Hi new to the forum hope someone can help.

One of the users in my workplace described that the laptop said it was going in to hibernation. Since then she was unable to power it up.
I have since looked at it and it will not power up at all. When you press the power button you get a brief second or 2 where it sounds like it is going to boot and the green power light and the amber battery light come on, and then it just shuts back down again. This happens when the battery is in on its own. When you plug in the AC power adapter as well it does not do anything.
I have had a brief look inside and nothing looks to have a problem.

Can anyone please shed any light on this issue, could it be a motherboard power problem??

We do not want to particularly buy in new components that are not needed and would like to try and ascertain the problem first. Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

First remove all peripherals including USB devices. Can you get to the BIOS? Can you change the boot order to boot from the Windows CD? If not, then it probably is a hardware problem. It could be anything from power supply to motherboard to memory problems. The only way I know to troubleshoot that is to start replacing comonents, but that might not be worth it.

No cannot get any power to even boot to bios i am sure it is a hardware component failure, i am just trying to narrow down what it could be and whether it is worth trying to repair due to component costs.

I have had a problem identical to this with my Inspiron 1150. For several days I've been unable to get it to boot - also the charging light doesn't come on when plugged in to AC power.
The strange thing is that today I brought it into work with a view to getting the Desktop Support team to look at it. I plugged it into AC power, and lo and behold it worked. The battery appeared very flat, and I'm wondering whether when one of these batteries gets that flat, it maybe won't charge properly, unless given a couple of days off to recover. At any rate, I've ordered a new battery from Dell.

Try tapping on the case of your computer between the blue buttons used for mouse clicks and the edge of the case near the three led lights. A very small reed switch sits just under this area. When it starts to fail your computer will not turn on. Tap with finger tips ten or so times and try the power button. Try this several times if necessary. This made my computer turn on finally. Verifying a bad switch. This is the switch that controls the stand by function when you close your lid. The lid has a magnet in it and when the lid closes it pulls the metal switch contacts closed. You can find replacement parts on eBay. Look for the printed circuit board that has the switches for the mouse left and right click which sit just under the blue buttons. The little reed switch sits on this board. It looks like a little glass tube. I replaced mine and I am using my Dell 1100 to send this message. Remove the blue strip with a butter knife that covers the power button. Remove the four screws that hold down the keyboard. The remove the four screws that hold the top attachment for the display to the laptop. Remove the two screws from the back edge of the computer, which hold the back attachments for the display. The display can be removed carefully. Lift the tape holding the attached display cable down and leave for re-taping the cable down. Remove the screws on the bottom of the case. You will find one behind the battery area. You should find the top of the case will separate from the computer. Inside the top of the case is a chrome cover over a circuit board with five chrome screws. Remove the five screws. You will find on the edge of this board a switch that looks like a glass tube. Do not do this if you have any reason to believe you can’t do it with out breaking something! This fixed my computer and is the reason many of these computers are being parted out and sold. So ask questions before buying parts. Ask the seller if this part came from a laptop with the problem you are having. It will save you trouble to know the part you install. Remember this is easy for someone who can do work like this but not a job for everyone and this description is guidelines not the manufactures procedures. Things may vary use common sense!

contact these guys if you want some one else to do it. They repaired a motherboard for me great service guys. reasonable.
http://www.aqstech.com tell them David from tampa helped them figure this problem out the first of june 2005.
Questions email me davidmob1@yahoo.com

Can you let me know what the name of that part is that you are talking about. I'd like to buy one for my 1100 Dell inspiron. Or is there a part number that I can reference? I'm not sure what to search for when I am on ebay.

For anyone who ends up here from a google search (ltoo late to help the OP), this machine apparently has the same design problem as the 5150. A fairly simple fix is available at http://hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/43678/.

Edited to add: Whoops, mine is an 1150, not an 1100. I don't know if it is the same or not. Google returned this post because the 1150 is listed above.

David,

Thanks for the elaborate email. I hope you are still checking this thread. My friend just dropped off an Inspiron 1100 with similar problems. The machine has a dead battery for years (its 5 years old). However, up till last night he was able to use it with the power pack plugged in. Now, when he plugs it in the battery light just blinks amber or sometimes green. When I try to turn the power on sometimes it will stop the blinking battery light. When I hold down the power button it will either make the battery light turn on or off as long as I have the power button pressed. With the power cable unplugged I could tell that pressing the power button will turn on the power light on very briefly (battery does not have enough charge to carry out any activity).

Do you think it still be worthwhile for me to do what you described? I tried taking the bottom screws off to take the machine apart but to no avail. Not sure what else to do. Appreciate the help if you could shed some light on this.

In case this post does not notify me could you also reply to kai_tham@yahoo.com?

Regards,

Kai