On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 03:03, Darksyde <m_alexander61@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, J <dreadpiratejeff@...> wrote:
>> I'm confused... does it or does it not boot at all? You're blaming
>> the OS, but then turn around and say that you don't even get the Logo
>> splash or BIOS menu...
>
> *Sorry if you got the wrong impression, Jeff, but I was definitely NOT blaming the OS. In fact, I'm sure that it's a hardware issue, just wanted to give a bit of background so > that anyone who might have a solution (other than trashing the computer) could offer a suggestion.
Ahhh... Ok. Gotcha. I was just confused, because you started out
saying it wouldn't even boot, then said you had it running and were
going to just let it run... I understand now. I blame a 15 hour work
day and lack of sleep.
>> If you don't get those, you have a hardware problem and there is no OS
>> fix that will help you. Even if you are intermittently able to boot,
>> but the rest of the time you don't get the BIOS or Dell Splash, you
>> have hardware problems.
>>
>> Bad ram, bad planar, bad components, whatever...
>>
>> You say "As it booted I could hear the disk running as normal but then
>> I didn't even get the Dell logo/BIOS menu screen." if that's the
>> case, that system isn't even booting. It's just powering on, pushing
>> power to the disk and peripherals, and dying. Not an OS issue.
>
> *No, Jeff, and I didn't say that it was an OS issue, but possibly an issue that could be at least partly resolved with software.
Yep :-)
>> Then you turn around and say "As I write this I'm letting the Dell
>> "run" on battery power" Does that mean you finally got it to actually
>> boot? or did you just power it on, listen to it whirr, and never see
>> the BIOS screen or Dell Logo?
>
> *"Run" meant sitting idle while the battery drained completely. As I said, I had a similar situation with my other computer (which I'm using now, of course) and I resolved
> the problem by draining the battery completely, taking it out for a bit and rebooting using household current. Please understand, I'm NOT blaming the OS at all. In fact, I
> was rather hoping that I might be able to find a solution to get the Dell up again, even if only to grab some files before repairing/replacing. As you know, hardware and
> software work together in what we refer to as a computer.
> Thanks for your input though.
Well, sadly, no. Once you can't boot a laptop, that's usually it.
most of the time, the only parts you can reseat or replace are the RAM
and HDD but once they stop booting, they're pretty much toast at that
point.
As far as saving your files... if it's got an IDE disk, you can buy
converters that will let you plug laptop IDE drives into standard IDE
cables... if it's got a SATA hard disk, they also make adapters that
are SATA to USB so you can plug that hard disk into another computer
just like any usb drive. I've got one made by Thermaltake that
accpets both 2.5 and 3.5" drives and works like a charm, especially
when retrieving files from HDDs that came from older computers.
Good luck!
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