My problem with Dell and its Inspiron 1520

Sure. It's an Inspiron 1520 and the service tag is B9SDHF1

As of last night, the system (when it does power up - most times I get a blinking caps lock) goes to blue screen before login screen and says "Unmountable_Boot_Volume"... (I have no Windows disks as system came pre-installed)

Thanks for any help. Kind of nice to have someone who speaks English (no offense to those who don't) - just easier for me to understand & communicate.

PS- this error occurs both in standard mode and safe mode of Windows XP; and the Bios update to "09" has already been performed more than once...

Thank you so much!! Yes, i will wait for the field tech on both as I want to make sure it's done properly. Will this also solve the overheating issue? And the locking up when it's moved? The rebooting from out of nowhere? And the impossible nature of not being able to run the PC on battery? It needed to be plugged into a chill mat and the battery removed and only on a/c power - and even then, had heat and issues - will these dispatches solve these problems? I will be so delighted!

Also - what about the pre-loaded software that the system came with? Will the field tech have my order on hand (I have a copy if they do not) of what came loaded on the system and be able to install it back in? The system came with no back-up installation Windows XP cd's or etc. And so I'm curious as to how I will get the OS back on the hard drive once the new one is installed.

Oh you have made my day though in contacting me and helping me - I will look forward to the field rep contacting me as well! Thank you so much!

Thank you so very much! I appreciate your assistance and feel like for the first time, I'm getting somewhere!

OK Bill! The Dell tech came out today and replaced the HD and the RAM - and I did just what you said to do - recreate the problem - it took me all of 3 seconds to tilt the laptop just ever so slightly backward and the whole system locked up. He called into his support team and they instructed that he reboot the system - so we did - and then recreated the very same problem again - sure enough, it locked up again.
I also told him about the heat issue. He told them it was clearly something that the "depot" needed to take apart and look through piece by piece since the original errors were not solved by parts replacement - and making sure everything was tight and secure, not loose.
So, tomorrow, I will get my return box, and I will send it off to be repaired! I am going to include a note of all the things I have seen happen and how I can get the errors to happen as well in hopes it will help them to fix the system.
FINALLY - someone (you & him) who took the time to help me! He agreed - it was not something for phone or email support to fix, but rather something that someone had to see and experience, and then get in and take apart, to truly know what was going on.
THANK YOU - THANK YOU for helping to get me someone who would come out and physically see my system! And endless THANK YOU's to YOU, Bill for seeing my post and coming to the rescue of my opinion of Dell and my laptop - and well, my sanity! May you have a great week & be blessed!
I will advise once I get the system back if we're completely satisfied. :-)

Quick question, Bill_B: I have tracked my package that was sent to the TX Dell Depot, and it arrived on Saturday, the 11th - my question: Is there a way to find out status of the repair/replacement, or will someone contact me? Or will I just receive something back in shipping? And if so, approximately how long does that usually take? Should I be doing anything else on my end to help?

Bill_B: That was fast! I got to work this morning, and my laptop was waiting for me! Yay! So as to document something for future reference, when I opened the mis-shaped and clearly upset box, the PC was flipped upside down and was dislodged from the foam and had situated itself crooked inside the box itself. When I reviewed the paperwork, the following two areas were checked under "Corrective Repair Action": Mother Board and Palmrest Assembly. I have started the system and it went through the HD image to bring about what was on my order originally - took about 20 minutes - and I moved the unit all around - no locking at any time - yay!! However, the piece that locks in place under the power button and goes from edge to edge and attaches into the hinge is lose... I have pressed it into place about 10 times and it keeps popping back up - this was not something that it did before I sent it off to the Depot... so I am documenting this damage just after opening it from the return to me! Is this enough to document in my records? Can you do this in my files under my Service Tag # B9SDHF1 - please let me know. Thank you. :-)

Bill, you're the best!!! Truly! Thank you! So far, the system is working like a dream - even my crazy mouse pointer has stopped bouncing all over the screen. Bumps and movement don't cause it to lock or reboot, and I've been running it (yes, I'm using it right now) for the last hour - without having it plugged in - only on battery- and it's not gotten overly hot yet!! I'm so psyched! THANK YOU!!!

Glad to hear that MandC's problem is fixed. I , too have had issues with my Inspirion 1520 laptop ever since I bought it. Service reps have come out 2 times and replaced the hard drive (3times) motherboard, memory, keyboard driver etc. Numerous phone calls to Dell to review the system have been done this past year, but still this laptop has issues. Currently, my profile cannot be set up, keys on the keyboard do not work and the pc still hangs up. I have case # 613969320 as reference to this, but still do not get any support from the customer service center. I am requesting that this laptop be sent back to Dell to be fixed or replaced. But I am getting no help with that. Can someone tell me what they did to deal with this problem ?

thx
CM

I've been on the phone with Dell tech support for the past 4 weeks trying to "troubleshoot" the problem with my Inspiron 1525. My laptop freezes during boot-up no matter what steps we try in getting it running (i.e. we've tried system restore, booting in safe modes, booting with the OS disk, changing BIOS settings, removing and reinserting the memory chips and HD, etc.). NOTHING WORKS and they still want me to repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat the same steps to try to get it going. On top of all that, they told me they were sending me a new OS disk so I could reinstall the entire OS. Twice (yes, twice) they sent the wrong disk (hence, the 4 weeks of time spent.....so far). AND, both times they said someone would call me on a scheduled day and time to walk me through the process of reinstall - guess what?...yep, they didn't call either time (shocker). Finally, the third time they sent the disk, this time it was correct, I had to go through all the previous steps I went through with the 6 or 7 previous techs I'd spoken with (as if it was the first time I was calling). I finally had to tell him that the only thing I want to do at this point is replace my OS with the disk that was sent - "OOOOHHH", he said, "let's do that then". Regardless, the problem still exists - the tech couldn't come up with the solution.

I have been out of a computer for close to 5 weeks now. I'm totally frustrated and fed up with Dell - does anyone know what my options are at this point? I plan to ask them to replace my laptop (which I should have done 3 weeks ago, but gave them several chances to fix the glitch "they're way"). Does anyone know if they will replace (I'm still under warranty)?

Sorry to vent, but if anyone has any ideas as to how I should proceed - I'm all ears!

Thanks.

I have similar problems with my Dell 1520. I receive BSoD's on regular occassions (no pattern noticed), it cannot shutdown/restart/standby, I also receive BSoD's on boot and messages saying "internal hard disk not found," the keyboard starts chucking out random letters everytime I paste something and then go to type, and I am experiencing heat issues.

There is a little bit of wire sticking out of the power cord (which, might I mention, drops out regularly). I didn't purchase this directly with Dell (I bought from NZ Laptops, who refused to offer any proper service, as admittedly the warranty had expired -- some of these problems started occuring during the warranty period, which was 3 months, but I took no notice of them, as no single error occured more than once during this period).

I've been to hell and back, and on many occassions (some of which have forced me to spend 3+ hours attempting to get the laptop to boot in the first place) have been very tempted to throw the laptop, smash-clatter-boom, through the window.

I have a similar problem with my Dell XPS420. I'm getting an error of SATA drive 0 not found randomly and more progressively. Usually I can reboot and everything is fine. This started 1 week out of my Dell warranty. I have installed a new drive that worked well for 2 weeks and now am having the same problem. Any suggestions.

ray

My Inspiron 1520 continuously reboots when I select anything off of the desktop. I have spent over 50 hours on the phone with Dell without resolving the problem and I have reinstalled the operating system 5 times at their request to fix the problem. And I have full warranty until 2013, but Dell will not fix or correct the problem or replace the unit. Very frustrated!!

MandC,

I would like to sincerely apologize for my very inappropriate comment that I made to you a few days ago. It was very uncalled for. I will not try to use excuses for it, but only a reason. I was in a very displaced mood, and had some terrible things going on and also happen in that particular week. I was very frustrated and angered by personal things. Like I said, I am not making excuses, because no excuses exist for me to have been so inappropriate and beligerant. I know that what I said was very hurtful, and I am extremely sorry, and please accept my deepest apology. I can assure you that I have really learned from that. I don't expect this apology to make up for the hurt and pain that my comments caused you, but I hope that it at least begins to help. Sincerely, Nick!

I have the same problem with my inspiron 1520.(purchaed nov 2007) received a new hard drive. still freezes. Than I read it might be a registry problem. Downloaded Regcure. Still having problems. Why is this happening. I have called Dell.

This happened to mine, and the drive is no longer recognized in the BIOS. The BIOS does not see any new HDDs, I believe it is a faulty controller, as seen on many other Inspiron models I have owned. It slowly degrades to an unusable machine. Never had this problem with any of my Latitudes.
Of course, it is out of warranty.

Service tag BVS2BF1