How to revive an old laptop

[SweetPea69]

I have a Dell laptop that died on my stepson 3 years ago. He never went and got it fix and lost the power cord to it but I want to revive it. Its a Dell Inspiron 1100 and I just purchased a new power cord but it won't boot up. Do I need to let it sit for a while to charge up the battery (Which was new when it died).

SweetP

 

[SweetPea69]

Thanks I am going to do just that right now. Anymore suggestions as what to do is needed. This is my first laptop project and I hope it not to much.

 

[SweetPea69]

I was listening to it last night and I heard screw rolling around on the inside. I remove the heat shield and I found it but I don't know where is came from. I am about to put it back together and try it now. I am looking up the spec right now to see where that screw might have come from.

 

[prelude2250]

are you getting any power lights at all? if not you either have a bad system board or a bad dc-jack (where the power cord plugs into the laptop), or a bad charger.

 

[SweetPea69]

I am not getting any power lights at all. I don't think it the bad dc-jack, my stepson was working on it and it just died. He was told it was the cooling fan by some tech at school. What are the chances of that being the issue?

 

[prelude2250]

the fan could have killed the board due to overheating. But the bios normally gives an error when the fan goes, plus it would be a gradual death. My suggestions would be to check the dc-jack for the proper voltage. Usualy 18-19volts

 

[SweetPea69]

Novice here, so another questions. How would I do that?

 

[prelude2250]

You would prob need to take it to a shop. It requires full disassemble down to system board. Remove system board and locate the dc-jack. (where you plug in the charger)
on the other side of board (the bottom of jack there will be 4-6 legs that hold it in place. You will need a multimeter of some sorts that reads volts and check the rear leg and center leg for 19volts. Occasionally its another leg but just check them all. Sometimes the legs just need to be touched up with solder, and other times you have to replace the whole jack.

 

[SweetPea69]

I am taking classes for this and they don't really explain hands-on stuff like this. I have a multimeter that I don't know how to use but I will learn for this project. I will try this as soon as I get back in from vaca.

 

[SweetPea69]

Best answer selected by SweetPea69.