Dell complaints

anonymous guest · Regular Hater Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 46

I was looking at a Inspiron 500m with serveral intermitant problems, most notably occasionally the USB ports quit working. Also when powered down or restarted the unit must sit for 5 - 10 minutes before it will power up again. Third, running Dell diags the process froze after an error about the fan running too fast ( This is a bad thing in a Dell laptop?). I am leaning toward the motherboard (out of warranty of course) but would appreciate a 2nd opinion on this one. There is nothing definate short of a parts swap to hang my hat on for this repair and I don't have the part to try. Don't want to buy one unless I have to.

Thanks,

Anonymous Guest

PGrefugee · Regular Hater Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 49

Go to Dell's website and download the lastest bios for this machine. If this does not work, then it is probably hardware related.

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject:

Consider above. Also consider that if there is a hardware problem that manifests while you're flashing BIOS, the motherboard becomes landfill. It may already be. Can you substitute an image to tell if that's what's killing USB? Overtemp might be scrambling that before the whole thing locks up.

Yeh, Dell + Portable = overheat. Sure that's not the whole issue? Blown the dust out, confirmed the fan is OK? Does the owner have a cat? If so, it needs to be taken apart and cleaned.

The computer, not the cat. Laughing

_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

Mele20 · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:46 am Post subject:

Why a cat? Dog hair doesn't get in computers?

anonymous guest · Regular Hater Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 46

I checked the heat exchanger, will check the bios and see what I come up with.

Thanks,

AG