Strange black screen issue Inspiron 1526

I have the same issue except my 1526 LCD is yet to show any sign of life.

My Dell Inspiron 1526 won't restore after hibernation.

After a recent Vista update the laptop was placed in hibernation mode before the normal
'restart to complete update' process. After a minute or so i press a button expecting to see a 
logon screen, instead the monitor was off, blank screen with no power. I press every button 
but nothing happened. After a restart the monitor remains off but i can still hear 1526 
checking the cd drive. I restarted several times trying the Fn+F8 option with an external 
monitor and pressing the up button while holding Fn but still the same.

I also remove the battery and power cord, press and hold power button to deplete any capacitor,
nothing change when it starts with battery or the power plug.

The Fn+ON diagnostic test only have the numlock LED flashing while caplock, power and another 
remains lit still nothing on the LCD.

1526 appear to be in a weird state because i placed a XP boot cd and restart then hit Enter 
several times. If the backlight or inverter was the only problem then 1526 would boot from the 
cd as normal though i wouldn't be able to see. It doesn't, it simply power up, checks the cd 
drive then does nothing.

The multimedia buttons lights up when i press them and the fan is on.

Warranty is expired.
Anything i can do to fix it before i start taking it apart?

FN+ON diagnostic code:


Description:
The Microcontroller is handing control of the system to the processor. This code will persist if there is no processor detected.


Action That May Be Necessary:
1. Reseating the processor.

2. Replacing the system board.

3. Replacing the processor.

Hi drewmaster,

I just began having exactly the issue that you had back in June of this year. I saw that just last week someone offered 3 suggestions to solving your problem. I wondered if you attempted any of them, and if it fixed the problem. If it is just a matter of reseating the processor, then I'll try doing that myself. My computer runs just fine once it finally boots. But of course the RTC time and date has to constantly be readjusted and it is impossible to take a break from your work. I appreciate any feedback you can give.

My laptop has started experiencing the exact same issue.  Did you ever figure out the cause?  I was almost thinking it was the CMOS battery, but the laptop is only two years old.  The last couple of times this has happened I had to turn the computer on and then off over and over again.  The last time this happened it took four hours before it came on again.  I bought a netbook as a backup for now.  Help!

Has anyone found a cause/solution to this problem yet?

I am having the same problem with my 2-yr-old XPS m1530 laptop running Vista 32-bit...after resuming from hibernate/sleep, the power comes on, lights flash, I hear the fan, hard drive, CD drive power up, but the LCD doesn't come on at all and nothing else happens. When using diagnostic startup (Fn+ON), I also get the flashing-on-on code.

The laptop has thankfully booted up again every time, but only after turning it on and off a number of times with the same result, and usually after an hour or so - when it turns back on seems to be completely random.

This doesn't happen every time I put it into hibernate/sleep, but almost, and it also seems to be at random...I can't pinpoint any one factor that causes it. However I did notice that it doesn't seem to happen if I power it up again immediately after it goes into hibernate/sleep.

This problem just came out of the blue...I used hibernate/sleep multiple times a day for a year and a half without this happening once. Another strange thing: this problem began several months ago and lasted a little more than a week, then went away completely until starting up again a couple days ago.

Any help would be appreciated.

I just had a similar issue.  I am trying to fix my wifes parents computer.  The screen has been black for months.  I finally found a way that I could connect a second monitor, and that worked for a while.  However, that then two stopped workin, and the screen would be black/non resoponsive/or displayying various colors that just looked like noise.

I pulled the battery, removed the two screews holding on the small plannel infron of the monitor (the one with the power button).  Then from the front, you can pry of that pannel.  Then, you can take out the two keyboard screws, slide the keyboard twoards the screen, and pull it out.

Under the keyboard is this very odd video addapter/cable assembly.  It has no latching or retaining features (stupid design if you ask me).  In my case, that was just resting ontop of the connector, and would only make contact is there was significant pressure on the keypad.

So, I attached the connector completely, taped it in place so it won't come up again, and now it is working perfectly.

It probalby took ~5 minutes to do, and all you need is a small phillips screw driver.

Good luck

So the issue was a loose video connector cable between the motherboard and the monitor.  There was no retaining features on the connector to keep it from becoming un-plugged, which means that many of them will become un plugged.

I described my fix above, it went fairly well, and was actually fairly easy.  I watched a video on youtube first showing how to get under the keyboard, and just followed along.  Then I replaced the connector and taped it in place, to make sure that it wouldn't come up again. 

We haven't had a problem with it sense.

Good Luck

-Andrwe

what youtube video did you watch, and where was the loose video connector located?

Hi, 

Have you tried to connect another monitor to your laptop and pressing, Fn then F8 to swap displays.

I have been having the same sort of problem, the shutting down is the computer going into a Blue screen and protecting the laptop.

There are a number of problems out there that are causing this to happen but without the stop codes is difficult to say what it is.

regards

Meant to suggest that "webdesign" had the solution (not that I was suggesting); sorry, new to the forums.

Thank you webdesign for the solution.

Thank you for this M07 CPU Error; good information.

Took off that C/M plate under the Inspiron 1526, unscrewed the 5 screws holding down the heat sink, popped it off, loosened the one screw for the AMD socket, reseated the CPU, tightened down the socket screw, cleaned off both heat sink and CPU with alcohol, re-applied a dab of heat compound, screwed back on the heat sink, put back the plate, but same issue remains.

So (for my situation), if this error is right, I have to go with your option 2 or 3.  If only I had a spare cpu to test on this laptop...

add me to the list with this issue.

Have any Dell employees responded to this thread?

If you are still having the problem or if you arrived here after doing a search for the same issue with your Inspiron1526 (or other). The fix is to replace the CMOS battery. There have been some issues with the display connector coming loose but if reseating the diplay connector does not fix your problem then the battery is dead.  The Mitsubishi CR2032 made in CHINA batteries are dropping to less than 1.5 volts in only 1-2 years. Looking at the batteries they look like they are a cheap bootleg copy and probably not from Mitsubishi at all. They all have the "Made In CHINA" stamp across the bottom edge. Unfortunately to get to the CMOS battery you will need to disassemble almost the entire laptop to be able to gain access, but replacing the bad battery with a reputable CR2032 new 3 volt battery will solve the problem. Upon the first reboot you will need to allow time for the BIOS to reconfigure and you will need to reset the system time and date but the laptop will resume normal operation after that.  Unfortunately numerous calls to Dell Technical service yielded no help for this problem whatsoever. The technicians even claimed to have no knowledge of what the blinking NUM and CAPS lock lights meant. If you are lucky you may be able to reboot once or twice before the laptop will no longer boot at all but the system time will need to be reset - if this has happened to you it is a dead giveaway that the CMOS battery is about to fail. Once the battery voltage falls, upon initial power up you will hear the drives engage and the fan will spin for a few moments and then the unit will totally shutdown. Nothing at all will appear on the display.

I'm going to try this tonight and reply to all when completed.  

the correct response of a computer with a dead motherboard battery is to boot but not remember what time it is or boot and say "Gee, my battery is dead. I can't load Windows because I don't even know what disk to look at".  If true, this is a design flaw