Inspiron 5100 Dead

[vajra7s]

Hi,

I am a new member joined today looking at the very helpfull posts. I have Inspiron 5100 laptop and had problems with fan which is not cooling the processor enough. I read some forums regarding Inspiron 5100 fan problems, so I decided to open up and clean the fan. Everything went fine (cleaning) but when I tryied to switch on (boot) the laptop, nothing is showing up i.e., blank screen, no sound. But when I push the power button on, the power light (one of the 3 lights in front) goes on, CD/DVD drive goes on, fan starts and then nothing happens on the screen. Please if anyone can give/provide solution, help much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[jbennet]

Did the screen cable come out or get broken?

Laptops have very thin and flimsy screen cables that are easialy damagaed/puleld out by dismantling.

[vajra7s]

Thanks for your response. I checked the screen cable, it's fine.

[Computerkev]

I think you should reopen the laptop and do a through check to make sure that everything is in place maybe when you were cleanning the fan you accedentially knocked something out of place.

[vajra7s]

Yes, I did that too. I checked everything, nothing is loose. I observed one thing, after power buttons is clicked fan,cd/dvd, power light kicks on and when power buttons is clicked again, all the above 3 gets off. This wouldn't when it was in working condition, i.e., I need to push power button and hold it for 3 to 5 seconds then it turns off. Any ideas..

[fenokid]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm having exactly the same issues, after exactly the same procedure: I remove the keyboard, emi shield, and fan - cleaned out the fan - and replaced everything exactly. Now on startup it spins up the fan and stops after three seconds.
The power and scroll lock light are on - I was wondering it the scroll lock light provides some hint as to where in the boot process it is before it gives up.
Any thoughts? Did you get yours to work?

[fenokid]

In the interests of closure, let me add my solution:
If you've followed Dell's instructions at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins5100/en/sm/thermal.htm#1084976 to remove the thermal-cooling assembly on the 5100 (as I did) to blow out the dust that accumulates in the blower, you would have loosened the four "captive screws" and pulled the unit out whole, without first turning the ZIF-socket cam screw to "unlock" the microprocessor. Because the microprocessor is firmly attached to the cooling assembly CONTRARY TO THE DOCUMENTATION, when you put the cooling assembly back in, you need to ensure that the ZIF cam screw is in the unlocked position first so that the CPU is firmly seated in the socket. Then you need to turn the cam to the locked position before trying to secure it with the 4 captive screws.
It took me several hours to figure this one out, which is why I'm posting this. I'm incredibly fortunate I didn't ruin the motherboard while I was repeatedly restarting the computer with an unseated processor(!)
After much searching I found a post at http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=580840 that told me that status lights of 0-0-1 was a processor failure, which led me to double check the seating.
The computer is back up an running now; I'd nearly given up after reading all the posts suggesting motherboard failure.