Top 20 Dell Inspiron 8500 Notebook Questions & Answers

Cheapest fix is new monitor sounds like blown diodes in the board to me.

about your data, you can restore them, and about the laptop, try to remove the memory modules and clean it, then reinstall the memory and power up the laptop; here you can learn how to remove the memory module:

You may have to contact Dell directly if its a hard drive or BIOS password. I do know using a Windows 7 install disc will repair this error (if you can get past the password). Just insert and choose repair. gl

Hold down the ON/OFF button for several seconds until it shuts off.

the operating system gone corrupt needs re-installtion

Restart your computer, as it's restarting press f8 a boot up menu should pop up, among the options in that menu you'll see last known good configuration, select it, you're computer should hopefully start up normally, if it does not you may need to reformat, or take it into a tech shop for assistance.

How about the sound icon in the tray notification area, click on icon, adjust volume.

Download audio driver here :http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/Product/inspiron-8500.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/Product/inspiron-8500

Turn-on your bluetooth icon, the installation process will start automatically, and after all click on "OK" button to finish all steps.When you are installing driver on your system, it may be possible that software ask you to activate bluetooth option, never close this window before OK.Get technical assistance at http://www.vtechsquad.com/dell-support/ if you faced any issue with your Dell system.

Go to www.ebay.com Type: administrator password you should be presented with a list of sellers, choose the one that handles Dell, better chance of success.

When you turn it on does anything ever post on the lcd screen?

When you plug in the power cord is there any lights whatsoever on the laptop, where the plug goes in or on the AC Adapter of the power cord? When you press the power button do you hear fans running, hard drive spinning, lights on the computer, hear any beeps or lights constantly blinking, hear the DvD/CD drive click and the light on the drawer of the DvD/CD turn on for a second or two? If so the laptop is trying to boot or may have booted, but the screen is not showing for some reason. Beep tones and blinking lights tells the technicians what is going on with the laptop and why it is not booting. Most times it's a motherboard issue when you hear beeps or blinking lights continuous. Most times the problem is with the memory or Video Card. Count the Blinking Lights or Beeps and take note of their pattern (1 Long or 1 Long followed by 2 Short). Maybe your power cord is bad if you don't get anything to happen whatsoever when you press the power button. And if that's true maybe you was operating off the battery the last time you had it on and since the power cord is bad, it was not charging the battery so the battery is drained and the power cord is bad. Maybe you have a Static Charge Buildup. Remove the Power Cord, Remove the Battery, then Press and Hold the power button for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds plug the power cord back in (leave the battery out) and hit the power button to see if it boots. If it does, you can put the battery back in and let it charge.

Maybe your DC Power Jack which is where the power cord plugs into the computer is bad. Take an ink pen and push the tip inside the jack and see if the little pin wiggles, if so the jack is bad. You'll have to take the laptop apart to fix it. Most times it is soldered onto the motherboard, so you will have to desolder the old and solder a new one.

Maybe your memory is bad or the memory slot is bad.

Remove the Power Cord, Remove the Battery, Remove the cover that houses the memory on the bottom of the laptop then remove one of the memory chips. Set the chip aside then try rebooting the computer. If it boots, then you know the memory chip you set aside is bad so mark an x on it with an ink pen. If it fails to boot then move the chip to the next memory slot and try rebooting. If it fails take the chip out and set it aside, then put the other chip in and try booting it in both slots. If it boots, just to verify that the chip set aside is bad, mark an x on it and put it into the open memory chip slot and try booting.

When youclick Refresh network list, then Choose yourwireless network and then click Connect to your secured WirelessNetwork, it will asks for a Network Key before allowing you to connectinto your wireless network. This Network Key is either the WEP, orWPA or WPA2 Encryption key that is used to configure the Wireless Router. The Passphraseis an alternate way to setup the Encryption key.When you are requested for a Network Key, you can just enter the Passphrasethat was used to configure the Encryption key in the wireless router.http://www.fixya.com/support/r5270415-network_password_network_addressFor information on securing your wireless network, configuringthe wireless router and configuring the wireless card in the laptop/computer,please click on this link and follow my instructions :-http://www.fixya.com/support/r3559128-wireless_router_security

hello, when the screen changes colors or stays in one color it is mostly cause of a video card problem. Does this happens only when overheated, then maybe you can blow the cpu-video card heatsink and use a base with a fan to avoid overheating. If the screen is white all the time then maybe only a 2nd monitor will help understand if this is a problem of the video card or the screen.

LAPTOP OR NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS HAVE A KEY ON THE KEYBOARD IN THE LOWER LEFT SIDE THAT HAS A "Fn" MARKED ON IT, SHOULD BE BY THE CTRL KEY. PRESS THIS KEY ALONG WITH AN "F"KEY, NORMALY F5, ( HAS 2-BOXES WITH A DIVIDER LINE), WILL CAUSE YOUR SCREEN TO GO BLANK AS IT IS NOW SENDING THE VIDEO TO AN EXTERNAL MONITOR. PRESSING THE 2-KEYS AGAIN WILL APPLYTHE VIDEO TO BOTH MONITORS, THEN PRESSING BOTH AGAIN WILL RETURN IT TO YOUR LATOP ONLY.

the problem is with the gpu inside , i suspect that overheating or continual use of the laptop for long periods has meant that the solder oints holding the gpu to the circuitboard have started to short. Chances of repairing the motherboard are slim and a replacement will be needed.

Hi
have you enabled the wifi switch i think it is FN+F2 but maybe FN+F8

hope this will sort it

could also plug in ethernet to get online then make sure you do all the windows updates
that may give you the update for it

good luck

Hi Friend, In this case I would recommenrd you to please try and connect any external monitor to the system to check if you have the same issue in the external one as well..
If you got the same lines on the external one as well, it indicates that we can try updating the video drivers of the system
To update the video drivers, try the following link: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_8500&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
Please make sure to select the Operating system first you are using on the system and after that the last option you will see the Video drivers.
If the external one is working fine, it indicates that the issue is with the laptop screen itself and needs to be repaired or replaced.
Please let me know if it was of help
Thank you.

you could run the check disk utility click start run type cmd then type chkdsk/r/f which will scan for and attempt to repair any bad sectors and automatically fix any corrupt files on your hard drive then defragment your hard drive or control panel administrive tools,computer management ,disk management right click on your drive select properties click tools you should see click check now click start two boxes automatically fix files and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors place then a tick in both boxes then select check now,start should schedule this task when restart hope this helps