20 Most Recent Dell Inspiron 1000 Notebook Questions & Answers

No one should be using Win XP anymore. Upgrade to Win 7.

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If you purchased the laptop with vista on it, the key should be on the underneath of it's case. If you are upgrading, when you buy the product, it comes with a product key. If you are upgrading, why not try windows 7 which is quicker, more stable and less memory hungry.
Kind regards

It sounds like the internal hard drive has failed. You will need a 2.5" IDE or PATA hard drive to replace it. A SATA drive will not work. After you replace it, boot from the restore discs that came with the machine to reinstal Windows.

My guess is overheating- does the machine feel excessively warm during use? Try blowing into the exhaust vents with compressed air or an office duster can. If that doesn't help the service manual can assist you on disassembling the machine to clean out the heatsink and fan assembly. http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-1000_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf

windows update will install the update driver for your computer

If all the answers above do not work, it is possible that your video chip is failing. Laptop video chips are embedded in the motherboard. Over time, too much heat becomes an issue and begins to warp the chip and it begins to lift up slightly from the motherboard creating issues with blank screens when powered up. I've had the same problem with several laptops brought to me for repairs and 90% of the time it was the video chip. For this problem you may need to replace the motherboard with the same exact motherboard which you can find on ebay fairly cheap, and then if you don't feel too comfortable opening your laptop take it to a computer repair place and have it replaced.

The only easy fix would be to purchase a laptop tray that includes fans like those sold at OfficeMax and it would save you the trouble of having to open the laptop and maybe keep it cool enough to work for a while without it shutting down.

Not a quick fix, but you can buy a cooling base unit for it which plugs into one of your usb ports which supplies power for the built in fan.

HiAs you said that you haven't used the computer for long time then it could be the motherboard which has gone faulty not the HDD or DVD.Try to use the new HDD with this old motherboard.Or else you can seek help of Any Geek Squad or computer vendor.In case if you have any more trouble do contact back in Fixya.Thank you

bios password reset methods depend on model & how its designed, in laptops cmos battery reset will not remove bios password. you can reset bios passwords by: 1. Entering master password, if it shows password disabled with Error CODE after failed attemps, 2. shorting bios reset jumper located anywhere near the ram slots in motherboard 3. Re flashing the Bios Chip

Yes you have to install the drivers for your sound card.....this always happens when you install XP it fails to read what drivers are in your sound card which is on board. Do you have the original drivers do you know the sound card onboard?

Dell Inspiron BIOS password reset with article help: http://www.windowspasswordsrecovery.com/articles/computer/how-to-reset-bios-password.html

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There is a reverse polarity diode that prob popped. It doesn't allow the power to even reach the battery anymore. It'll prob charge in another laptop that takes that battery. The diode is on the mother board.

hievery laptops different but normally u can remove the cmos batterywhen you put it back and start the laptop you have to go into cmos setting set the time date and year press default settings and save restart and that should reset the biosaries

A couple things can cause this to happen....

1. While you're typing, your hand or thumb might be hitting the mouse area near the keyboard which causes the mouse to move around.
2. You could have some heavy resource program running in the background which slows the system down.
3. You have an infrared mouse without a proper mouse pad so the infrared causes the light to bounce around causing issues.
4. A virus :(

install TouchFreeze to stop erratic mousepad movement.