Dell Inspiron M5010 Troubleshooting

Laptop does not respond and shows no sign of powering on

Make sure the power adapter is plugged in. If it is, make sure the light on the adapter is on. If the light is not on, and the adapter is plugged in, the adapter is faulty. Consider purchasing a replacement adapter.

If you have checked to make sure that your power adapter is not faulty, and the computer only powers on when the adapter is plugged in and connected to the laptop, then the battery is faulty and needs to be replaced. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 Battery Replacement for further instructions.

The laptop turns on, but will not load the operating system and instead gives an error message

Assuming everything is functioning with the power supply and screen, your laptop may be getting stuck before it loads Windows. A possible problem here is a USB drive or memory card left inserted into a port or slot. The laptop may be trying to boot from this, or a disc left in the DVD or Blu-ray drive.

If you’re seeing error messages, or Windows freezes before getting to the login screen, try using a rescue disc. If you have one, the Windows DVD can be used, but otherwise you can download (using another computer – obviously) a rescue disc image and either burn it to a CD or DVD, or extract it to a USB flash drive. You can then boot from this and attempt to fix the problem with Windows. If a virus is causing the problem, use a rescue disc from an anti-virus provider as this will include scanning tools which can find and remove the malware.

If you’ve just installed some new memory, this might be preventing your laptop from booting. Remove it (reinstalling the old memory if necessary) and try again. If this does not work, the hard drive may need to be replaced. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 Hard Drive Replacement for further instructions.

All or some of the keys on the keyboard do not respond or are missing

If the keys do not respond, the keyboard may be broken or disconnected and needs to be replaced. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 Keyboard Replacement for further instructions.

There may be something underneath the key which is preventing it from going down. Remove the key, make sure there is nothing below it (wipe the area) and replace the key. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 Keyboard Keycap Replacement for further instructions.

Order and replace missing keys.

The screen's image is mixed up or distorted

Connect an external display to your system and check if you still get distortion on external display. Run the LCD test on the system by using a combination of ‘ D ‘ key and the power button. Solid colors will be displayed during the test. Check if the display is coming garbled or distorted during this test. If it is, the LCD Screen needs to be replaced. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 LCD Screen Replacement for further instructions.

Laptop fails to read CDs/DVDs placed into the driver

Download the latest driver for your CD/DVD player.

If downloading the newest driver software does not fix the problem, the drive may need to be replaced. Read Dell Inspiron M5010 CC/DVD Drive Replacement for further instructions.