Question Dell Laptop - no boot or post.

[Sossij]

Hi guys,

Basically a friend has a Dell Inspiron P143G laptop that won’t boot.
It powers on and the fan spins but then it just loops and starts over and over.
Never getting to a post. No beeps and no Dell logo etc…

The thing is I thought it was the RAM so I swapped it but same issue.
However if I remove all the ram and try to boot it obviously it doesn’t boot but the fan stays on and it doesn’t loop restart like it does with the RAM in.

I thought it may be a BIOS issue. But there’s no way to recover or update it. As pressing the F keys does nothing.

I’ve tried resetting yeh CMOS battery and removing the M2 SSD (just in case it was the problem).

Any ideas?

Thanks very much in advance.

 

[COLGeek]

From where did he buy it? Was it sold as working?

Have you connected to an external display to see if anything flashes on there?

Without memory, it will not boot, by the way. At all.

 

[Sossij]

It was purchased from new 3 years ago and just won’t boot all of a sudden.
Yep, external display is exactly the same. Nothing.

I know it won’t boot with no RAM but it just surprised me that without the RAM it doesn’t get stuck in the startup loop like it does with the RAM.

 

[COLGeek]

It was purchased from new 3 years ago and just won’t boot all of a sudden.
Yep, external display is exactly the same. Nothing.

I know it won’t boot with no RAM but it just surprised me that without the RAM it doesn’t get stuck in the startup loop like it does with the RAM.

Was the system dropped or damaged in any way recently?

 

[Sossij]

Not as far as I know.

All I can tell you is that she called me and asked for help as she tried to turn it on yesterday morning and it wouldn’t load (her words).

Like I said I thought maybe a dodgy memory module but I tried a new stick and it’s exactly the same.

It lights up and the fan spins for 5 seconds. Then it loops that over and over.
No post or logo etc…

With no RAM inserted it boots up and the fan spins constantly but obviously no boot as there’s no RAM installed.

So I’m guessing is a faulty board.

Just hoped maybe someone might have had another idea.

Thanks.