Dell Inspiron E1505 Won't Boot

I just got a laptop from a friend of mine who said if I could fix it, it's mine. Got it today, as a matter of fact. It is...a...Dell Inspiron...lessee...E1505 with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and that's about as much as I know about it, aside from the fact that it was designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition.

She had just recently had it in the shop, but a few months ago one of her girls knocked it off of a coffee table, and that's when the issue started. It charges and powers up (i.e.: The power indicator lights up and you can hear the CD/DVD-RW drive kick on), the hard drive spools up, but doesn't seem to do anything, and nothing else really happens, although you can feel the heatsink warm up over the course of a few minutes, though the fan doesn't spin. Now, I'm pretty good with desktops, but as far as I know, laptops are a different animal in a few respects. I haven't opened the laptop other than to check the amount of RAM in the system, and pull the hard drive to check for broken platters (no high-tech maracca, by the way ), but that's hardly invasive surgery.

So, I guess I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to save this laptop, or am I just better off burying it?

 

Unfortunately, no...the the display won't come on, and I even tried hooking it up to an old CRT monitor I had laying away in my closet. Good thing is, I did some shopping around, and found that if worse comes to worst, I can get almost the whole laptop piecemeal for under $100 (plus S&H, of course lol)

But, I'd like to save it, as it's a good little laptop, even if it IS nine years old, soon to be 10 lol This (my desktop) is my primary machine. I've got well over $950 in it, including the purchase price, so, I'm not exactly in the market for a new lappy lmao *hems and haws for a moment* Well, I guess that settles it...I guess I'll be buying some parts.

HOWEVER! If there's anyone who reads this in the next two weeks, or whatever the lifespan for a live topic is on this forum, I could do with some diagnostic tips to work with in the meantime. Maybe, with your help, I can more accurately pinpoint the problem through answering some strategic questions from you. AND, I do have some new information on the machine: It has an intel motherboard, a Core2 Duo @ 1.66GHz, and an intel graphics chipset whose designation I'm currently unsure of. Needless to say, it's not my ideal all-AMD build, but, it's been a good machine in the past when it was working before.

 

I have worked on allot of laptops and once you have dropped them, the first thing that goes out is the Screen.. Have you tried to see if it will boot from CD/DVD ? Also try another hard drive..

 

Actually didn't try that...but would that even work if I didn't see the POST on the CRT I tried?


Edit/Update: Okay, I tried booting from CD/DVD as you suggested, Ghostman. And what I heard was the sweetest sound I thought I'd never hear: the DVD drive spinning and the laser flicking back and forth as it read the disc. So, at least I know what I need to get: a new screen. And, thankfully, since it's an OLD laptop, the screen for it is relatively cheap. Though, I think I still need to replace the motherboard as well; None of the sound works. And I'm pretty sure it's like the gpu: integrated. But, again, being that it's so old, it's a relatively cheap option. Also, another nice thing is that the keyboard, and a few other things on it are pretty well brand new.

 

Yea! I fix allot of dropped laptops, Most of the time it is just the screen, Some laptops will not work with the external video plugin no matter what..
Do you plan on keeping this laptop ? That screen runs between 80.00 to 100.00 bucks..

 

Oh, yeah. I found a couple of screens on ebay for around $30-$60, and, even if it does end up being $80-$100, it's still cheaper than buying a new laptop.