The Hard drive isn't spinning, the fan does not start, no lights up when you plug in the charger or put the battery in. I can see that the battery is working and is charged via. the small macbook-style LED's which is on it. And I also know that the charger works because it has been tested successfully on another machine.


The following then, have been established:
It is not the small battery inside it that should just peeled out and reinserted.
It does not help to run with one ram rod, or with other RAM
It doesn't start with either the charger or battery, which I know 100% works.

It has a 15.4'' 1440x900 16:10 monitor, with a Nvidia Geforce 8400M, 2GB RAM and an Intel Centrino 2 dual core processor, so I am prepared to spend a minor amount of money to get it up and running again.

What could be wrong with it then? I kinda hoped that someone in here would be clever in electronics and stuff. I've asked on another Danish forum as well for help.

I personally think that it might would be something to do with something that leads the power from battery/charger to the other components, but I dunno.


Thanks for helping

[Tom]

maybe a lose connection, faulty cpu, graphics chip maybe faulty, plus could be the screen broken?

[Cola]

Could be, but even though the screen would be broken, the rest of it, should still run. I dunno about the CPU or Graphics card, but it should also start atleast some LED's or the fan w/o the graphics card. Do you know some way of testing it?

[Tom]

if the cpu is not working 95% of the time nothing will display on the screen,on the graphics card does it have a fan ? is so does that start to fire up ? and also check the cpu for any damaged pins, also check the thermal glue to make sure it is not touching the underneath of cpu or motherboard as that can conflict aswell and cause faults

[Cola]

(2012-04-06 19:03)Tom Wrote:  if the cpu is not working 95% of the time nothing will display on the screen,on the graphics card does it have a fan ? is so does that start to fire up ? and also check the cpu for any damaged pins, also check the thermal glue to make sure it is not touching the underneath of cpu or motherboard as that can conflict aswell and cause faults

It looks like this. So it sorta have a fan, but it's shared with the CPU.

http://www.box.com/s/10334f9692ea10675730
The thing is, I'm out of thermal paste, so cannot take the cooler and chip off :/

[Tom]

you can reuse the thermal paste that is there, just check to see if any has leaked over, sounds like a faulty cpu or gpu to me

[Cola]

Crap... Could I somehow check which of them is faulty? Though my guess would be the GPU for some reason

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Anywho, this is what it looks like on the buttom side of the cooler thing, and on the chips.

http://www.box.com/s/cef904c662b44a0efbb5

[Tom]

all seems fine maybe motherboard then ?

[Cola]

Got no idea. Just checked under the GPU as well, looked fine too.
I think it has got something to do with the way the components get power. Someone on another forum wrote that it might be the dc-dc board, and that I should look for something that could be loose.

---

SUCCES!! (Maybe)

Got this blue LED running for 15 secs as I put the battery back in it after removing and putting the CPU and cooler on.

---

http://www.box.com/s/23d4b975751cd53b3ed0

[Usracerr]

Who can actually read posts when theres a gif like Toms?!?!

[Tom]

(2012-04-06 20:04)Usracerr Wrote:  Who can actually read posts when theres a gif like Toms?!?!

there obvs got the other hand holding the meat


... well if its lighting up thats a start, maybe just leave the battery charging and then unplug power and see if it starts up

[Cola]

Got everything apart now. The fan isn't spinning, so I suspect that might be the problem. Also, before I had the CPU out, it didn't start anything at all, after I put it back in, an LED lighted up. So my thought is, that at some point, it overheated because the fan f'ed up. I'ma clean it, and reconnect it and see if it'll work

[Tom]

yer maybe its not keeping it cool enough ? maybe try another heatsink? or fan maybe

[Cola]

Dunno really what to do now. Just had the fan apart, so I could see the bearing, but it's like it's not providing any power for the fan, since it still wont go around when in the PC. :/

[Tom]

i dunno then ? maybe see if u can get a replacement fan cheap enough

[Cola]

Hmm, found a fan same size and using same connector, in an ancient HP Pavilion laptop I had lying. Though, it wont work neither, so it's the connector on the MoBo :/

[Tom]

yer sounds like it

[mogey5101]

Even if the CPU is dead you would still be able to see the fans light up and hopefully the motherboard's post beeps. Im guessing theres a faulty power connection from the battery to the motherboard.

[Cola]

Yeah, I'm completely sure now, that it's a problem related to the way the fan gets power.

[Cola]

If anyone's interested, I got it working now. I found an old USB cable, cut it over, soldered the cables together with the one from the fan, so now the fan runs on USB power provided by the laptops own USB ports.