If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
Hi,
I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Saturday, January 4, 2014 1:10:53 PM UTC-6, Dean-MN wrote:
Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... If it was mine I would remove the HDD, hook it as a USB drive ($15 adapter) and check it with MalwareBytes or Super Anti-Spyware on another LT or DT PC. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote:
Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible.. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
"Ben Myers" wrote in message ... On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote: Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers Thanks Bob. I have a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 ordered from Newegg. Thanks Ben. I had forgotten about the CMOS discharge trick. Removing the battery, unplugging the power supply, holding down the power button down for 20 minutes had no effect. The CMOS battery holder is soldered to the underside of the motherboard and is not accessible without a major teardown. I'm thinking that as long as it appears the motherboard is going to be removed, a replacement might as well be installed at that time. Motherboards for the 1545 are all over the Internet for as little as $45 and I have the knowledge, instructions, time and no fear so might just as well do it. Dean... |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Monday, January 6, 2014 10:20:53 AM UTC-6, Dean-MN wrote:
"Ben Myers" wrote in message ... On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote: Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers Thanks Bob. I have a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 ordered from Newegg. Thanks Ben. I had forgotten about the CMOS discharge trick. Removing the battery, unplugging the power supply, holding down the power button down for 20 minutes had no effect. The CMOS battery holder is soldered to the underside of the motherboard and is not accessible without a major teardown. I'm thinking that as long as it appears the motherboard is going to be removed, a replacement might as well be installed at that time. Motherboards for the 1545 are all over the Internet for as little as $45 and I have the knowledge, instructions, time and no fear so might just as well do it. Dean... I just put an SSD in my old 1545 (for speed and battery use). It didn't see it in the BIOS even after formatting in a desktop. After searching forums turns-out it is just different enough to not plug into the M/B! Turn the LT right-side up and it plugged-in correctly...go figure! |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Monday, January 6, 2014 11:20:53 AM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote:
"Ben Myers" wrote in message ... On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote: Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers Thanks Bob. I have a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 ordered from Newegg. Thanks Ben. I had forgotten about the CMOS discharge trick. Removing the battery, unplugging the power supply, holding down the power button down for 20 minutes had no effect. The CMOS battery holder is soldered to the underside of the motherboard and is not accessible without a major teardown. I'm thinking that as long as it appears the motherboard is going to be removed, a replacement might as well be installed at that time. Motherboards for the 1545 are all over the Internet for as little as $45 and I have the knowledge, instructions, time and no fear so might just as well do it. Dean... FWIW, save yourself a lot of time and buy a 1545 motherboard already in the system chassis. I have sold numerous Dell laptop boards this way to make for a much easier repair than removing the motherboard from the chassis, replacing it with a naked motherboard. Right now, I do not have any 1545 boards available, just Inspiron 1525, 1440 and 1501 boards, all on eBay. Removing a motherboard from a laptop bottom chassis is pretty low on my list of favorite tasks, even if the laptop bottom is badly damaged and I have the same chassis, empty and in good condition... Ben Myers |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Monday, January 6, 2014 1:10:22 PM UTC-6, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Monday, January 6, 2014 10:20:53 AM UTC-6, Dean-MN wrote: "Ben Myers" wrote in message ... On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote: Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers Thanks Bob. I have a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 ordered from Newegg. Thanks Ben. I had forgotten about the CMOS discharge trick. Removing the battery, unplugging the power supply, holding down the power button down for 20 minutes had no effect. The CMOS battery holder is soldered to the underside of the motherboard and is not accessible without a major teardown. I'm thinking that as long as it appears the motherboard is going to be removed, a replacement might as well be installed at that time. Motherboards for the 1545 are all over the Internet for as little as $45 and I have the knowledge, instructions, time and no fear so might just as well do it. Dean... I just put an SSD in my old 1545 (for speed and battery use). It didn't see it in the BIOS even after formatting in a desktop. After searching forums turns-out it is just different enough to not plug into the M/B! Turn the LT right-side up and it plugged-in correctly...go figure! Ben, did you ever run into this (with an SSD)? There are forums that say Dells are finicky about these drives but ppl may just be having problems with them seating properly. $.02 |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Sunday, January 12, 2014 11:15:01 AM UTC-5, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Monday, January 6, 2014 1:10:22 PM UTC-6, Bob_Villa wrote: On Monday, January 6, 2014 10:20:53 AM UTC-6, Dean-MN wrote: "Ben Myers" wrote in message ... On Saturday, January 4, 2014 2:10:53 PM UTC-5, Dean-MN wrote: Hi, I am working on an Inspiron 1545 that won't boot. The report I have is that it was working okay when a window appeared from the FBI demanding a payment of $300. I know. It was the FBI Moneypak virus. That scarred my granddaughter into shutting the notebook down. When she tried to start it again, it didn't boot. It has an Intel T4400 2.2 GHz processor, 4 (2X2) GB RAM, 15.6HDF LED LCD, Windows 7HP. The symptoms are... The fan spins briefly then is quiet. The DVD+/-RW drive light blinks. The drive door will open and spin when a Hiren's Boot Disk is inserted. A bootable USB light blinks once at startup. There is not anything visible on the display. Same when an external monitor is hooked up. There are no beep sounds. The same symptoms weather the battery is mounted or removed. The battery is recently replaced. There are no hot spots on the case when in "run" mode. The HDD and memory modules have been reseated. When the power button is pressed a second time, nothing happens and the machine appears to be in "off" mode. I am the go-to guy for computer repair and am knowledgeable to a point but am stumped with a machine that refuses to start. I could use suggestions on where to start. Could these symptoms be caused by a bad HDD or is a dead motherboard more likely? Dean... Not sure why it will no longer power on cleanly. Here is possibly one last thing to try. Remove the battery and disconnect power supply. Now hold down the on-off button for about 10 seconds to discharge the CMOS. Now try again. If that does not work, open up the chassis (remove keyboard?) and disconnect the wire leads for the yellow or blue CMOS battery from the motherboard. Wait 30 sec. Try again. If successful, the system will boot up to a message that says the CMOS battery is low or missing. Sometimes the CMOS memory gets corrupted, making a clean boot-up impossible. These FBI Moneypak scumbags may have messed up the CMOS settings as one final touch to their damage... Ben Myers Thanks Bob. I have a Vantec CB-ISATAU2 ordered from Newegg. Thanks Ben. I had forgotten about the CMOS discharge trick. Removing the battery, unplugging the power supply, holding down the power button down for 20 minutes had no effect. The CMOS battery holder is soldered to the underside of the motherboard and is not accessible without a major teardown. I'm thinking that as long as it appears the motherboard is going to be removed, a replacement might as well be installed at that time. Motherboards for the 1545 are all over the Internet for as little as $45 and I have the knowledge, instructions, time and no fear so might just as well do it. Dean... I just put an SSD in my old 1545 (for speed and battery use). It didn't see it in the BIOS even after formatting in a desktop. After searching forums turns-out it is just different enough to not plug into the M/B! Turn the LT right-side up and it plugged-in correctly...go figure! Ben, did you ever run into this (with an SSD)? There are forums that say Dells are finicky about these drives but ppl may just be having problems with them seating properly. $.02 Haven't seen it first hand, but in a moment of calm here (if ever there is one), I can plug an SSD into a Dell 1545 and see what happens. The only positive evidence I have is that someone at one of my clients succeeded when he installed an IDE SSD to pep up an older Dell laptop... Ben |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
Guys, a lot of us follow these threads to pick up info and tips.
But, in the nicest possible way, can you consider trimming responses rather than just adding to a long post (which already is largely full of white space), requiring readers to scroll all the way to the bottom to see a shortish response, often a one-liner? For example: On Mon, 6 Jan 2014 11:10:22 -0800 (PST), Bob_Villa wrote: I just put an SSD in my old 1545 (for speed and battery use). It didn't see it in the BIOS even after formatting in a desktop. After searching forums turns-out it is just different enough to not plug into the M/B! Turn the LT right-side up and it plugged-in correctly...go figure! which took 207 lines, while the followup On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:15:01 -0800 (PST), Bob_Villa wrote: Ben, did you ever run into this (with an SSD)? There are forums that say Dells are finicky about these drives but ppl may just be having problems with them seating properly. $.02 occupied 397 lines and the response: On Mon, 13 Jan 2014 21:08:20 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers wrote: Haven't seen it first hand, but in a moment of calm here (if ever there is one), I can plug an SSD into a Dell 1545 and see what happens. The only positive evidence I have is that someone at one of my clients succeeded when he installed an IDE SSD to pep up an older Dell laptop... Ben resulted in a post of 774 lines. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Inspiron 1545 Doesn't Boot
On Tuesday, January 14, 2014 6:20:25 AM UTC-6, pedro wrote:
Guys, a lot of us follow these threads to pick up info and tips.~ We'll try! 8^P |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Dell Inspiron 1545 | [email protected] | Dell Computers | 13 | March 9th 13 02:52 PM |
Dell Inspiron 1545 | KM | Dell Computers | 1 | March 20th 11 05:48 AM |
OSX on Inspiron 1545? | Steve Austin | Dell Computers | 1 | July 3rd 09 02:29 AM |
Inspiron 1545 and OpenGL? | Bobby Shafto | Dell Computers | 0 | June 26th 09 09:20 PM |
Inspiron 1545 | William R. Cousert | Dell Computers | 4 | March 29th 09 04:00 PM |