[davidc51]

Not sure if this is the right forum but here goes....
My wife has a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop running winXP SP3. It has been fine until last night when it failed to start up at all.
When the 'on' button is pushed the power light comes on, HD light flashes on then off, but nothing else happens at all. If I try to start into diagnostic mode it's exactly the same. Nothing appears on the screen, HD light just flashes on then goes off, then it just sits there.
Won't boot from a CD either. I've re-seated memory cards and removed one at a time but still the same, and I've tried powering up with Mains connected and battery removed - still the same.
AT one stage I did get the diagnostics to run and it booted into windows but, a few minutes later, it just died again.

It's a few years old and I don't see spending a lot of money to get it fixed as a replacement would be better value value I guess.
Any ideas before I throw it into the skip.

Thanks for any help

DavidC

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The price of laptops has plummeted over the last decade whilst repair-costs have gone in the opposite direction that having any laptop repaired, whether old or not so old, for anything other than a simple fault, does not make economic sense.

[phillipcorcoran]

The price of laptops has plummeted over the last decade whilst repair-costs have gone in the opposite direction that having any laptop repaired, whether old or not so old, for anything other than a simple fault, does not make economic sense.

[davidc51]

OK, so I went out and got a new laptop for the missus (not a bad swap!!) but the Dell is still sort of working - so now I have the opportunity to try and fix it as it seems silly to bin it while it is still useful. Also she prefers her old one as it runs winXP and the new one runs Win7. At lease it's giving her the chance to get used to the new operating system.
Anyway, back to The Dell:
It seems that it usually starts OK if I give it a slap or tip it on its side before pushing the switch. Otherwise the power lamp comes on but nothing else and it just sits there. Switch it off and on again while knocking it or similar and it starts 70% of the time.
Once it has started it works fine. If I put it into standby it is OK but if it goes into hibernate it won't rouse itself.
There must be an intermittent hardware fault like a loose connection or cracked pcb I guess.
Can anyone suggest which connections I should look at at I don't feel confident just stripping the machine down and randomly checking connectors?
Can someone who understands how a laptop powers itself up offer any suggestions please.
I have googled the problem and a few owners are trying to resolve the same fault but I can't find any actual solutions out there (although there may be some)
Thanks