This old Laptop - First Hardware Problem???

[NETWizz]

My laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1564 is 8 years old as of June 24th, 2018. Apparently whatever I buy lasts ages!

Years ago, I added the Dell internal Bluetooth card but never used that feature. I upgraded it to 8 GB of RAM and an old SSD a long, long time ago probably in 2011 or 2012.

last night when I fired it up, it had the incorrect time displayed. Last year, I replaced the laptop main battery because the original died!

Last night, it reported the wrong time when I turned it on! I had to re-sync the clock :-(

I had this crazy thought... What if I replace this???




I should also mention the audio output port has a broken, plastic ring.


I may be crazy, but I am actually considering working on it...

I am able to source this part for $9 should I bite the bullet... Am I crazy?

 

[Porthos]

Last night, it reported the wrong time when I turned it on! I had to re-sync the clock :-(

I had this crazy thought... What if I replace this???

First thing I would have replaced with a time issue.

 

[sapphirescales]

For a client? No, I would never recommend fixing/upgrading a laptop this old. That being said if it's yours and it's not mission critical then why not? It's better than most of those sub-$300 Walmart special computers with 32GB eMMC drives and a processor with a Passmark score of 750.

 

[fencepost]

I wouldn't bother with the audio jack, but yeah, replacing a $1 2032 CMOS battery to keep it going makes sense - and would make sense even for a customer particularly if it's directly under an access port.

 

[NETWizz]

Well just like that... it is keeping time again, and I didn't even replace the battery. It is an easy repair, but I always subscribe to "if it isn't broke don't fix it" and that it must exhibit symptoms at leas twice to not be a fluke. If the repair is difficult it has to exhibit symptoms more than twice.

The battery is simple, but right now it is keeping time just fine again, so I guess I won't bother.

I think I will replace the audio jack.

 

[brandonkick]

Did you let the battery go completely dead during a long period of time?

I recently had the misfortune of repairing two dell machines with AMD A6 APU's . I repaired them both upon the company I work for receiving them. Both made god awful loud "5 beeps" upon boot. And did so for a good three or four min. VERY loud. Think like the backup alarm on a forklift or something. Like way louder than necessary.

Anyhow, I replaced both batteries with fresh Energizer CR2032's from the local store... most likely good original OEM's and not some fake junk for 15 cents each. About a year later we go to re purpose the machines (because they ran like utter garbage... seriously low power hardware baked on top of a slow mechanical drive) and upgrade with SSD's to make them passable for office use. Beeping again like the place is about to blow. So I replace both batteries again... find it quite odd and post about it on here. This repair requires a fair bit of disassembly on this unit.

IIRC one member explained that if the laptop battery dies, it can place more of a draw on the CR2032... I can't remember exactly what for... but having a dead laptop battery for a prolonged period of time could lead to a dead CMOS battery. Seems reasonable in my case.

 

[NETWizz]

Did you let the battery go completely dead during a long period of time?

I recently had the misfortune of repairing two dell machines with AMD A6 APU's . I repaired them both upon the company I work for receiving them. Both made god awful loud "5 beeps" upon boot. And did so for a good three or four min. VERY loud. Think like the backup alarm on a forklift or something. Like way louder than necessary.

Anyhow, I replaced both batteries with fresh Energizer CR2032's from the local store... most likely good original OEM's and not some fake junk for 15 cents each. About a year later we go to re purpose the machines (because they ran like utter garbage... seriously low power hardware baked on top of a slow mechanical drive) and upgrade with SSD's to make them passable for office use. Beeping again like the place is about to blow. So I replace both batteries again... find it quite odd and post about it on here. This repair requires a fair bit of disassembly on this unit.

IIRC one member explained that if the laptop battery dies, it can place more of a draw on the CR2032... I can't remember exactly what for... but having a dead laptop battery for a prolonged period of time could lead to a dead CMOS battery. Seems reasonable in my case.

Nope... Honestly, it just started working again. I guess I may as well leave the battery alone because knowing my luck I will break the battery holder even if careful... If it exhibits the same problem again, I certainly will change it.

 

[mraikes]

Nope... Honestly, it just started working again. I guess I may as well leave the battery alone because knowing my luck I will break the battery holder even if careful... If it exhibits the same problem again, I certainly will change it.

What?! Unlike some laptops, that cmos battery is super easy to access. Just gently ease it out and replace it. It's 8 years old! Buck up, replace that freakin battery and move on with your life.

 

[NETWizz]

Told you I would get around to fixing it... It did the same thing, so I completed the repair this weekend.

 

[NETWizz]

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot... I did also decide to fix my broken headphone audio-jack; since, the wind blowing the wrong way would cause the external speakers to crackle. Total cost was maybe $10 for both repairs. You see when I get motivated enough, I can pretend to be be a computer technician like I used to do 40+ hours a week... I still suffer from the mechanic phage where mechanics generally drive the most poorly maintained vehicles.

 

[brandonkick]

The fan on my going on 9 year old Radeon HD 5870 sounds like a cement mixer... I used to just rap lightly on the machine until it quit or quieted down... now I just turn up whatever I'm listening too when I'm deep in coding something.... lazy! I had the replacement fan sorted out and bookmarked in eBay for oh about a year now. Some day I'll hit that buy it now button!