Laptop help, anyone?

[Az]

My cousin gave me his old 97' laptop to me. It's Dell Latitude XPi with a 166 processor, but I hardly think I'll need anything else for typing in lectures, and stuff. So I was really really happy for the fact that he let me take it.

He apparently didn't use it for some two years. In any case, he pulls it out of his closet, and we try to turn it on... nothing happens. The only things to work are the annoying power and charging LEDs.

I've tried again, and again, to boot it, and it actually worked for some time, but there were lapses in the work of the keyboards and mouse, i.e., usually, they didn't work.

I'll be very grateful if someone would help me. thanks in advance.

[reds4ever]

I used to have the same model (swapped it for a 19' monitor, now I've got a 120mHz laptop!)

Did you get any diagnostic software with it?
The mouse and keyboard probs MAY be the screen not updating

[Az]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. The only thing currently working is the battery charge LED.

[Az]

bump

[Pekka]

The LED is only thing working? When you push the power on, nothing happens? Does it make ANY sounds at all?

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Azazel
bump

Does the HD (ie the LED) try to boot when you switch it on?

[Az]

no.

[reds4ever]

I don't like being defeatist, but I think its ****ed, sorry!

[Pekka]

You hear no sounds at all? Hmmh.. Can you try it with another battery? Wait you can hook it straight to the .. thing where electricity comes.. Sounds pretty bad.

[Az]

I am sort of suspecting ( hoping) for it to be the battery, after all, it lied in a closet for two years!

[Japher]

When I was in school my lap top was a pencil and a sheet of paper... never had a problem...

[:) Smiley]

That means you gotta charge the battery

[reds4ever]

it's power up off the mains anyway Az, just to make sure take the battery out and try to run it from the mains

PLEASE PLEASE tell me you've tried to run it off the mains first (ie before posting here) ? ;O)

[Az]

the battery was charged for an hour or so.

what do you mean by "Powering off the mains"? I am a laptop virgin.

[reds4ever]

Take the battery out of the laptop and plug the laptop into the power supply at the wall. Old laptop battries are usually the first things to go