Hi

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop with 15" widesreen. For the third time, having replaced two hard drives, my laptop refuses to boot up properly. It goes through the motions (Dell splash screen / Win XP splash screen) but ultimately it hangs on a blank, black screen. Nothing can be done except power down. Usually after about 4/5 tries I get the logon screen.

I've been told that this might mean my screen is screwed. I am also wondering if this is related to a faulty video card, I use an Nvidia GoFx5650 128MB - recently replaced hard drive and after playing a fairly heavy duty game I get the same problem.

Previously, i believe I have eventually fried the hard disks due to constant power down and reboot.

Any suggestions and/or also how to get decent Dell repairs in BK or elsewhere?? I'd be very grateful. I also hear that a replacement screen will cost around 20,000baht!

FF

My older 8100 had a similar problem, stopping after the XP splash screen.

Dell support suggested loading the latest BIOS firmware. I poo-pooed the idea, however having none better I downloaded from Dell, loaded the firmware and, amazingly, it worked fine afterwards.

Just a thought, and, of course, YMMV

Almost certainly is not the screen itself (Hardware). A very quick way to fix the problem is to try a brand new install of XP or Linux.

Frank,

where abouts are you located.

I would suggest you make sure all you need on the machine is backed up somewhere and then get some one competent to have a look at your laptop.

a new install of the OS and latest BIOS and drivers sounds like a good start - and then if the problem persists a thorough inspection of the interior.