Tag Archives: Dell Inspiron 1520

Dell Inspiron 1520 Battery Problem Madness

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I am not sure if any of you happen to own this particular model from Dell but I do.

The laptop is just around one year old. And the battery has already gone bad.

I assumed it was my working style which keeps the laptop on power practically all the time.

But when I went on to the Dell website to check out the prices of a new battery, I noticed a couple of things…

There is only one battery model available for this laptop (56 WHr 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Primary Battery).

All the reviews on this battery page points towards my problem. Battery becoming crap within the first year of use!

This makes me believe that Dell delivered a dud with this laptop when it comes to battery power. And since the model is now extinct, I have no choice but to pay Dell money every year for a new battery!

What a shame.

56 WHr 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Primary Battery for Dell Inspiron 1520/ 1720 Laptops

DVD Writer on my Laptop crapped out again

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I am receiving the same spindle test failed message. I guess I would have to get it replaced again. And this is the first time I am trying to use it after getting it replaced earlier. And that was the first time I was trying to use the drive after getting the notebook itself!

Dell did replace the drive. But they checked out the problem more thoroughly this time around. I thought it was rather clear that there was a problem when Vista just refused to accept the drive and threw it out as soon as I tried accessing it.

Dell and Vista together killing me…

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So my Vista installation died on me. It died after I installed the latest released patches which the system was practically forcing me to install asap. I gave up despite facing issues with them in the recent past.

After rebooting, Vista showed the famed BSOD. Like last time I tried fixing the problem with System Restore. It failed on me. Doomness.

Now, there is just one way to get the data from the system considering it is a laptop. I tried using the Ubuntu Live CD. The 7.04 version failed on the Dell machine. Luckily 7.10 version worked and I was able to retrieve most of my data.

But, the Dell machine started giving me trouble now. It just would not boot using the three different media discs I have of the Vista operating system.

Strangely, the same discs worked fine on my desktop.

This is weird considering the system booted well with the Ubuntu Live CD…

So, I used the system’s own recovery option to get the default boot stage. Luckily it worked and I got a clean Vista installation with none of my settings and software.

I tried testing the DVD Drive with the Dell’s own tool and it reported some problem with the drive. I have the screenshot here.

_DSC6225

It took me around 15 minutes to find out a way to send the Dell Customer Care an email with the problem. I cannot call them as the support only works on week days. I am hoping to see some positive response from Dell though I have my doubts.

This laptop would become a very crippled version if it continues to give me problems with media discs. I need it to boot through the Vista installation discs and I cannot get it to. I see no future for this machine.