[Urgent] Dell studio blank screen | beep sounds

Hello ,

I have a dell studio 1555 with windows and ubuntu installed on it. Today morning, I logged into Ubuntu and the wifi was not getting connected which is very common on my university's network. As a quick resolution, I decided to restart it . However , on restarting it got stuck on blank screen and has not been able to boot into Ubuntu or windows since then.

Later on, it started giving a beep sound and produces 6 beeps in each set. While the beeps are going onif sometimes produces the sound of windows booting up but the screen remains blank. There is nothing on the external display as well. On googling , I found it can be a motherboard issue.

Will you guys please suggest what my possible options are ? Shall I buy a new motherboard ? Which one ? What I should be careful about while buying a new motherboard ? Or shall Iost buy a new laptop ?

Why I will put '' Urgent " in my thread title?

I am in the middle of my semester at the university and I have a lot of work saved on this laptop.Importantly, there were a lot of programs installed and settings done while doing that work. I am afraid If I’ll have to redo all of that I may not be able to meet up my deadlines.

If you guys suggest me to buy a new laptop please let me know if there is any way I can copy all those installed programs and settings made to the new laptop as it is. for the data, I know I can copy it from the internal hard drive.


I apologise if this post breaks any of the forum rules.

 

@D0_do you should buy a new (not necessarily new-new, just something working) laptop immediately. If you just plug the storage you have in old laptop into new one it might work right away... however, there's always a chance it won't and you'll have to reinstall everything - that's why the sooner you get a working machine, the better. Getting a motherboard will take some time, it's wiser to look into it only after you have a working machine for your studies ready. However, after looking at the specs of the beast - selling it by parts is by far better idea.

 

If the computer has a separate GPU then the old info here suggests a GPU problem. Otherwise, anything in the computer can be suffering from old age.

I would start with the RAM or the hard drive. If the BIOS detects a problem with either (or any other hardware which is checked during the initial self test procedure) then it will beep.

First check the RAM. If the BIOS sees a problem the RAM then it may beep. Remove the RAM and replace the modules one at at time, in turn. The final check is to try another, known to be good, module.

However, before you do that then check the hard drive. What happens you remove it completely? Can you put the HDD into an external USB enclosure and check it on another computer (which also lets you access your files).

The problem could also be with other hardware components that are removable. Sometimes the problem is a bad contact and removal / replacement can clear this. Or the problem may be with a non-replaceable hardware component, in which case a new mainboard is needed. However, don't consider this option until the other possible causes are eliminated.

John

 

@Starlight5 @John Ratsey

Thank you guys for understanding my situation.
I have been able to arrange a laptop temporarily. I am not sure if I can just copy my ubuntu dejadup backup to this machine. I took this backup about 3 days back. I am more concerned about this backup because it will atleast get me to the point where I was 3 weeks back.

Meanwhile, I took my system to laptop repair guys. It never beeped there and just remained blank. I don´t know why. I did not proceed with them. Their diagnostic fee was way too high (105$) and they were trying to convince me to just buy a second hand laptop from them.

I came back to my place and was setting up that temporary laptop and I felt like pressing the power button on my laptop. I did and out of the blue it booted into windows. Currently, I am backing up my work from windows. I am afraid to reboot it again to go into ubuntu and backup my work from there as well.

What do you guys think ?

I´ll start a thread for advice on new laptop as well.

 

I would hunt down a better Dell for the price of that repair. How about a used Latitude E 5510 which is a great reliable business class option with a first gen Corei3 or i5, runs Ubuntu great and could be had for not much over $100 in nice condition. And last you several years well. Or a Lenovo ThinkPad T410/T420 or T 510/T520. Both can be had for your price. And be reliable and durable.

 

@Kent T

Thank you for such a quick response guys. I am overwhelmed
I just made a thread to look at what my options are for the new machine.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/looking-to-buy-a-general-purpose-laptop-urgently.788384/

 

Thanks, this will help us serve you better. And be of maximum help.

 

My Dell studio is not beeping anymore.

So, after being able to get into windows, I took the backup of all my data and then I restarted the system to go into ubuntu. Luckily, It booted into ubuntu and I took the backup from there as well. Once done with this backup as well, I pressed restart in Ubuntu and now once again it is stuck on blank screen. It did not show me bios or anything.

 

It's obvious then?

I blame Ubuntu.

Is it possible to get a virus running Linux?

 

I am not sure what it can be...I did not install any pirated stuff on ubuntu.

I was wondering if I have to get a motherboard ...how can I confirm the exact motherboard for my laptop.

 

If you put your notebook's service tag into the Dell support site then you might get a list of the original parts used.

However, unless you can find a tested and working board from a scrapped Studio 1555 at a very reasonable price then it would make more sense to put your money towards a newer notebook. It would be worthwhile disconnecting / reconnecting everything in you notebook. Intermittent faults can be caused by loose connections or components.

John

 

Hello John,

I have disconnected and reconnected everything on the notebook but its status remained the same. For now, I have moved on to a temporary notebook so as to not let my semester effect further. I'll make sure I update this thread in future with some conclusion regarding what I did with my studio.