I opened my Dell Inspiron 15 3537 to remove the hard drive, and now it won't turn on...

[IrishLuv]

I discharged the flea and myself beforehand, as instructed in the manual. I tried to turn it back on, the power light came on as normal, and that's it. No fan, no boot, no beeps, nothing. I'm hoping one of you fine folks can offer an explanation and/or fix.
(Before anyone asks, yes I tried removing the battery and charge cord and holding down the power button for a minute, it did nothing.)
Anyone? Please help!

 

[viveknayyar007]

Hello IrishLuv

Can you please confirm if you disassembled the whole laptop and reassembled it back? If this is the case, you may want to redo the process and make sure that the CPU fan, RAM, and all other important parts are firmly installed and none of them is lose.

You may also want to clear the CMOS if the above doesn't help. To clear the CMOS, you can take out the CMOS battery (the one which is round and looks a bit larger than the batteries used in wrist watches), leave the laptop alone for 30 to 45 minutes, and then power on the laptop again.

You can also try powering on the laptop without CMOS battery as in some machines this clears the CMOS as well. Another alternative can be to check if your laptop's motherboard has jumpers to reset the CMOS. You may want to refer to the user manual of your laptop to locate the jumpers and/or the CMOS battery.

Let me know which solution works for you.

Cheers!!

 

[IrishLuv]

No, I just opened the hard drive/ memory access panel. I didn't go deep. This is why I am confused. I hardly did anything, definitely nothing for experts.
I just don't know how I ducked up. Considering I never opened it, do you still advise I try to clear the CMOS?

 

[viveknayyar007]

No, I just opened the hard drive/ memory access panel. I didn't go deep. This is why I am confused. I hardly did anything, definitely nothing for experts.
I just don't know how I ducked up. Considering I never opened it, do you still advise I try to clear the CMOS?

Hello again IrishLuv

In that case I wouldn't suggest you to do that. But I would still recommend that you check the RAM stick(s). You can try pulling out one stick at a time and check if the laptop powers on. Also confirm if putting the hard disk back or taking it out again makes any difference.

Good Luck!!

 

[IrishLuv]

No, I just opened the hard drive/ memory access panel. I didn't go deep. This is why I am confused. I hardly did anything, definitely nothing for experts.
I just don't know how I ducked up. Considering I never opened it, do you still advise I try to clear the CMOS?

Hello again IrishLuv

In that case I wouldn't suggest you to do that. But I would still recommend that you check the RAM stick(s). You can try pulling out one stick at a time and check if the laptop powers on. Also confirm if putting the hard disk back or taking it out again makes any difference.

Good Luck!!

I tried that. Zilch. All the simple fixes seem to be met with no joy. Could I have magically fried the motherboard without opening up the whole thing?

 

[viveknayyar007]

No, I just opened the hard drive/ memory access panel. I didn't go deep. This is why I am confused. I hardly did anything, definitely nothing for experts.
I just don't know how I ducked up. Considering I never opened it, do you still advise I try to clear the CMOS?

Hello again IrishLuv

In that case I wouldn't suggest you to do that. But I would still recommend that you check the RAM stick(s). You can try pulling out one stick at a time and check if the laptop powers on. Also confirm if putting the hard disk back or taking it out again makes any difference.

Good Luck!!

I tried that. Zilch. All the simple fixes seem to be met with no joy. Could I have magically fried the motherboard without opening up the whole thing?

Hello again

This can be a possibility but this mostly happens in old laptops and/or the ones that are moved frequently.

I think your last resort is to clear the CMOS and if that doesn't work, try disassembling the laptop, clearing all the dust from the CPU fan, motherboard, and any other dusty parts, reassemble it and then try again.

Good Luck!!

 

[IrishLuv]

Okay, I will try to clear the CMOS tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

I will check here for more replies first, in case there are any more ideas.

Thank you for assisting me.

 

[IrishLuv]

Oh, and this laptop was moved very frequently throughout its life, by the way. But not while I was opening it up. Just gentle flipping over and lid opening. I worked with kid gloves on this baby.

 

[viveknayyar007]

Oh, and this laptop was moved very frequently throughout its life, by the way. But not while I was opening it up. Just gentle flipping over and lid opening. I worked with kid gloves on this baby.

Hello again IrishLuv

By 'moving frequently' I meant, where it had to face heavy jerks such as on bad roads.

Cheers!!

 

[IrishLuv]

Oh, and this laptop was moved very frequently throughout its life, by the way. But not while I was opening it up. Just gentle flipping over and lid opening. I worked with kid gloves on this baby.

Hello again IrishLuv

By 'moving frequently' I meant, where it had to face heavy jerks such as on bad roads.

Cheers!!

Oh. Belay that last comment, then. Haha

 

[IrishLuv]

viveknayyar007, you've saved the day! Testing ththe CMOS was just the ticket! The first good sign was all the lights coming on. But nothing further happened so I did a hard reboot, and BAM. Back in business!
It's still A POS with a faulty hard drive, but it wasn't the motherboard, so it isn't a complete loss, thank you so effin much! I'd propose to you, but I don't even know that you're a male. Or straight. Or single. Lol
So we'll leave it at THANK YOU SO MUCH! *tacklehugs*