Dell Vostro 1015 Troubleshooting

Laptop is not charging or is having trouble remaining charged.

If the device appears to be charging when connected to an adapter, but does not power on when disconnected or only functions when plugged into the adapter, the battery may be in need of replacing. Try replacing the battery with this guide.

If after connecting the device to a charger there is still no response, the charger may need replacing. Just as anything else, chargers undergo normal wear and tear and occasionally need to be replaced.

The device will seem to lag and restart constantly, laptop fan frequently kicks on, frequent error messages, heat coming from the device, or the dreaded blue screen encounter.

Overheating problems usually revolve around heat-sink/CPU fan failure. Symptoms of a clogged heat-sink or fan not working correctly are a loud noise for the fan, high temperature of the general area where the fan is located which can be found by smelling smoke or a burning odor. Receiving a common notice from your device after it has shut itself down that says “CPU Fan Error” or “Error: CPU Fan Has Failed!” directly states there is a problem within the fanning system.

If your device is powering down immediately after turning on or the screen appears blue and unresponsive, this may be due to a failure within the motherboard and it may need to be replaced.

Key characters are not functioning properly.

If your keyboard is not responding it may be that the keys have been locked as a precaution. First try restarting your laptop. If this does not solve your issue, check your keyboard settings and ensure that sticky keys and toggle keys are not selected.

If a key on your device is unresponsive it may may need to be replaced.

If a key is difficult to press, there may be some dirt or dust build up underneath the key. If this is likely to be the case, try using compressed air to clear up the dust or dirt from under the key.

Similar symptoms to an overheating device, however there is much less device functionality.

Some signs and symptoms your device may experience when the motherboard is in need of replacement may include system crashes and malfunctions, distorted audio, unresponsive screen, an entirely blue screen, or extremely frequent overheating and possible burning smell. Before purchasing an entirely new device, the motherboard might need to be replaced.

Device does not respond when powered on.

When a device will not turn on, the first thing to do is to make sure the device is charged. Connect your laptop to a charger for at least five minutes. This will ensure that if the laptop was completely drained of battery power, there was enough time to give the laptop a steady charge if the problem was a battery drainage.

If the charger is connected and appears to be working (laptop charging indicator light will be lit up), you might need to replace the battery. Follow the battery replacement guide for a step-by-step on how to replace your devices battery.

CD drive does not eject per user request.

If the optical drive on your device does not open upon request, it may simply need to be force ejected.