Dead or Dying Laptop

Wikikenkey

I am not sure if my laptop is on its last legs or if it has already died but when I switch it on, after a few seconds, there is a continuous whirring noise like the fan and nothing else, the screen is black – no lettering comes up at all. Since the battery died a couple of years ago, we have been using the laptop plugged into the mains– battery removed from slot – not sure if this could be the problem.

The laptop is a Dell with Vista operating system. It is about 5 years old and had been crashing occasionally over the last few years – I noticed it would crash when the date and time wrong but once I reset this it would behave for a while.

About a month ago, I restored it back to factory default, removed McAfee and installed Avast. I also run Malwarebytes occasionally. The laptop is not used much so there isn't much data on it.

Any ideas what could be wrong with it.

Thanks for any help.

fenlander_uk

I'd try booting it from something like Hiram's boot disk or a Linux distro on DVD or USB stick. If it boots, the problem's probably with the hard disk. The date and time being wrong suggests that the motherboard battery is defunct. Question is, how much work are you prepared for to rescue a geriatric laptop?

Wikikenkey

Thanks Fenlander.

Where can I find Hiram's boot disk/Linux distro? Is this something I can download off the net. Also if it is the motherboard battery, is that an expensive and time-consuming fix.

I don't want to spend too much on fixing this laptop. It is the third computer in the house and it is not used that much. On the other hand, if I can get it back up and running by playing around with it a bit, that would be good. Guess if it is going to entail close to the cost of buying a new one (which I don't really want to do), I'll have to bury it.

Its a bit annoying though that a 4/5 year old Dell Inspiron should give up the ghost so early. I would have thought laptops could last a bit longer than that.:mad:

kwikbreaks

https://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=Hiram%27s+boot+disk&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&cad=b

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laptop-look-dead-Just-repair-it/