Inspiron 1501 will not power on. LED Code: Caps and scroll lock illuminated

Hi all,


My fiance has had an Inspiron 1501 for some time. Today after she put the computer to sleep, the PC would not come out of sleep mode (typical windows problem); however, once she shut off the computer it will not come back on. When pressing the power button the fan kicks on and then the screen stays black and the CAPS lock and SCROLL lock lights come on and stay illuminated. I could not find the POST code for these two lights remaining on. I've tried re-seating the processor, as well as cleaning out the heat sinks. I'm afraid that the PC may have overheated and fried the board/processor/some component, but I wanted some advice before I began searching for a new laptop. Any ideas?? Thanks



PS. there are no beeps either.

 

You tried re-seating the processor... but did you try re-seating the memory?

 

Does the Numlock light flash? If so then it's likely your CPU.

Otherwise, like you, I cannot find that POST sequence either. Dell will of course want money for a one off tech support call, they'd be able to tell you straight away though.

 

No unfortunately, the caps and scroll lock flash once when the power button is pressed (believe it does this every boot) and then come back on and stay on. I have tried reseating the memory (forgot to mention that). If I could pinpoint the problem and it wasn't the main board this could be worth salvaging which would be great. Thanks for your suggestions. Any others???

 

The only reference I can find to those two lights remaining lit is also with the num lock light flashing - see this link.

Does the num lock light come on at all at boot? Could it be that the num lock LED is dead?

EDIT: Obviously I'm not suggesting that the notebook wont POST because the num lock LED is dead, just that it might be trying to flash but can't

 

Yeah, that is the reference I was using to try to find the problem. However, all three lights flash initially once upon pressing the button, and then just the caps lock and scroll lock come back on (so I would say that its safe to assume the num lock is working). It just doesn't make any sense to me why I can't find this code anywhere, makes me wonder if it is even one at all. Can't seem to cough up $49 dollars for a dell tech to tell me what the code means lol.

 

I have the same laptop here on the bench with the same problem. Power light comes on, fan spins up, then the NUM lock and SCROLL lock comes on and stays on solid.

I've replaced the RAM, removed the HDD, optical, wireless, modem, battery, etc.

I gutted the laptop and found nothing fried on the motherboard. No liquid spills either. Guy said it was left on overnight and didn't come on the next morning.

I reseated the CPU, re-pasted it, assembled the laptop but still have the same issue.

I too am at a loss.

 

Hi everyone. I just put a replacement motherboard in one and saw the same thing with the cap and scroll locks. I didn't have the cd drive re-installed yet. When I seated it, everything was fine. So, if you have yours in, try re-seating it.

 

Amazing, Dell Inspiron 1501 was dead. Nothing, no display, no fan, nothing. The power light would go on, battery seemed to charge and was charged.

Leds (num lock-caps- off on flashing
Kicked the fan maybe 1 second then nothing, hot near left vent.
Pulled hd, memory, keyboard, battery, removed all power and pushed start to dissipate the capacitors.

Read about reseating the DVD, so I pulled the DVD and the bios battery at the same time and pushed start to try to dissipate the capacitors.
Left DVD out
It started, went into a test mode, BIOS rev 2? and tested things for 15 minutes. now
"To boot to the rescue and recovery environment, Press f11"
waiting----------------- nothing happened
Message stayed on screen
It is a different hard drive so I am not sure what it will be able to boot to.
Reformatting hard drive, it is formatting now.

thanks for all comments

 

I too have the exact same problem (caps lock and scroll lock lit).
I've also tried pretty much all of the suggestions by others in this forum to no avail.

Has anyone found a solution yet?

 

Replace the motherboard/laptop.

 

I have the same problem. Can anyone help?

 

Given that you've tried everything else mentioned, of course.