Dell latitude CPi no power

Fifer73

Hello to all in the forum ,
I have a very old Dell CPi, with windows 2000 on it, only used for word processing the odd game etc, as it cant hold a charge via the battery it always has to be plug into the mains, which is fine for me as i have it on the desk. It isnt used for intenet as usb connection is broken.

2 weeks ago whilst playing a basic game, it powered down everything went off.
Checked the ac plug, looked ok pluged it back in switched it back on, powered laptop up loaded windows and after 5 mins it powered down again.
If the ac power adaptor is not in the laptop, it keeps power ( the green light stays on) if you try to plug it into the laptop the power adaptor goes off, in case it was the power adaptor i got a new one which came today, same story that it will stay on if its not in the laptop, but once its hooked up to laptop no power,
Now it must be something with the laptop, and i know its really old and is probably going to the hard drive in the sky now, but is there any way of getting it to power up ( again the battery doesnt hold charge )

I am not pc friendly so may need an idiot guide lol !
If i cant get it to power up, can someone explain how to get the hard drive out of it, and whats the best way to dispose of it safely to remove anything thats on it.

many thanks

closed

Try it without the battery in.

HD pulls out from the side, after removing a screw underneath - put it in a usb caddy if you need any data, or want to wipe it.

Fifer73

Thanks for that
I tried taking the battery out this morning, then powering it on via the mains again.
and still nothing.
I think i will have to take hard drive out and RIP laptop, its quite old and not used for much, but thanks for the info on how to get the hard drive out as i am totaly clueless on these maters

Lil306

Fifer73 wrote: »

Hello to all in the forum ,
I have a very old Dell CPi, with windows 2000 on it, only used for word processing the odd game etc, as it cant hold a charge via the battery it always has to be plug into the mains, which is fine for me as i have it on the desk. It isnt used for intenet as usb connection is broken.

2 weeks ago whilst playing a basic game, it powered down everything went off.
Checked the ac plug, looked ok pluged it back in switched it back on, powered laptop up loaded windows and after 5 mins it powered down again.
If the ac power adaptor is not in the laptop, it keeps power ( the green light stays on) if you try to plug it into the laptop the power adaptor goes off, in case it was the power adaptor i got a new one which came today, same story that it will stay on if its not in the laptop, but once its hooked up to laptop no power,
Now it must be something with the laptop, and i know its really old and is probably going to the hard drive in the sky now, but is there any way of getting it to power up ( again the battery doesnt hold charge )

I am not pc friendly so may need an idiot guide lol !
If i cant get it to power up, can someone explain how to get the hard drive out of it, and whats the best way to dispose of it safely to remove anything thats on it.

many thanks

If I'm reading it correctly when you now try to run the laptop directly from AC mains (plugged-in) it will no longer work ?

When you were playing games did you knock it at all ?

There is a slight chance you have broken the AC plug connected to the motherboard of the laptop, in which case that could be 1 reason the power is dropping off because of cracked solder or shorts on the motherboard.. itself

If the DC socket has been damaged, you can either repair it if you're good at soldering...it could work but would involve you opening up the laptop which I doubt you'd want to do since you stated you aren't techie

You can take it to a repair shop, they might charge you around £100 to fix it...

You can buy a spare one of eBay that works, and swap over the components such as RAM, HDD and Battery (most laptop CPU are integrated) so you can't remove them...

This is only a quick guide, it may not be your DC socket, but one possible cause I can think of. With regards to your battery it probably needs calibrating to function again...if it needs replacing you will need to spend around £50

You could also take a multimeter to the power supply and measure the voltages on the DC pin from the adapter, it will give a reading and you can determine if this is correct. You basically plug the adapter into the mains. Negative probe goes on the black ring at the base if I remember right and positive terminal goes to the yellow ring (I think)... someone will need to verify this..

It will register somewhere between 5-10v.

Fifer73

Thanks for the reply
If I'm reading it correctly when you now try to run the laptop directly from AC mains (plugged-in) it will no longer work ? Yes this is correct
Where it plugs into doesnt seem loose, and i did get another ac power supply in case it was the power sorce that was broken
Its old and only used for minimal things, so to be honest i think now it will be take the hard drive out and clean/ dispose of it