My Dell Inspiron 1000 overheats and has a problem with power
Hi! I’ve had a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop for a year and a half now and recently I’ve been having overheating problems. It’s gotten so bad that I think it damaged my power cord or the jack that it goes in to… I’ll have it plugged in, but it wont take a charge from the power cord unless I twist and apply pressure to it… first of all, I would like to know if this is a repair that is basic enough to be done by myself, or if it’s too risky, how much does it usually cost to clean out the heat sink and have the power problem fixed? Thanks for your time!
It is very unlikely that the overheating problem caused the power jack to fail; I think it is just a coincidence. But you definitely have some issues with power. It is possible that the AC adapter cable is damaged close to the power plug. In this case replacing the AC adapter will fix the problem with power. You can test the adapter with a multimeter to see if you can get a stable voltage on the exit. If the AC adapter is fine, then most likely the power jack is bad itself. I’m not familiar with this model and not sure if the power jack is a part of the system board or if it is a part of DC harness. It both cases the laptop has to be taken apart completely to fix the problem. After the laptop is taken apart you have to replace/resolder the power jack or replace the DC harness, in some cases the entire system board has to be replaced. It’s time consuming and expensive repair. If you have no experience with laptop repairs, probably you will not be able to fix it yourself. When the laptop is disassembled, it takes only few minutes to clean the heatsink. I do not think that there would be any additional charge for cleaning.
If you would bring your laptop for repair in our shop, it would cost you $25 for diagnostics, $120 for laptop assembly/disassembly plus $60 to resolder the power jack. That is the best scenario, assuming that we do not have to replace the system board. There wouldn’t be any additional charge for cleaning the heat sink.
As you see it is very expensive. I gave you the price only as an example, so you have an idea. Some companies charge more, some less. You can also try to call Dell and ask them how much they charge for it.
June 7th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Here is a quick update. This morning I had to take apart Dell Inspiron 1000 notebook, so I can provide more details. You can easily access the heatsink and the cooling fan if you remove the keyboard. Remove the keyboard and you’ll be able to clean the cooling module.
The power jack is a part of the system board. You can get a clear view on the power jack and check the condition of the jack if you remove the keyboard.
Check out my previous post for some disassembly instructions.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I’m not sure where to post this question, so this was my best guess. I’ve just moved from Canada to Australia where they use 220V power. Our PC has an easy switch on the back so that it can run on the different voltage with only the use of an adapter for the aussie plugs. However, I can’t seem to find this switch on my Dell Latitude D500 Laptop. Do you know how I can do this? thanks for your help.
February 21st, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Meredith,
Take a closer look at the laptop power adapter you have. Most likely it’s rated 100-240V so you don’t have to switch anything, just plug it in.
February 28th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Like many others, I’ve had to fiddle with DC jack to form a good connection, but I started noticing some sparks while doing this, and eventually noticed some smoke coming from the connection area.
I took the machine to a repair shop, and after some work the tech informed me that the charging circuit on the motherboard is producing lots of heat. The machine runs fine off battery power, but gets extremely hot as soon at it’s plugged into the outlet.
I hate to scrap the computer simply because the battery can’t charge, so I wonder if there is some workaround for this. Perhaps a substitute charging curcuit, or replace the battery with a homemade power adapter at the same voltage as the battery.
Is there anything I can do besides replacing the motherboard?
September 19th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
ive had problems with my inspiron 6000 with the dc power jack. every now and then i have to take apart the entire computer and resolder the power jack back to where it goes just to charge it. the cost of this repair is 350 and up depending on what computer you have. dells is 400 you you might as well get a new one
October 15th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I found a real simple reason why my Dell Inspiron heats up. DESIGN! lack of air intake over heat sink to cool properly. What makes it worse? too much lint in the fan and cooling tunnel and intake and exhaust vents. pick it out with tweezers after disassembly and vacuuming. and wa la, now it runs cooler! Also, keep half inch book underneath not blocking air intake. Really helps.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Yes
I have added wheels to my laptop and have had to add an external fan. The
internal fan no longer works. Also I changed out the mechanical hard drive
for a CF card and a CF interface. Works fine no running parts. I now have
to work thru when the unit hits a wall.
Adam
October 30th, 2007 at 11:54 am
hi have dell d500 cd rom was fine yesterday now dont detect it should i go in bios make sure nothing diabled if so enable it and maby firmware update on it if i can get it enabled again
December 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Did anyone has a fix for the power issue(where in you have adjust the adapter to get the laptop charged)
I have the same exact problem.
Thanks.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am
hi in relation to the queries about VGA to RCA connections via laptops i was just wonderin, does it also hav to do with the video card as i was readin the manual (yes i no weird ey) bt it says you hv to hv a TV output enabled video card, does this mean it would b true for all laptops and the reason for them unable to connect to the tv as i hv tried both Sata cable 2 rca n vga to rca and it wouldnt pick up my Tv at all,
August 30th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Just buy yourself a can of compressed air from a hard ware store. fans should be cleaned out every 3 months. Never use your laptop on a bed. Also use msconfig to remove some start up programs. I noted the response about the power jack , when the laptop processor gets hot it can start to suck more power from the adapter and thats why the jack gets soo hot. Its not the laptops fault !!
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I have one as well. I got it apart and noticed the power jack that is connected to the board is loose. I can’t seem to get the motherboard out to fix it. Any suggestions?
January 19th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
My daughters Dell Inspiron 1501 showed signs of no OS found so I powered down an resat the hard drive. Went to power up and no power. Changed battery and AC power, nothing. Took the power button off and checked, visually ok. Put back together and powered up. Now won’t power down, I mean by means of shut down, sleep, hibernate just keeps restarting. Power button seems not to work anymore, I hold down and system won’t power down. Only way is to remove battery and pull AC when is gets all the way off and before reboots. So far went to advanced settings and unchecked automatic restart upon failure, tried another power button, re-install of OS, even pulled the CMOS battery for 10 minutes. Closing lid does nothing also.
System info: Vista home premium, 2GB RAM, Mobile AMD Sempron Processor 3600, BIOS Version 2.6.2