Computer Related > Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Fenlander Replies: 11
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New Sat 26 Oct 13 09:34 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
Daughter at uni now 100mls away. Phoned last night to say laptop went to a black screen while left on standby and she can't get Windows & to start. Messages include "PXE61 Media Test Failure".

On every restart it just said the same against a black screen.

Googling says this might be a hard drive failing but we found advice to restore Bios settings and that at least allowed us to get as far as a the Windows repair option but that , even if left for hours, doesn't complete.

I guess she will have to take this to a local repairer to her Uni... I've found one who is £45 fixed plus parts, working from home like Rattle with a decent business website.

Does that sound the best option?

Of course this has taught her a valuable lesson when the machine has crucial work on it... back up you files before shutting down the session!
Last edited by: Fenlander on Sat 26 Oct 13 at 09:36
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New Sat 26 Oct 13 10:05 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Zero
Its the hard drive gone west. A reload might fix it, but that media error means its likely the hard drive.

I would try a restore first (does it have resore media or a restore partition) and if that fails try sticking in a new drive yourself.
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New Sat 26 Oct 13 10:32 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
>>>Its the hard drive gone west

I had that nasty feeling. We've been lucky over the years and only suffered this once on a PC and managed over about four shaky restarts to get off all our own files.

I'd rather use a Rattle type guy to do this as I have no understanding of how to try and get her files of the old drive... assuming there is a chance of that.

It has a restore partition but I have just been on the phone again and managed to talk her through running the Dell diagnostics which show the hard drive as the issue.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Sat 26 Oct 13 at 10:33
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New Sat 26 Oct 13 10:36 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Zero
for 45 quid the guy is going to recover your old files as well as fitting a new drive and reloading the OS?


Blimey.
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New Sat 26 Oct 13 10:44 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
Well I don't know... he just says fixed price repairs at £45 plus parts. Website looks OK and his address is a tidy modern town estate so seems genuine.

Menu prices make no mention of a charge to reload software.

Prices include collect and return too!
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 08:55 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
>>>for 45 quid the guy is going to recover your old files as well as fitting a new drive and reloading the OS? Blimey.


After realising there is no more she can try with my phone help booked it into the guy mentioned after swapping a couple of mails to ensure he seems to have a proper plan to sort it.

Specific quote is...

Collect, diagnose if just a software fault, if hard drive try and recover any data and original Dell restore partition. Fit new 320GB hard drive, restore own files if recovered otherwise load new Windows appropriate to machine licence, load OE software/drivers from Dell so it is in out of box condition. Deliver back 2-3 days later. 6mth warranty on work.

Couple of pounds under £100 parts and labour. If just a software/malware issue £45. If we decide to scrap it after his diagnosis he'll return it and charge £15.

That sounds really good.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Mon 28 Oct 13 at 08:59
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 10:42 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Mapmaker
>>Daughter at uni now 100mls away.

So she's grown up, so she finds a repairer herself?
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 10:44 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
No she's not grown up... just at uni.
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 13:45 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - RattleandSmoke
I don't know how they can do it that cheap. Generally I charge about £60.00 for fitting a new drive, backup and reinstalling but often I can get away with a clone and a repair, which the client usually prefers.

Be careful about checking if the the drive is new, but I there is some very good software which reads the SMART data and will confirm. Not checked for a few weeks but the last I checked it was getting very hard to get hold of drives less than 500gb.

I am not the cheapest but not the most expensive either, but as a guide from that I charge:- £90 inc hard drive for including a OS repair or reinstall depending how bad the old drive was.
£35-£45 for malware related issues depending how bad it is.

With regard to the warranty check what it actually covers, if the drive fails say after 5 months will he fix it straight away or wait till he gets the new replacement drive?
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 15:22 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Fenlander
I was interested to hear what you thought Rattle. It seems there is quite a bit of competition for the student business in her town and I found three outfits with similar prices.

Just looking on Ebay as an easy source and there seem to be many hundred 320GB drives for Dell laptops so I hope it's a new one.

Anway this job is beyond what I can do to a computer and it's a 200ml round trip for me to drive over to her and get further involved. So she'll have to trust this guy is OK. He'd be a fool anyway to do a rubbish job and by word of mouth lose his name to many thousands of potential customers 1/2 ml from him.
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New Mon 28 Oct 13 15:39 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - RattleandSmoke
With hard drives you cannot rely on the manufacturing date as there are a lot of old stock about however all hard drives record something called SMART data, in that you can see how many hours the drive has been powered up for.

I have been caught out twice but got a full refund in both cases. I bet the same thing goes on with solid state car parts too which never look physically worn.
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New Tue 29 Oct 13 19:45 
 Dell Inspiron Laptop - Black screen repair options - Victorbox
>> No she's not grown up... just at uni.

I know exactly what you mean!
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