I have a Dell laptop which sometimes boots and sometimes doesn't. When it boots, it works perfectly normal. However, when it doesn't boot, it doesn't show anything on screen, the light check goes on, the fan runs, and then it stops and nothing happens.
What I've tried so far:
- Replaced CMOS Battery
- Checked LCD Cable
System information
- Dell Inspiron 14R 5420
- Intel Core i5 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M graphics processor
The system dual-boots Windows 8 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
What else should I try to fix this problem?
Also when its not booting it heats a lot.
PS: My laptop is out of warranty.
Best Answer
This is probably a motherboard issue
Your symptoms strongly suggest an electronic problem in the motherboard, since you've noted that it always happens before Windows starts booting up. It's quite unlikely that a laptop AC adapter would do this as the battery should be able to keep the system running even if the adapter failed. If you can confirm that the battery charges, your AC adapter is most likely good. Note that the CPU and GPU are soldered onto the motherboard on this laptop.
A hard drive failure wouldn't cause these kinds of boot-up issues as the system should be able to get through POST, just not load the OS. Bad or improperly-seated memory wouldn't explain this problem, either, as this would manifest as frequent random system and application crashes or the system giving a beep code when powered on, respectively. It's incredibly unlikely that these parts would cause the system to not clear POST with nary a beep code.
The motherboard is almost never a user-serviceable part in any laptop, so you should send it back to Dell for repair. Be sure to back up your data—the best way to do this is to remove the hard drive from the computer, put it in an enclosure, and plug it into another computer for data transfer or imaging.