"HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

[doctorstrangelove]

Inspiron 5100.
I was trying to get on the net true dial-up. And then he bluescreened on me. Tried to restart him but no luck. Powers up, the fan gives out warm air but the screen is black. Try 5 more times and no luck, almost gaved up. Though the mobo gone fry. But on the next try it went on!? Got to the loading windows screen and again bluescreened on me. Repeated same thing (5-7 times nothing and than again bluescreen)
Anyway now it shows only blackscreen. Took out all the unnecessary parts to eliminate the problem. Tried different memory, nothing. Thought maybe BIOS got settings too high, so I desolder and solder back the BIOS battery to reset it. Still nothing. The CPU gets hot making me believe that it's ok. While I was taking BIOS battery out I inspected everything (the mobo,video,cpu) for signs of frying. Nothing seems fried.
someone on craigslist told me to try on this forum with my problem.
Could it be the bad caps??

[willawake]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

pic please

[doctorstrangelove]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

sry, don't have a digicam here. Visiting my motherland(Russia) for the next 6 mounth. If the problem in the caps, it would be great as I solder preaty good and here(in Russia) there is no problem in geting any electronic parts realy cheap. You can buy brand new "lamps" with no problem! Remember the ones you had in your old radio.

[willawake]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

what is the brand of the caps

[doctorstrangelove]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

I din't look at the caps. I haven't even thought about them until today felow cragslister told me to take a look at this site. Planing on taking laptop apart tomorow to take a look at it with caps in mind. Rightnow just wondering if this problem sounds like a badcaps.

[willawake]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

oh its a laptop

you must look very carefully for components legs which solder is cracked from flexing of the case or desoldering from heat. (can you get it to work if you push on parts of the case?)

you must also look for anything burnt or odd.

its not so easy to troubleshoot laptop.

[doctorstrangelove]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

do you have a pic of caps that are used in laptops, can't remember seeing any regular size caps there when I took it apart.

[willawake]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

might be these http://www.capacitorlab.com/capacito...-smt/index.htm
might be these http://www.capacitorlab.com/capacitor-types-polymer/
might be these http://www.capacitorlab.com/capacito...-electrolytic/
probably some of these also http://www.capacitorlab.com/capacito...-smt/index.htm

who knows really. each board can be different

dont get hung up on the caps. it could be some other problem.

[doctorstrangelove]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

Yeah I have 2 of Chip Type SMT Electrolytic Capacitors and everything else is ceramic ones. Looked one more time for any visual damage around the whole motherboard, none were found.
Arr, so frustrating... It fires up, and everything seems to work. But does not work. So much easy on desktops when you have planty of spares, quickly pin point the problem. On laptops you realy don't have the oportunity to try different video or mobo etc.
will keep searching for the answer....

[stevo1210]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

Inspiron 5100.
I was trying to get on the net true dial-up. And then he bluescreened on me. Tried to restart him but no luck. Powers up, the fan gives out warm air but the screen is black. Try 5 more times and no luck, almost gaved up. Though the mobo gone fry. But on the next try it went on!? Got to the loading windows screen and again bluescreened on me. Repeated same thing (5-7 times nothing and than again bluescreen)
Anyway now it shows only blackscreen. Took out all the unnecessary parts to eliminate the problem. Tried different memory, nothing. Thought maybe BIOS got settings too high, so I desolder and solder back the BIOS battery to reset it. Still nothing. The CPU gets hot making me believe that it's ok. While I was taking BIOS battery out I inspected everything (the mobo,video,cpu) for signs of frying. Nothing seems fried.
someone on craigslist told me to try on this forum with my problem.
Could it be the bad caps??

Hello doctorstrangelove,

Your motherboard could be dead due to overheating maybe??
I read on the internet that the Dell Inspiron 5100 series had many issues with overheating and as a result the motherboard would be fried.
I think there's also a lawsuit aimed at Dell for improper design of the Inspiron 1100 and 5100 series notebooks.

Here are some links to some useful info about the Inspiron 5100 overheating problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron#Overheating

http://www.geocities.com/i5100dustproblem/

http://www.dellcommunity.com/support...message.id=329


Personally, I haven't seen or used an Inspiron 5100 notebook, but i've heard a lot of problems about it. I use an Inspiron 6400 and it is quite good.

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: "HELL" Inspiron 5100, could it be the caps??

I believe the Inspiron 1100 and 5100 used desktop P4 chips, not mobile P4s. As a result, the VRM as well as other subsystems in the power supply chain were prone to failure due to overheating/high currents.