My inspiron thats only about 18months old wont fire up
I just get the black screen and seven beeps

A quick look online points towards a processor fault, any idea what this could cost to get shorted out ??

Ringing Dell in the morning to see what they have to say but as its over the 12 months old im not expecting much

Not Happy

Cheers

Andy

Unless it’s a Dell-specific quirk, It’s unlikely to be a processor fault. A dead CPU would result in no beeps (and is highly unlikely anyway).

On modern machines, POST beeps only sound for two things; no video, and no memory. On a laptop, a loose video card is unlikely. Therefore, my armchair diagnosis is RAM, and the fix is to remove the memory SODIMM and re-insert it. And that will fix it. Mine’s a pint.

Cheers, will give that a go and if it works you can have a pie with that pint !

before it dropped dead on me , the mouse pointer locked up on the screen if that means anything

it has started a couple of times after about ten goes but not for long then it just locks up and we are back to a black screen and seven beeps

Looks to be a CPU failure as you thought according to Dell.

Seems a common fault to Dell pc’s according to Google as well.

18 months old, you should have a 2 year warranty under eu law, though someone might come along and correct me.

Unless it’s a Dell-specific quirk,

There we go, then. (I should really have known that, owning one and all.)

CPU “cache test failure” is a pretty left-field error. I’d suspect it’s actually a motherboard issue rather than a CPU failure. I can’t actually remember the last time I encountered an actual CPU failure, some time in the 90s I’d hazard, whereas motherboards are vying for second place with PSUs in the hardware failure stakes IME.

18 months old, you should have a 2 year warranty under eu law, though someone might come along and correct me.

Yeah. It’s still fairly untested as laws go, but this should indeed be the case. Worth pursuing before you attempt any DIY fixes, though I expect you’ll get some resistance from Dell.

Hm. Some interesting reading.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19436289.aspx

These solder problems are getting annoying. Is this due to the RoHS regs (lead free solder)?

I’ve personally already had to reflow a laptop, XBOX 360 and PS3 and I know friends have had to do the same.

Dunno if it’s poxy solder or cheap manufacturing or what, but if I were a betting man I’d be leaning towards inadequate cooling.

Cougar – Member

Dunno if it’s poxy solder or cheap manufacturing or what, but if I were a betting man I’d be leaning towards inadequate cooling.

I think that’s related though, once upon a time, the solder would have coped, now it seems more fragile under those conditions.

Where can you find a laptop with decent cooling anyway? My Macbook, MBP and top end HP laptop all run red-hot when viewing youtube or other CPU heavy tasks, so hardly surprising that mid-range models such as the Inspiron series will suffer too.

Back to the OP, if Dell won’t touch it, the reflow they talk about in the link earlier in the thread is worth a shot, otherwise flog on ebay for spares or replace the motherboard.

As Cougar says, unlikely to really be the CPU which is busted.

Thanks for all the input,

It did start working after i took out the ram and put it back in,but would only work for a short time and then went back to beep beep beep …..

Not sure about the two year warranty, i spoke to Dell and they just said it was out its warranty

in the end Mr Visa got me a 2 year hardware/software warranty and a IT Geek is coming to fix the machine/fit new motherboard in the morning.

not ideal but a whole lot cheaper than a new machine and 2 years of backup (£120 all in)

Andy