old 1520 problem

My old inspiron 1520 developed a strange error lately.
After heavy use it tends to crash and restarts...also when it does this, it does not find the disk until another restart.
Is this a HDD error, or the mainboard?

The problem is that it will be out of warranty in about 14 days, so I would like to have it done.

 

Did you try running the Dell Diagnostics?

Didn't know there were still Inspiron 1520/Vostro 1500's in warranty.

 

They are, mine is not even the last. Its from 10/2007 and its 4 years will expire now, but they were built until mid 2008, and even had 5 years. So its even possible to have a 1520 in warranty until mid 2013!!!

 

check your temperatures with HWMonitor, it might overheat. have you ever cleaned it up?

 

Yes it has recently not only been cleaned but Dell has also changed the fans and the heatpipes under warranty.

 

As was already stated run Dell Diagnostics on the hard drive and run the extended test. F12 at boot when you see the Dell Logo gets to Dell Diag menu prompt.

 

I only had 2-years warranty and support on mine but I'm still kicking and probably will for a little while. How are you using it and where are you using it? If you end up doing extensive work all at once and don't properly vent your laptop (i.e. not using it on your bed with a pillow under it, you may as well throw your laptop into an incinerator and pray that it doesn't shut down.

Other than that, are you still using the same HDD from when you originally had your laptop? I got mine in December 2007 and my HDD pretty much failed last February, so it's possible if you are still using the original Hard Drive, that it's just nearing the end of it's life, especially if it's a 100GB/120GB/160GB (7200RPM) Drive, because of the faulty company Dell used for the HDDs.

I remember a friend of mine who had ordered a Dell Inspiron 1720 ended up sending it back because the HDD failed within the first week.

 

Diagnostics run through without a hitch...no problem there.

 

It was my primary notebook before March this year. After that it was given to family members and used lightly until recently. They got a taste for Dragon Age Its used on a normal desk, but without the cooler I used with it, as the cleaning by Dell resulted a much better natural cooling.
The HDD has been changed by me last years, but the old one had no problems other than it was too small with 160Gb.

 

Well, it sounds like it's a motherboard issue, perhaps one of the many capacitors have become faulty, although this is highly unlikely. I started using a simple cooler for my laptop whereby it just lifts my laptop so it can properly vent when it needs to. I rarely use the fan either, it's more for just lifting it a couple inches off the ground so it can vent on it's own.