Dell Inspiron 1420 Troubleshooting

No matter what you do, you can't get your Laptop to turn on.

Before you make any replacements, plug in your laptop power cord. If the laptop light does not turn on, you may have a faulty power cord.

If your power cord is plugged in, check to see if the laptop is receiving power. If it only turns on when your cord is plugged in then you may have a faulty battery and will need to replace it. Check our guide here to replace the battery.

It is possible that it appears nothing is happening because the display is bad. If the machine turns on and the lights are on, it is possible the display is bad and must be replaced. Check out our guide here to replace the screen.

If the machine turns on, however the operating system won't boot up and the BIOS comes up with a blue screen, one possible cause could be the RAM in your computer. Ensure you have the correct RAM for the computer and check out our guide here.

If the machine turns on and you have the correct RAM in the machine, but the operating system won't boot up, then a possible cause would be a corrupted or damaged hard drive.

If the machine turns on and you have checked both the RAM and hard drive, but the operating system will not boot up, then the last cause would be a bad motherboard or processor. Consider replacing or repairing if available.

"I have installed my hard drive, however my operating system can't use it."

If you installed your hard drive, but is not being recognized by the BIOS, check to ensure both the power cable and the data cable are plugged in correctly. If both are plugged in, you may have a bad hard drive. Consider replacing your hard drive.

If you installed your hard drive, but the Operating System is not recognizing it, you will need to allocate and partition the hard drive. To do so, locate the Computer Management and navigate to Disk Management. If your hard drive is shown with a black bar, you want to create a primary partition that takes up the full amount of available space.

"My keyboard won't respond when I press the keys."

If the keys do not respond, you may have a broken or disconnected keyboard. You will need to replace it. Check our guide here for tips on replacing your keyboard.

If a certain key cannot be pushed down, you may have something blocking the key from underneath it. You can remove the key and remove the obstruction. You may need to wipe it clean.

If your keyboard is missing keys, replace them.

"My laptop is on but my screen will not show a picture"

If you laptop is on however the display does not show a picture, ensure that the display is not turned off. Press the Fn button on the bottom left and press F2. If this does not work, repeat the last step, then hold down the Windows and the "P" key twice. This will turn projector mode off.

If you have tried the process above, your screen may be physically damaged. Please check our guide here to replace the screen.

"My laptop runs extremely hot and shuts off suddenly"

Your fan may have small objects or dust that is interfering with it. If so, remove the fan and clean it.

If you CPU is running abnormally hot, you may need to apply more thermal paste between the processor and heat sink. To do so, carefully clean the old thermal paste from the processor, apply a small bead of paste directly to the center of the processor, and gently push the heat sink back into place.

The heat sink is responsible for absorbing the heat of your processor to prevent it from overheating. If for some reason it isn't absorbing enough heat from your processor, you may have a faulty heat sink. Check out our guide here to replace your heat sink.