I was streaming an online video on my Dell Vostro 1500 last night. I could hear the fan speed up a bit, but that always happens when I'm watching videos. After about 30 mins it just died. The power adapter led was off, so I assumed it ran out of power, but then I saw the battery was full. So I pulled out the adapter from my laptop and the wall socket. When I plugged teh dapter back into the outlet the adapter led came on but as soon as I plugged it into the laptop it switched off.

I did a Google search and saw that this seems to happen to a lot of people, I'm guessing the mobo is dead. Does anybody over here have experience in replacing a mobo?

The laptop has an 8600GT card and a 2.0 GHz T7300 processor

10/1/2010 9:15:25 AM

I still don't understand why people don't buy/renew the Dell warranty. They offer one of the best in the industry. My first laptop was a Dell Inspiron 9100 from 2004. I believe it came with a 2 year warranty which I extended to 4 for $100 or something. I must have gotten two power supplies, two sound cards (it went everywhere and people would step on the headphone jack when it was plugged in), and a new HDD. It paid for itself a few times over. The best part was I could go to dell.com and chat with support 24/7 and they'd send a guy to my house within 2 days to swap/replace the part.

With regard to laptops I think warranties are totally worth it. Especially if you're rough with your electronics.

10/1/2010 9:47:54 AM

My laptop is 3 years old.. it came with one year warranty which I extended by another year for 110$... each additional year is a 100 odd$.. a new mobo is 200$ ...

10/1/2010 10:09:31 AM

If it posts, beeps, the screen lights up, or any of the like, then it may be fixable.

Pull the battery, pull the power cord, let it sit for a while, and if it still doesn't turn back on, then it might be done for.

Mobo in a laptop is not hard, persay... it's just tedious. If you've got some technical skills, nimble fingers, and lots of patience you can do it.

[Edited on October 1, 2010 at 10:16 AM. Reason : .]

10/1/2010 10:15:02 AM

^ nope there is absolutely no life, none of the lights come on, I pulled out the batt and tried all kinds of shenanigans.. nothing works

10/1/2010 10:26:11 AM

Mine did this recently. I have an XPS M1730. I too only got the 1 year warranty. I now get 3 years on any laptop i buy.

I ended up taking it apart and pulling pieces out one by one and plugging the power cord in until the brick no longer died. Turned out to be my PhysX graphic card. The machine runs fine without it but the replacement for it was 70 bucks with free shipping so I replaced it anyways.

If its out of warranty anyways, theres no reason to not bust into it and see if you cant diagnose the problem. There are all kinds of guides online for how to take these things apart.

Check out http://www.parts-people.com for dell laptop parts. I bought a few pieces from them and have had no problems.

disassembly information : http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&~file=/systems/vos1500/en/sm/index.htm

[Edited on October 1, 2010 at 11:02 AM. Reason : *]

10/1/2010 10:51:41 AM

^ thanks these guys have my mobo in stock, I was wondering if it was safe to order from them..

10/1/2010 11:01:07 AM

^ they are safe, but I would definitely do some trouble shooting before dropping $ for a mobo.

I thought the problem was my motherboard but it wasnt, it was a much cheaper component. Ive read it being everything from the palm rest (mouse pad item) to the WAN card, to the graphics.

10/1/2010 11:04:25 AM

there were too many laptop threads to scroll through to find what I was looking for, but I was wondering what anyone's thoughts were as to off-brand laptop batteries for a Dell XPS M1530?

10/17/2010 9:52:34 PM