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From: Ron Hardin on 23 Dec 2009 10:10 Christopher Muto wrote: > > Ron Hardin wrote: > > My Vostro 1500 (2.0GHz 4MB L2 Cache) seems to > > have died after 20 months. > > > > Won't turn on (turned itself off in fact). > > > > On adapter, causes (90w) adapter light to go off. > > > > Same with another Vostro 1500 (90w) adapter. > > > > Take battery out, hold power button for 1 minute, > > reinsert battery, it won't turn on for battery > > either. Battery self test button shows full > > charge. > > > > So I take it the motherboard is bad? > > > > Since the repair cost is $159 plus extra for > > motherboards, it looks like this baby is destined > > for spare parts. Assuming I can figure out how to > > take one apart. It isn't obvious. > > > > Good reasoning? > > http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19273173/19558178.aspx Is there a good list of nice tools to take apart the Vostro 1500 easily? I have a lot of tools but not necessarily scaled for this job. Screwdrivers with worn tips and wrenches with grease stains. Also a "plastic scribe" is a little mysterious. I have the feeling that something fairly exact is meant, but I don't know what. There is a NVDIA chip inside, but no particular graphics were in progress; the screen was turned off, but the possibility of that chip being at fault is interesting. I might be able to lean on Dell about it, if so. -- rhhardin(a)mindspring.com On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
From: Ben Myers on 23 Dec 2009 10:23 Ron Hardin wrote: > Christopher Muto wrote: >> Ron Hardin wrote: >>> My Vostro 1500 (2.0GHz 4MB L2 Cache) seems to >>> have died after 20 months. >>> >>> Won't turn on (turned itself off in fact). >>> >>> On adapter, causes (90w) adapter light to go off. >>> >>> Same with another Vostro 1500 (90w) adapter. >>> >>> Take battery out, hold power button for 1 minute, >>> reinsert battery, it won't turn on for battery >>> either. Battery self test button shows full >>> charge. >>> >>> So I take it the motherboard is bad? >>> >>> Since the repair cost is $159 plus extra for >>> motherboards, it looks like this baby is destined >>> for spare parts. Assuming I can figure out how to >>> take one apart. It isn't obvious. >>> >>> Good reasoning? >> http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19273173/19558178.aspx > > Is there a good list of nice tools to take apart the Vostro 1500 easily? > > I have a lot of tools but not necessarily scaled for this job. > > Screwdrivers with worn tips and wrenches with grease stains. > > Also a "plastic scribe" is a little mysterious. I have the feeling that something fairly exact is > meant, but I don't know what. > > There is a NVDIA chip inside, but no particular graphics were in progress; the screen was turned > off, but the possibility of that chip being at fault is interesting. I might be able to lean on > Dell about it, if so. Easiest thing to do is to go to Sears and buy a set of small screwdrivers in a plastic pouch. The red tipped ones are Phillips head. The yellow ones are flat head. The green are Torx. This gives you pretty much everything you need to work on a laptop, inclding HPaq, Toshiba and Gateway, which have some Torx, just to make life difficult. You can find similar kits at Lowes, Home Depot and other places. Instead of a plastic scribe, use the smallest flat-headed screwdriver to pry up plastic parts. Very, very carefully. Isn't a "plastic scribe" someone who writes really awful advertising copy? Or is it the assistant to the White House spokesperson, a thankless job if there ever was one... Ben Myers
From: Pen on 23 Dec 2009 10:32 On 12/23/2009 10:10 AM, Ron Hardin wrote: > Christopher Muto wrote: >> >> Ron Hardin wrote: >>> My Vostro 1500 (2.0GHz 4MB L2 Cache) seems to >>> have died after 20 months. >>> >>> Won't turn on (turned itself off in fact). >>> >>> On adapter, causes (90w) adapter light to go off. >>> >>> Same with another Vostro 1500 (90w) adapter. >>> >>> Take battery out, hold power button for 1 minute, >>> reinsert battery, it won't turn on for battery >>> either. Battery self test button shows full >>> charge. >>> >>> So I take it the motherboard is bad? >>> >>> Since the repair cost is $159 plus extra for >>> motherboards, it looks like this baby is destined >>> for spare parts. Assuming I can figure out how to >>> take one apart. It isn't obvious. >>> >>> Good reasoning? >> >> http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19273173/19558178.aspx > > Is there a good list of nice tools to take apart the Vostro 1500 easily? > > I have a lot of tools but not necessarily scaled for this job. > > Screwdrivers with worn tips and wrenches with grease stains. > > Also a "plastic scribe" is a little mysterious. I have the feeling that something fairly exact is > meant, but I don't know what. > > There is a NVDIA chip inside, but no particular graphics were in progress; the screen was turned > off, but the possibility of that chip being at fault is interesting. I might be able to lean on > Dell about it, if so. The Dell site has a service manual with complete instructions on disassembly along with pictures. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/index.htm watch the wrap. It is very tedious and time consuming but not hard if you are able to deal with many small parts.
From: William R. Walsh on 23 Dec 2009 11:06 Hi! > It's not happy with any combination of adapter and battery, > just dead. Yep, that sounds bad. Unfortunately, it would appear that there is not any discrete DC-DC converter board, and working on motherboards is fiddly business at best. (But I've done it...and the board worked again afterwards.) I saw on the Dell forum that someone found a burnt surface mount capacitor on the motherboard of their system. It didn't look it would be terribly difficult to replace it--but you'd have to know if the capacitor was the cause of the fault or a victim of another fault. > It's certainly out of warranty. You might try contacting Dell to see what they'd do about it. Maybe nothing, but if there's a problem, it's one more data point. Unfortunately, with the number of systems that appear to have this problem, I doubt that simply replacing the motherboard would buy you more time than you got the first time. But at the current price, and if you could do it yourself, assuming the replacment board lasts another 20 months...by then the system's value would have dropped more, and you'd have gotten more time out of it. (I'd be extremely disappointed if I'd have purchased a laptop only to have it die after 20 months.) This time around, consider a Latitude. They are a better computer than the Vostro and Inspiron. The D800, D830 and D6x0 are all very good systems for a lot of work. So too is the Latitude E5400. William
From: William R. Walsh on 23 Dec 2009 11:34
Hi! > I have a lot of tools but not necessarily scaled for this job. If you were planning to buy a decent set of tools for some job like this, now is the time. Don't skimp on the tools. The Companion ones sold by Sears (and Roebuck!) are fine for this, and some of them (most notably the small screwdrivers) are better than the Craftsman tools. Seriously. Don't skimp on the tools. Take your time, go slow and follow the service manual exactly. You can do it. Have an egg carton handy and use the compartments for each type of screw. Write down their locations on the carton compartments if you want. Work in a place where you can stop for any reason without having to bundle the whole mess into a box. Parts get lost that way. > Also a "plastic scribe" is a little mysterious. This is also called a "spudger". No joke. You use them to open iPods, iPhones and other iGoodies(tm). They cost a few bucks and many places online have them. > There is a NVDIA chip inside, but no particular graphics were > in progress; the screen was turned off, but the possibility of > that chip being at fault is interesting. The nVidia chips run all hot, all the time. It doesn't really seem to matter too much what they're up to. I've seen the Go Fx5200 in my D800 hit 169 degrees (F) while playing a DVD. (Somehow it's never died...) I don't think the nVidia chips are directly at fault for this. Either they kill the DC-DC converter through too much current draw over time, or something else goes wrong that kills the converter. When the computer is off, the nVidia IC isn't doing anything. William |