Dell Laptop Inspiron 15E 7520 Freezes When Connecting External Monitor

djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 06:54

Hi all,

Sorry for the long post. I hope someone can help please.

This forum has always been super helpful so looking for one again.

I have a 12 years old dell Inspiron 15E 7520.

It has been my reliable one and I only use for browsing and watching Netflix/prime connected to an external monitor.

In the last few weeks - it would just shutdown without any reason. One thing I noticed was how hot it was getting.

A restart usually fixed that issue but from last week I kept getting BSOD and does not boot anymore.

I did a fresh install of windows 10/11 and worked fine for a few mins and then froze again.

I then opened the laptop using YouTube video and cleaned the fan and applied thermal paste. Didn't do anything.

I managed to then grab a 1TB crucial SSD and installed it yesterday. It worked fine until I connected the external monitor. And now it's very similar to the old one. Freezes and when you restart does not turn on and I can see the hard drive activity light just turns off.

Any ideas / suggestions please?

Computing Computer Dell Laptop

Comments

  • brisdaz on 02/04/2023 - 07:17
    +1

    Root cause analysis - what happens when you connect a different laptop to the same monitor? Or use a different external monitor?

    • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 07:20

      Thanks for the reply. I have a work laptop that I connect to another monitor. That has no issues.

      I connected that monitor to my personal laptop and same result.

      I haven't tried connecting the other monitor to work laptop yet. Will give it a go today.

  • onetwothreefour on 02/04/2023 - 07:36
    +5

    I'm no IT expert but I'd say 12 years for a laptop is pretty good and you should just replace it at this stage.

    You can get some pretty cheap refurbished laptops on ebay but you might get hammered by the ozbargain crowd like I did recently.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13562588/redir

    • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 07:37

      Thanks mate. That is definitely the option I am looking towards as well.

    • Tleaves on 02/04/2023 - 12:32
      +1

      One more for replacing.
      Condenser, or anything could have been going bad in 12y. Even if you manage to fix now, it will happen again.

    • Gnostikos on 02/04/2023 - 13:20
      +1

      I work in IT and I also vote for replacing it.

      I'm amazed the OP hasn't been driven insane by now using a 12-year old laptop that didn't have an SSD in it.

      Any hours/money spent fixing the thing is just not worth it and won't guarantee that it doesn't stop working again shortly. And that's IF you can find replacement parts to any fix hardware issue with, which is almost certainly going to be the cause of the issue at this point.

      • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 17:30

        Thanks for the inputs. The only use has been chrome to use Netflix/prime. Very rarely a word or excel.

  • payless69 on 02/04/2023 - 09:10

    Your wheelie bin has a lid,
    the clonk may not be lout enough but sooner or later Bill G. will hold you at ransom, either pay him or pay a chipmaker!

    • brisdaz on 02/04/2023 - 09:14
      +1

      Install ChromeOS then. :) or Ubuntu or other Linux based distro.

      • Sinnerator on 02/04/2023 - 10:48

        installing linux on old pcs is the way

        • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 17:03

          This is an awesome idea. Time to install chrome OS. Thanks for the tip.

  • a20c87 on 02/04/2023 - 20:08
    +1

    Hi, you may want to try updating the graphics drivers and the BIOS. If you enter your service tag (7 letters/numbers usually on the bottom of the laptop) on the first link, there will be a "Downloads" tab for the files. If you can't find the service tag, you can run "wmic bios get serialnumber" in Command Prompt.

    https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-au?app=products

    https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-au/000130711/how-to-lo…

    I saw you wrote that you installed a fresh copy of Windows, so I believe this next suggestion shouldn't be difficult for you. You could setup a live Linux distro (like Ubuntu) on a USB that runs from the USB (no install required). Then check if the plugging the external monitor works on that. If it works on Linux, then it's probably an issue related to Windows and not the hardware.

    https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu#1-…

    • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 22:07
      +2

      I loaded the chrome os from USB and no issues with monitor. No issues.

      I also then installed on the hard drive and all cool.

      Thanks for the tip and now have a laptop working.

  • wasdw246 on 02/04/2023 - 21:07

    Maybe your port is bad and connecting the cable makes a short

    • djsydney on 02/04/2023 - 21:53

      It works with USB load of ChromeOS and also the monitor which previously was working is all good.

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