Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

[sattech200]

Afternoon All!

My question is specifically: Does anyone know where I can find technical documentation on the process of the Dell Bios during boot up?

I've been kicking around an Inspiron E1705 laptop for more than a year now that I keep meaning to get to. It seems everytime I get started on it something else comes up and I get distracted. This unit will power up but hangs at the dell logo. The progress indicator bar always stops at a 1/3 of the way and then it just sits there. It hangs before any options appear to enter bios, select boot device, etc...

When this was first given to me the previous owner had ordered a second video card (GPU is a module.) which produced the same symptoms. At that time I also had an identical laptop that worked great. Basically I swapped the motherboard between units and the problem followed MB. The only thing I can't specifically remember doing is a reset of the bios if there is even a way to even do that?

I am suspecting some type of bios corruption which really caused me to start thinking and questioning. What exactly is the process the dell bios goes through behind the scenes when it boots up? This would help me identify what it's doing at 1/3 of the way when it gets stuck.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions are greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Thank you

[spleenharvester]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

Check your AC adapter (is it genuine/middle wire working?) and RAM. Both have caused post screen hangs on my E5500.

BIOS corruption is quite possible though.

[3d0]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

You can reset the BIOS by removing the onboard battery, aka CMOS battery.
I'm sure there are smarter people here that understand more about what really goes on during the boot process. IIRC during startup the BIOS checks if the gpu, ram etc. is ok, if there is any problems it beeps, or shows a message or maybe even hangs like yours.
I would test it with another gpu, and start troubleshooting from there, usually removing hadware piece by piece (if for example you have 2x ram modules, test it with just one, then test them in various slots).

[sattech200]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

Thanks for the reply's

As mentioned in my first post I've tried all of those suggestions. "Swapped motherboards between working and bad laptops" which included the Ac Adapter, RAM, 3 different GPU's, etc... In fact all components from bad system were tested good and working on good laptop.

Unless I'm blind I don't see the battery on the top of the board. Might pull it back out of case in a little while and check bottom side but I'm pretty sure I would have disconnected that when I swapped boards a while back.

[3d0]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

You have a motherboard that gets stuck at the dell logo, and have tested this mb. with components from a working mb? That rules out allot of stuff.
It's basically a mb. problem now.
Have you tried removing the onboard batt. first, or replacing it with a good working one?
Tried updating/flashing the bios?

[sattech200]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

Sorry guy's. Just want to clarify that my primary goal with this post is to find information and learn about the inner workings/behind the scenes operations of the specific dell bios in question. I've already narrowed it down to a motherboard problem and want to dig deeper into the problem with the board itself. An understanding of what's going on within the bios during the boot process will help greatly. Can't screw it up any more than it already is.

Is there a specific trick to updating/reflashing the bios without yanking the chip and using a programer?

[3d0]

Re: Technical Documentation of Dell Bios Boot Process: Stuck Inspiron E1705

I know there is a usb utility for the dell mini/vostro with which you can recover the BIOS, not sure about the inspiron you have, you might not be so lucky.