Inspiron 5100 Just Died...HELP!

First off, Hi everyone! Trying to get some help with my 5100. I've never had any iussues with it in 3 yrs.(consider me lucky I guess) Anyways, I was on it when it suddenly shut down unexpectedly. Straight up black screen, no lights on in the front, nothing. The power cord box light even went off. After unplugging the cord and moving to another plug the green light came back on for the power supply box. The laptop does not function whatsoever. No charging light and so on. I revoved the battery and re-inserted it. What componet failer might cause this?(hard drive, heatsink) Any help will be GREATLY appreciated. I do have some computer knowledge so replacing parts is not a problem. Thanks

 

Although familiar with computers, I'm no expert, but this sounds like a fried PSU to me. Are you under warranty? You might be SOL unless you know how to replace it (EDIT: Just read the end of your post, looks like you can replace it).

I doubt it's overheating b/c you'd probably get a screen flicker or something like that... but nothing happening means a dead PSU most likely.

 

If the light went out on your power supply, you have a short on either end of the power brick. Check your cables. Over time the cable can twist and cause an internal short which can short your power brick out.

Does the battery in your laptop work?
If the power brick cuts out, the laptop should automatically switch to battery.

From what you said the whole thing shut off.

A voltage spike could have occurred at the instant the power supply failed. That could have fried the memory but that should be all.

First things first is to get a replacement power adaptor for your laptop.
From there we can figure out what happened.

An electrical anomaly could wipe your motherboard out and the memory.

The harddrive, and graphics should be fine because they are removable from the system.
If I remember correctly this is the Pentium 4 533MHz FSB based laptop.

Have you checked to see if it simply overheated. If you haven't cleaned the fans in three years, than your system can and will overheat. In advent of overheating, the system will shut down completely. You should get hold of an air compressor or a compressed air can, and clean the fan vents on your system

Good luck, keep us updated, and we will help as much as we can

K-TRON

 

I've been keeping it clean with my compressor. I also have a chill pad for it with dual fans to help prevent overheating. Thats on whenever the laptop is on. One of my friends who is a computer guru told me to check my supply with a multimeter, but alot of my tools are at my moms(for remodeling) including my meter.

The day it happened, I was using it on the battery in my garage earlier. I ran across the street and got caught up with some friends and it shut down from low battery. When i did bring it in, it was only plugged in for a couple minutes before i fired it back up. Not sure if the battery had enough charge to run it on its own. Hence why it shut down altogether.(maybe)

Thanks for the input and I'll keep everyone posted.

 

So I bought a replacement power supply. Hooked it up and still nothing. No lights etc. What should I do next in the elimination process?

 

As K-TRON said, you've got a short on the motherboard end.

Switching the power supply won't help; you need to replace the motherboard. That may or may not be worthwhile for you; the cost of a new board is around $100 and the overall value of the system is around $250.

As K-TRON also said, it may have died from an electrical anomaly. It may have also died simply due to old age.

 

My Dell Inspiron 5100 died a quick death in a similar fashion. Just shut off with no warning. But I can get it to boot by pressing on the power cord/plug, right where it plugs into the computer.

Try pushing on your plug at different angles.

This won't fix your computer but it may get it to boot up.
If it boots up be careful not to bump or move your computer or it will shut off again. You likely need to replace your motherboard.