# Dell Inspiron 1521 caps light flashes will not boot



## alison_duryea (Sep 22, 2009)

Hello....I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 (2 years old). I had a new hard drive installed 2 months ago and it worked fine until now. When I turn it on the caps light flashes and after a few minutes it turns off....the cmputer will not boot. I had it looked at and the hard drive is fine and the memory tested ok...do you think it is the motherboard?


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

how many times does the caps light flash? do you get any video at all on the screen?

something like you described could be alot of things, but it can be narrowed down.


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## alison_duryea (Sep 22, 2009)

thank you for your reply. 

the caps light flashes 45 tmes and then turns off. No, there is nothing on the sceen at all.


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

ok, is the light on the ac adapter on?

try removing the battery and power it on with only the ac adapter plugged in.

also while the battery is out, unplug the ac adapter, hold the power button for 30 seconds, plug in ac adapter only and power on.

other than the caps lock light, are there any other lights on? power light, anything else other than the caps lock, and what color is the power light?

If the power light is on, then try this...hold down the Fn Button, push the power button, and release both. and note down if the lights do anything different and what they are doing. Like one solid, two blinking, how many blinks?


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## alison_duryea (Sep 22, 2009)

ok...here is what I tried:

1. Battery IN/no ac adapter
power light on (blue)
bluetooth light comes on (blue) but goe right out
only caps light comes on (blue) flashes then powers off

2. Battery IN/ac adapter IN
battery status light lit (blue)
everyhing else as above

3. Battery OUT/ac adapter IN
power light on (blue)
bluetooth lighton briefly (blue)
caps lock light flashes (blue)
powers itself off

4. AC adapter out / hold power button for 30 sec then plug in ac adapter
all three keyboard status light are lit (blue) 
the caps lock light flashes and the other light go out
blue tooth light goes on briefly
powers itself off

5. Hold down FN / push power / release both
same as number 4


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## alison_duryea (Sep 22, 2009)

I also noticed that when i tried to ower on...the DVD drive light blinks briefly green) and the drive makd a little noise


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

ok, basically all the same thing then, no lights but the power light and caps lock light flashing.

have you had the ac adapter tested? to make sure its putting out the proper voltage? it can be tested with a volt meter and should be a nice steady voltage comming out of it. If that tests ok, then test the voltage comming out of the dc-in jack (if its connected by wires to the motherboard) if both are fine, then its fun time...

next thing is to remove everything possible. take out the hard drive, dvd drive, wireless card, modem card, unhook the touchpad cable and any hotkey button cables, remove the memory, unhook lcd cable. basically leave only the processor, fan, dc-in jack/ac adapter, the caps lock light and power switch hooked up. power it on and see if you get the same thing.

If you still get the same problem, then it really can only be a motherboard or processor problem.


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## TheWheel (Jan 21, 2010)

I was able to resolve issue while doing the following :

* from the Dell website in order I removed the battery, dvd drive, RAM, and hard drive. 

the caps light still blinked so I went back using the same procedure but this time removed one of the RAM modules to see if it was a bad module or connection and it *worked*. :grin:I have not determined which is the case at this point but I also noticed in the beginning that I got 4 beeps - then 3 beeps. It was then I did the hard removal / reinstall that I got the blinking caps light. 

First thanks for posting this to begin with, the removal of the RAM module was something I picked up from another tech support site and wanted to share that here.


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## A+ Computer Doc (Feb 25, 2010)

Just wishing to express my thanks to TheWheel & Madcatz for the solution, alison_duryea for the question, and for this forum. A friend of mine had a Dell Inspiron 1521 just over a year old with the same exact symptoms. She had taken it in to a local computer shop and they told her it was a bad motherboard -- Just go buy a new one. Well it so happens she's one of my vision therapists and I convinced her to let me have a crack at it. So I tried took out the battery and had a universal power adapter to power it on...same problem. Google the symptoms and was let to here. Tried alison_duryea 5 steps with no luck. Saw TheWheel's solution and first thing i took out the memory and booted it up. Problem Solved! Put memory back in and still boots up. Thanks again. It took more time writing this post than fixing the problem! :wave: Hope to return to this form regularlly.


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## kodred (Apr 11, 2010)

So this is what happend with my laptop, it has 3 years old, and no problems till now.

When playing games lately, the screen goes blank, and it`s stop responding. I think it`s 
overheating, the processor, and video card, I have to mention that the fan it`s working. 
This happens 4-5 times, then last morning, when I try to boot-up it just do nothing, well: 

- the fan it`s spin little faster (as normal at boot-up) then stops
- the power led is on, and remains that way
- the BT (bluetooth) led is on, and remains that way
- the DVD-RW led blinks 2 times (as normal) then remains on (not normal) and I can`t take 
out the drive, when pressing the button

In this stage remains forever, nothing apears on the LCD, when I pres power button again 
it shuts down instantly.

Also I have to mention that I have properly clean the fan + radiator + changeing the 
heatsink cream from processor and video chip) and putting up together and still the problem 
persists.

When I hold down "Fn" key and press "Power" button, and release in the same time it does 
this: the same as described above + 
- all 3 LED (Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll lock) goes up for 3 seconds ...then
- the Scroll Lock LED remains on...and
- the other two (Num Lock and Caps Lock) blinks endless time
- the other LED`s remains on (power, BT, and DVD-RW) as above
- the FAN do as above
- when I press "power button" ... shuts down

I also try to: 

remove the DDR`s and boot-up ...same problem
remove the LCD and boot up ... the same problem
remove the HDD and boot up ... the same problem

It does the same, with AC or Battery, doesn`t matter, same issue. The voltages are fine 
(power plug, battery ...etc.)

Please help, if you can give me any tips, or what the blinking means.


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

The Flashing - Flashing - On error code means you have a video problem, which would explain exactly why your having problems playing games. 

Two possibilities here, alot of laptops use RAM as video memory. If you can start it up and get video, download and run memtest86+ on it and let it do about 10 passes on your RAM. If you get any errors, then remove one stick of RAM and test one stick at a time to find out which stick of RAM is bad. If you get no errors, then you will need to replace the graphics card. The service manual for the 1521 shows how to do this and is found on Dell's support website, or here is a link to it:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1521/en/sm/graphics.htm#wp1179839


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## kodred (Apr 11, 2010)

well the RAM`s are tested on other laptop, and are fine, but my 1521 does not have a separated video card, is on board . and I can`t acces the BIOS to change any video values, since my LCD remains blank . I too have those service manuals, but in my case won`t help to much. So in both cases, everything is related to motherboard...


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

So it would mean replacing the motherboard then. You can usually find the part number on a sticker underneath the RAM. But if you have trouble finding it, you can PM me the service tag number and I'll be able to figure out the part number from our Dell Rep through my work.


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## Kaploop (May 25, 2010)

I would like to express a giant thank you to all who assisted in this. This helped me a bunch!

I would go to turn my laptop (dell inspiron 1521) and the caps light would flash 45 times and turn off. I disconnected the power plug, removed the battery, removed the RAM, reinserted the RAM, and now it works! Thanks!!


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## lcmitcham (Jun 23, 2010)

Another trick that I have found that works if RAM has been reseated and the problem is still there. Try removing the RAM and then swiping an eraser across the metal contacts to clean them. Then reinstall RAM one module at a time and even in different order if necessary.


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## carlosantana (Apr 4, 2011)

Okay, so I've been getting the same problem as the initial one on here. However, I have gotten past the whole flashing caps lock with only having one memory card installed. By taking out the memory card that is in the back of the laptop and leaving in the card under the keyboard I can boot my laptop. However visa-versa, if I take out he th card and put it in the RAM port that is in the back of the laptop I get the flashing caps lock light. Is this a mother board problem? Cause both memory cards work fine under the keyboard. It just that with both cards install and one card installed in the back is where I'm getting this problem.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi carlosantana this thread is very old and your unlikely to get a reply from the op you should make a thread of your own on your issue, however if the issue is showing with a known good stick of ram then the slot may be gone hope this answers your qyestion if you havbe anymore please star a fresh thread thank you


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