Dell Inspiron 1545 Stuck on Black Screen at Startup

aykyle · 30 Aug 2013

A family friend of my has a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop she got in 2007. She had it in the trunk of her car for an entire year! When she turned it on, everything worked fine but she accidentally knocked it off the table on to a hardwood floor. Ever since that happened, the computer starts up but sits on a black screen. I don't see a Windows Logo or anything. Just a black screen.
However, when starting it up. There's a very faint beeping sound(like the sound you hear when the car door is open).
And after about 10 seconds, there's a beeping noise(a lot louder than the constant beeping before).

Any suggestions as to what it can be? Is it a damaged hard drive or is it the screen?

Update:
I pulled the hard drive out and it sounds like a babies rattle. So I assume the hard drive was shattered.
Theres no damage on the outside, but the damage must be underneath. But the screws are too tiny for me to examine the damage.
Unless this is normal for a hard drive to sound like it's filled with beads.

Bumpkin · 30 Aug 2013

Sounds like the HDD is ruined. The beeps you hear might indicate more hardware problems. Take note of the order of the beeps, (the number of beeps and if there are long and or short beeps) then search Dell Support for info on beep codes.

You should try using a bootable CD or DVD disc to see if the laptop will operate at all before spending money or the time fixing it.

SandeepP · 31 Aug 2013

aykyle said:

A family friend of my has a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop she got in 2007. She had it in the trunk of her car for an entire year! When she turned it on, everything worked fine but she accidentally knocked it off the table on to a hardwood floor. Ever since that happened, the computer starts up but sits on a black screen. I don't see a Windows Logo or anything. Just a black screen.
However, when starting it up. There's a very faint beeping sound(like the sound you hear when the car door is open).
And after about 10 seconds, there's a beeping noise(a lot louder than the constant beeping before).

Any suggestions as to what it can be? Is it a damaged hard drive or is it the screen?

Update:
I pulled the hard drive out and it sounds like a babies rattle. So I assume the hard drive was shattered.
Theres no damage on the outside, but the damage must be underneath. But the screws are too tiny for me to examine the damage.
Unless this is normal for a hard drive to sound like it's filled with beads.

Hi aykyle,

Rattling is caused normally due to harddrive fault on the system. However, do let me know how many beep codes you get on the system which indicate a particular hardware failure on the system.

Also, connect the system to an external monitor to check it might be just LCD issue with the system. Kindly press the CAPS lock key on the keyboard and let me know if light comes on.

And to open the system you can check the manual link for the reference below:

http://dell.to/12aRT15

Keep us posted with the results so we can advise you further.