[Zoco]

Hello,

I've seen some other posts similar to my problem. My Dell laptop won't turn on. I
called Dell today and they had me do the diagnostic thing. (I wish I had seen this board before I paid $49 to have my out of warranty laptop diagnosed). The power light comes on and stays on. You can hear the fan. If I remember correctly, the Num Lock was blinking, and the next two lights were ON solid. Dell tech said he thinks it is the motherboard. They have agreed to replace the motherboard for $300.

I am wondering if it is worth fixing. This laptop is actually a refurbished replacement that was sent to me because my original computer was shocking me when I picked it up. This "new" computer has always had a louder (annoying) fan than my original and it has been getting very hot lately. This laptop has also shocked me. Pretty big shocks by the way. I read other posts here that talk about electrostatic shock and how it can ruin a motherboard. Is it really worth fixing if it will keep shocking me. Is that shock damaging the motherboard if I am not touching the mb directly? Will it just ruin the new mb?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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Board issues in laptops usually mean they're write-offs. You'll be better off buying a new laptop which will perform a lot better.

Electrostatic shocks on occasion are usually no problem and are caused by a build-up of static which is discharged when something more conductive comes into contact with it and provides it effectively with an escape route. As humans conduct electricity relatively easily (especially when wearing conductive clothing such as woolly jumpers and what not), we feel it. The most common example of static electricity build-up is when you touch a TV screen.

However if you're talking about electric shocks, this is far more dangerous. You only need a quarter of a watt of power to go through you to be considered "harmless". Anything more than that and it can be fatal. If you think that laptop has issues, please do not use it in any way, shape or form.

Personally I would scrap the entire lot and just buy a new laptop.

[Neil Jones]

Board issues in laptops usually mean they're write-offs. You'll be better off buying a new laptop which will perform a lot better.

Electrostatic shocks on occasion are usually no problem and are caused by a build-up of static which is discharged when something more conductive comes into contact with it and provides it effectively with an escape route. As humans conduct electricity relatively easily (especially when wearing conductive clothing such as woolly jumpers and what not), we feel it. The most common example of static electricity build-up is when you touch a TV screen.

However if you're talking about electric shocks, this is far more dangerous. You only need a quarter of a watt of power to go through you to be considered "harmless". Anything more than that and it can be fatal. If you think that laptop has issues, please do not use it in any way, shape or form.

Personally I would scrap the entire lot and just buy a new laptop.

[Zoco]

Thanks for your advice, Neil. I'm just debating, because it will cost me $100 locally, to recover the data from my hard drive. I just figured for a couple hundred dollars more I might actually get a computer back that worked and recover my personal files and photos. I already bought a new laptop, but thought I might just keep this one for the kids. I still don't know what I am going to do. Thanks again.

[PedroDaGR8]

Thanks for your advice, Neil. I'm just debating, because it will cost me $100 locally, to recover the data from my hard drive. I just figured for a couple hundred dollars more I might actually get a computer back that worked and recover my personal files and photos. I already bought a new laptop, but thought I might just keep this one for the kids. I still don't know what I am going to do. Thanks again.

$100 is ridiculous, as I doubt the hard drive is dead. If it isn't, they will literally plug the drive into a computer and simply copy the data over. If the drive is portable IDE (most of that era are, but not all so you need to check), you can buy an external USB case for it (2.5" external case) and get it all off yourself. On top of that, when the data is off, you have yourself a nice little usb hard drive for backups etc. If you want me to research more into just ask and I'll do so.

[Zoco]

Hi Pedro,

Wow, I've never heard of doing that. If you think you could walk me through it, I am willing to give it a try. I already pulled out my hard drive. It is Manufacturer: Samsung, Part number: HM160JI.
SATA 160 GB, RPM 5400. How can I tell if it is portable IDE like you mentioned? Thanks, Amy

[PedroDaGR8]

Hi Pedro,

Wow, I've never heard of doing that. If you think you could walk me through it, I am willing to give it a try. I already pulled out my hard drive. It is Manufacturer: Samsung, Part number: HM160JI.
SATA 160 GB, RPM 5400. How can I tell if it is portable IDE like you mentioned? Thanks, Amy

Its not, I can tell from what you listed, its an SATA (those are the two options for mobile hard drives IDE and Sata). So you will be looking for a 2.5" Sata USB enclosure.

If you look Here on Newegg.com. There are 6 pages of aluminum 2.5" SATA usb enclosures, I chose aluminum because it will help with heat dissipation (which is improtant because heat build up commonly kills hard drives especially in enclosures for hard drives of this size). All you do is take apart the enclosure, insert the HD into the enclosure, put the enclosure back together and plug it into your computer (most don't need external power for 2.5" drives, just the USB cable). Windows will install it and bam a new drive shows up in my computer. This is your old HD. Your files will all be there (albeit in what appear to be weird locations).

For example say the drive shows up as E: and you had WinXP on the computer

Your desktop would be found in E:\Documents and Settings\User Name\ Desktop (something like that).

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 01 December 2008 - 08:56 PM.

[Zoco]

Thank you so much! I'm going to give it a try. I love learning new things and I especially love saving money!! I'll post my results later. On a side note- I see you're from Lexington. My family and I just went to Keeneland in October. We love Lexington. So much fun.

[PedroDaGR8]

Thank you so much! I'm going to give it a try. I love learning new things and I especially love saving money!! I'll post my results later. On a side note- I see you're from Lexington. My family and I just went to Keeneland in October. We love Lexington. So much fun.

Yep I am a Lexingtonian born and raised. Keeneland freaking rocks. I LOVE going to Keeneland.

ALso, if you run into any problems, just ask back here and I'll try to help ya out.

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 01 December 2008 - 09:07 PM.

[Zoco]

Hey PedroDaGR8,
It worked!! I'm so happy. I ordered the StarTech 2.5" aluminum usb 2.0 enclosure for my SATa drive, from Amazon. I read the directions, slipped my drive in the sleeve and plugged it into my computer. It tried auto playing it at first, but I closed those windows and explored my computer to find the new drive. There were all of my pictures. I was just sick thinking I had lost 2 years worth of pictures of my kids. Thank you so, so much for the advice. One last question. I am considering getting a macbook (or Thinkpad t400). Will it be able to recognize this drive?
Thanks again!

[PedroDaGR8]

Hey PedroDaGR8,
It worked!! I'm so happy. I ordered the StarTech 2.5" aluminum usb 2.0 enclosure for my SATa drive, from Amazon. I read the directions, slipped my drive in the sleeve and plugged it into my computer. It tried auto playing it at first, but I closed those windows and explored my computer to find the new drive. There were all of my pictures. I was just sick thinking I had lost 2 years worth of pictures of my kids. Thank you so, so much for the advice. One last question. I am considering getting a macbook (or Thinkpad t400). Will it be able to recognize this drive?
Thanks again!

WONDERFUL!!! I am glad that it worked.

Essentially ANY windows computer (such as the Thinkpad) should be able to read the drive, as for the Macbook I am not sure. I'll let someone with more mac experience answer that one.

Now make sure you backup those pictures and any other important documents. Imagine if that HD fails now, knowing you COULD have backed them up and didn't. ANother thing you could do is also keep an online backup of your pictures. There are a whole range of free sites to do this, Photobucket, Flickr etc. They allow you to host the images online (meaning you can share them with family over the internet as well), password protect those you want hidden etc. Just a suggestion.

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 10 December 2008 - 10:22 PM.

[The Admiral]

Just popping in here - if this laptop is shocking you, you need to report it to Dell Technical Support. This is more than a little shock, it is potentially harmful. Report this safety hazard to Dell and it is likely that you will get a replacement regardless of warranty status.

If you did report it to Dell, and the technician suggested a motherboard replacement instead of a laptop replacement, that technician needs to be reported to his supervisor for neglecting product safety policy.

Regarding your macbook, if you install a utility called ntfs-3g, it will be able to read the data from the drive. But you will not be able to put it inside of the computer and run the computer off of that - it will be solely an external drive.

Edited by The Admiral, 11 December 2008 - 02:19 PM.

[PedroDaGR8]

Just popping in here - if this laptop is shocking you, you need to report it to Dell Technical Support. This is more than a little shock, it is potentially harmful. Report this safety hazard to Dell and it is likely that you will get a replacement regardless of warranty status.

If you did report it to Dell, and the technician suggested a motherboard replacement instead of a laptop replacement, that technician needs to be reported to his supervisor for neglecting product safety policy.

Regarding your macbook, if you install a utility called ntfs-3g, it will be able to read the data from the drive. But you will not be able to put it inside of the computer and run the computer off of that - it will be solely an external drive.

Hey thanks for the mention of ntfs-3g and also the comments about the shocks.

[Zoco]

Thanks for the advice, Pedro and Admiral. As for Dell, when I called about my laptop, I was most concerned that it wouldn't turn on. I may have mentioned the shocking in passing, but mainly wanted to know how to get my computer working. When my original (under warranty) computer shocked me, they did replace it immediately with this refurbished one. It may be too late, but I will call them back.