Dell Inspiron N5110 not getting power

[speckytecky]

I'm currently working on a friends Dell Inspiron N5110 Laptop. It was to simply replace the hard drive but I have run into further problems. The failing HD would not save as a clean image for Clonezilla to restore from. So, back to the original HD and reassembled.

 

Having now tried various options I was giving Clonezilla one more go when up pops a low power message - the power supply is plugged in and lit. Next thing before I had a chance to remove the Clonezilla CD from the reader the Laptop shut down and won't restart.

 

i suppose this is motherboard related but where do I start?

[speckytecky]

An update on this wee beastie.

 

 

Running either the Dell on-board tune up software of that built into Norton 360 continues to see both report imminent Hard disk failure. Oddly the Laptop seems pretty stable and usable though.

 

 

I have created a restore point. re-run both the on-board Maintenance Create a fresh System Repair Disk and Created a Fresh Backup to an external HD.

 

 

I have Also run up Clonezilla and tried to create an image but that reported a failure in both partition mode and disk to disk mode. I replaced the existing HD with a Toshiba 500GB disk specifically listed by the supplier for the Laptop.

 

 

The Laptop has a OEM Windows 7 Home version installed but with the new disk in place I tried a Windows 7 Pro DVD and was able to try a repair but it failed. It looked like it was doing a repair but then went away to check the HD which it reported could take an hour or more – after five or so hours I gave up.

 

 

I have checked the new HD in an external caddy off an existing laptop and it looks like it’s identically partitioned to the current disk and reports as healthy.

 

 

The old disk is now back in the Laptop and is running fine but still reporting imminent HD failure. I'm now pretty deft at stripping and reassembling the laptop but the case, particularly the keyboard is getting 'tired' of being taken apart.

 

 

My friend didn't make a BU of the OS when he got the laptop nor since. I have now spent £45 on the new HD and a lot of time. I'm not keen on shelling out another £70 or so on buying an OEM Win 7 Home.

 

 

Suggestions on a way forward would be most welcome.

[newpersn]

Not any bios updates for it.

 

Sounds silly that it failing 2 hds.

[speckytecky]

Thanks @newpersn. No BIOS is good and up to date. Edited December 28, 2012 by speckytecky

[newpersn]

Any uitltys within the bios to run for a hd test?

[Arthur]

I'm not keen on shelling out another £70 or so on buying an OEM Win 7 Home.

No need to do that since the laptop is already licensed. See the section titled 'Getting Windows install media' in the article below.

 

Blowing away bloatware: a guide to reinstalling Windows on a new PC « Ars Technica

[speckytecky]

Thanks very much fellow Edugeekers. Now have the laptop fixed. What would I do without you lot!

[newpersn]

Thanks very much fellow Edugeekers. Now have the laptop fixed. What would I do without you lot!

 

What was it?

[speckytecky]

It was the failing HD all the time. Downloading the fresh copy of Win 7 Home and installing that to the new HD sorted it. The other various problems I encountered doing it were down to my clumsiness I reckon - not seating things back in cleanly being one of the main problems I encountered!

 

The final issue I had to sort on it was finding the Realtek LAN port had stopped working post the various updates. Stopped working and was no longer visible in Device Manager! Searching various Forums I discovered this was a fairly common problem with a 'green' update the manufacture had sent out. Shutting down, removing leads and battery, pressing the on button for about 3 minutes then reconnecting and restarting saw it visible again and I was able to enter the Advance Settings for the Device and disable the power save setting.

 

Happy laptop now and on the way I have learnt loads confirming my believe that Desktops are a heap better to work on than portable devices