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Inspiron 3521 webcam problem

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Hello everyone. I have a problem with my laptop's integrated webcam.

A few days ago it suddenly stopped working. The white led light next to the lens turns on but the image window on the screen stays black. I have not changed anything regarding the software, I tested the functionality with online webcam testing pages and also the image keeps loading in Skype.

I have checked the support for webcam and graphics drivers which I'm pretty sure I have updated to the latest version.

Also I have tried to uninstall the device from the device manager list and have it automatically reinstalled with no luck.

Is there anything else I can do?


Thanks in advance for your answers!


Inspiron 15-5548 - maybe Touch Screen issue, not sure ..

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Hi Guys,

Have an Inspiron 15-5548 touch screen laptop.

When it boots into Windows 10 ( and same with Win 8 previously ) I get a load Finger Circles randomly appearing on the screen. Thats the best I can describe. Same as if you push an LCD screen with finger and see a "circle" around your finger point.

These randomly hop all around the screen, going on and off. Once into desktop it doesnt seem to happen.

Randomly also while at the Win 10 login screen where you type the password you see them and they can make it impossible to type the password because they move you out of password box as if you moved away with the touchpad or mouse. You have to keep clicking the password box and if quick enough, will get to type the password & finally login.

Today once I was logged in I couldnt get the mouse pointer out of the start menu. I rebooted and it now seems to have settled down.

This doesnt happen all the time BUT the "finger circles" flitting about the screen pre password screen always happens.

Im just wondering what this could be? Is it a software thing? Can I disable the touchscreeen to see if it resolves? If so is that done through BIOS? 

So I am not sure is it a touch screen issue or a touchpad issue or something else.

Appreciate any feedback .. 

Dell XPS (9630) Keyboard Issue

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Hello,

I recently received my 9630 and it is just gorgeous.

However, today I was doing some typing on a Microsoft document when I notice something strange.

In my old laptops, when I need to dim down the brightness I would press the FN (function) key + F11 to lessen the brightness. But this time round I don't need to. All I need to do is just press F11. Then, when I am using Chrome or Internet Explorer... the F5 key is the refresh key. But it won't work unless I press FN + F5. 

Even when it comes to renaming documents or files. The shortcut is F2, but I need to press FN + F2.

Then here's what gets more strange.

If I were to type my email, for example, johnny@dell.com, that @ symbol isn't SHIFT+2. But it is SHIFT+" key.  And Shift+2 produces " instead of @.

Is this some sort of hardware issue?

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 7569

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I am trying to find out if there is a compatible stylus for this unit. I don't want the squishy tip type. I am interested in the Dell Active Pen or similar type. 

Thanks,

kev

Hardware/Non Detection issue

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So...

Having a small issue with my laptop. i looked all over the internet and alas i came up with nothing whatsoever.

I ordered my laptop off of microsoft website because they had a deal for students, this was about 3 years ago. 

The other day i was watching a stream on my laptop and it started making clicking noises and froze my computer, i restarted chrome and everything worked fine again.

then about a week later watching another stream, the clicking noises began again only this time it shut my computer off. so i turned it back on and this error came up(No boot device detected. strike F1 to retry boot Strike F2 to run setup utility or F5 to run onboard system diagnostics.

So naturally i clicked retry boot a couple million times but to no avail nothing worked.

So i ran my onboard diagnostics. and it came up with hard drive not connected. so i was like okay my hard drives fried. so i connected a different one... same error message

 

So now ive come here for solutions, ive never in my life resorted to posting online about a situation. but this is just insane. either the connection from my computer to my hard drive is fried, Both my hard drives are fried or something in the softwares messed up. 

All im asking for is a solution... Thanks.

~Var

 

Battery not charging - Dell Vostro 3550

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Hello everyone. I posted this topic earlier today, then edited it. Not sure if it's in the hands of the moderators again for checking, or if it vanished.  So reposting just in case.

I replaced three things in the last year for my Dell Vostro 3550 laptop. Last July I bought a new slim style Dell AC Adapter and a  new battery, both supposedly genuine. And in March this year I bought a replacement DC Jack power socket connector and installed it to the motherboard. All my parts were not bought from Dell, only other online sites like ebay. So I'll only buy from Dell direct now to assure genuinemparts.


The battery has been charging fine until now when I have to keep the adapter plugged in all the time. It says '8% available (plugged in not charging)' on the taskbar.

* I get the warning message saying that it can't determine the AC Adapter, that it may not charge the battery, and that I should connect a 90w or higher adapter even though my adapter says it's 90w.

* In my BIOS (I have the A12 bios update), next to 'ac adapter type' it says 'none'.

* There's no charging even with the laptop shutdown. I can remove the battery though and with the charger plugged in, the laptop is fine.

* The icon on the front panel illuminates red when I unplug the adapter, but there's no illumination at all when the adapter is reconnected.

* The centre pin inside the plug that is menat to be responsible for charging is still intact and seems centred.


So I'm trying to figure out which part I need to replace and I'm guessing probably the AC Adapter?
It looks genuine, but perhaps it's not and has started to fail by not charging the battery anymore. What do you think? Apparently the only way to tell is to weigh against a genuine one, and that fakes are always lighter.


I've looked on the Dell euro site as I'm in UK, and can buy an old style brick adapter for my Vostro 3550,

accessories.euro.dell.com/.../productdetail.aspx

But I'd prefer a slim type like the one I have with the white light around the plug, but don't see it on their site. Does anyone know if they sell
the slim type? They only seem to have it on the US site

accessories.us.dell.com/.../productdetail.aspx

Here is a link to photos of my ac adapter, battery, battery compartment and warning message.

postimg.org/.../


Perhaps someone can tell if anything is non genuine and if they think I need to replace the AC Adapter, or the battery, or both? Thanks.

Black screen, fan runs at high speed

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Hi Community

I have a problem with my VOSTRO 3360. At power on the hard drive LED flashes a couple of times and I can hear the disk head moving and then the fan  speeds up and nothing else occur. The fan keeps running at high speed and the screen remains black all the time.

I have made following tests:

1. When I remove the RAM from the pc I can hear 2 diagnostic beeps.

2. If I keeps pressing the F2 key during and after pressing the power botton I hear after a second or so, short beeps, as when the keyboard buffer is full.

3. I have disconnected the main battery and removed the coin-cell battery. When the batteries are reconnected I hear 5 diagnostic beeps at the first power on. After cycling the power I hear no beeps and it starts as initially described.

Any good ideas are appreciated.Thanks.

New XPS 15 not showing ssd drive

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Hi all,

Just got a new XPS 15 today, with 1tb standard hard drive and 32gb ssd. Though I'm not sure if the ssd is in it, because when I go to My Computer (see screenshot), it doesn't show up. I would appreciate any tips or advice, (I've updated the BIOS drivers to no avail, perhaps there's something else I can do in the BIOS to at least find out if I have the ssd?)

Thanks,

gd85


Making a Pentium powered Inspiron 15 3542 run faster - how?

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Hey, so since my dad needed a work computer (mostly Word, Excel; sometimes Visio or some cheap CAD software) as soon as possible, purchasing the best model at a prize online was not an option. So we had to buy one locally, and although the offer in all the shops was rather poor (as expected), we finally chose Dell Inspiron 15 3542 (the one with Pentium 3558U and 4 gigs of RAM).

Generally, we're not happy about how poorly does Windows 8 perform on this machine. The OS has maybe like ~10 programs installed (excluding things like Visual C++, .NET Framework etc), only one program is launched at startup (it's the antivirus from COMODO), yet the laptop feels really slow. Every single operation takes much longer than I feel it should have. Besides general slugginess, that includes:

  • using the Windows Explorer to browse through the files
  • starting up aforementioned programs and opening documents using these programs
  • browsing the internet with at least 3 tabs open - the browser occasionally just freezes (tested on many browsers, incl. Opera, Chrome, Vivaldi, Firefox)

It seems to run much better on Linux (xubuntu, to be precise), but most programs that need to work will not function properly even with Wine, and running a VM with Windows XP on a computer this weak is not an option (yes, I've tried).

I'm aware the CPU is the major reason of my disappointment, but I was wondering how much of a boost would replacing the drive to a 128 GB SSD cause. Has anyone here with a Pentium 3558U processor done that?

Also is there anything I could do to improve performance? I remember the System process used to take like ~50% of the CPU, but I've already troubleshooted and fixed that, and that's no longer the case.

Any input is greatly appreciated ;)

Inspiration 15-352 crash :(

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My beloved laptop was working fine when it suddenly started bleeping, screen went black and the fan was very audible. (I was not listening to Justin Bieber at the time, so that's not it ;)).
Now it won't start at all- when I press the start button, nothing happens, there are only a reddish flickering light and vague flickering light- the two right lights at the edge of the keyboard. That also happens when I connect the charger. 

Can you please tell me if my Dell battery is genuine

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Hello,


I purchased a Dell battery and the seller (Black Cat PC in England) said it is genuine. I want to be shure.

Laptop E6520.

Enclosed some pics. The serial number is CN-0NH6K9-48630-634-O0RU-A01. My laptop says it is a 1002Sanyo Dell NH6K963.

Thanks!

Dutch

need help regarding touchpad scrolling

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Hey there :) i have installed the touchpad drivers from dell website but still i am not able to find the option of touchpad or gesture controls in the mouse/pointer settings or when i search for main.cpl in the search box i get only 4 options no other than that. please help me out i have dell vostro 3558 win8.1 4gb ram i3. i searched and found that it supports multitouch touchpad so hope to get a reply soon. Thanks in advance :)

Screen streaking- new computer

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Hi.

I bought 2 weeks ago dell Inspiron 15- 5000 series. I'm with windows 10 home. I Surfing with firefox  browser, last version 49.0.1, and sometimes when I search in the search bar of google or in the URL bar, when the suggestions are open, the screen is streaking. When I go to open tab, some texts are painted in black or blue, like they mark, and only when touching them with the mouse or scroll the page up an down it disappear.

I have no streaking in other software or in any other part of the computer.

What could be the problem?

Is my screen defective?

Thank you.

Laptop will not start, ePSA can't find a problem

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My laptop is having some issues with starting. It's showing the Dell sign in some sort of loop, flashing on and off again. When I tried to run the ePSA assessment, it says it can't find anything wrong. I don't know what to do. Any ideas as to what can help?

PASSWORD RESET DOESN'T WORK

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1. this is his computer but i used it last; so now it says his email address but my name; 

2. you can't sign into your PC right now. Go to account.live.con to fix the problem, or try the last password you used on this pc. 

so i use another computer to reset it, everything is successful. i go back to my computer to retry to sign in with the new password but it doesn't work.

3. I also try to restart the system and take the battery out, that doesnt reset it either, 

i dont have a disk for this computer sohow in the *** do i fix this


Bluetooth Device drivers are not getting installed

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I am using Inspiron 15 3521 Laptop with Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate. Bluetooth has been a concern for me from the day i got windows installed. Bluetooth is working fine with Ubuntu. 

I have tried updating driver several times but the issue continues even after the network driver was updated. Bluetooth devices are sometimes not getting detected. Even if it gets detected, drivers for the Bluetooth device is failing to get installed.

Dell Inspiron 5000 series only charging with 90 watt charger.

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So I ran into the old plugged in, not charging problem with my laptop about a month back. I hoped it was the charger, but upon getting a replacement 65-watt charger, the problem persisted. I assumed the fiddly bits on the inside of the laptop had given up the ghost, as I've had that issue before, but when a friend plugged in his 90-watt dell charger it worked like a charm. I'd rather not have to go buy a new 90-watt charger, but I will if I have to.

Also, I suppose I should mention that I'm using a 5759 with no modifications. Also, I used to get an error message every time I plugged in a 65-watt charger though it doesn't show up anymore for whatever reason and I can't remember exactly what it said. Something about it not being recognized or somesuch. Same error message with 3 different 65-watt chargers.

Keyboard Backlight Stopped working Dell Inspiron 7000 13

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Hey all!

 

My keyboard backlight was working fine but then one day it just stopped.

I've pushed f10 and fn + f10 doesn't give any feedback

 

I've gone to the Windows mobility center and made sure things are fine there but still no feedback.

When i push the f10 key the setting in windows mobility center changes but it shows no light on the keyboard

But the CAPS LOCK Light and back light works  

Apart from that nothing else

 

Tried restarting also no feedback from the lights

Also could it have been a recent update that might've caused this?

Is there a driver for this?

 

Please Help

Vostro 3300 BIOS Update Failed - Recovery Procedure Needed

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I had a working Vostro 3300 laptop and was doing maintenance to bring it up to date. I downloaded and installed the recommended BIOS update for this laptop... Dell Vostro 3300 System BIOS 3300A12.EXE | Windows/DOS (2 MB) BIOS Release date 17 JUL 2014. Last Updated 17 JUL 2014 Recommended The BIOS update failed and left the computer with no working BIOS.

I find some solution for vostro 3500 like :

1.  Download the Dell BIOS update .exe file to a USB flash drive.
2.  Run the .exe file with /writehdrfile parameter
3.  Run the .exe file with /writeromfile parameter
4.  Copy the .hdr file to winery50.hdr
5.  Remove the battery and AC power from the dead computer
6.  Insert the flash drive into the dead computer's USB port
7.  Hold down the End key and then connect the AC power
8.  Dead computer reads USB flash and asks if update should be done
9.  Allow the update to finish and then reboot.
10.  Computer is now working normally.

But it doesnt work for me.

Can someone please help ?

Thanks

Faulty Dell xps 13

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I recently ordered the dell xps 13 laptop from dells website whilst they were offering the 10% discount on it around 3 weeks ago. I received the laptop after a week and within a few days noticed a few track pad bugs and glitches where the mouse would jump the screen while scrolling and move erratically. I downloaded the latest bios and these issues seemed to stop occurring as frequently. Because I didn't want to go through the headache of calling customer service for an issue that only came up once or twice. So I ignored it whenever the issue arised and just continued.

2 weeks later, ie today, the computers power settings stopped working. The same time this issue came up there was a crackling sound inside the computer. My first thought was the speakers were acting up so I tried to test them by playing music and then I realised that the cracking was not coming from the speaker, but the actual hardware it self (after listening closely I think its around the touchpad area). I thought the two issues were somehow connected, that I somehow managed to get a virus despite installing literally next to nothing on my laptop (literally just office, Spotify, dell drivers and a game i've had since I got the laptop 2 weeks ago).

To fix the power problems ie, the display sleep and computer sleep times, as it would just shut the display off after 1 minute of inactivity regardless of the power settings. I checked the forums and realised this too was a common issue, someone suggested to reinstall windows and seeing as i only had Microsoft office downloaded I thought it would be fine. I reset windows and managed to fix the issue. However literally as soon as the computer started downloading windows again I could hear that crackling from within the computer. As if that wasn't enough, after re installing the track pad went back to its original erratic state. Id spent atleast 2 hours on the forums and trying to reset my computer and had gotten fed up.

I recalled that this computer came with 1 year of premium support and warranty (as well as the 1 year accidental damage plan I took). So I tried to find out how I could contact customer support. Literally no results. I searched the dell uk website for ages and no definitive email or premium support phone number. I thought these people came to ur house to fix issues? How can dell brag about a service it doesn't offer? After searching for almost half an hour on the dell website all I came across was how to extend my warranty and the benefits of premium customer support...

Incase the person reading this didn't manage to understand what the problem is I will kindly summarise:

The touch pads behaviour is erratic at times ( a common issue)

The power settings don't work ( fixed through reseting the laptop)

There is a crackling noise coming from near the touchpad area, whenever I start up my computer (it lasts for around 10 mins before going away) - (this is also a fairly common issue)

I want to find an email or number for the UK where I can use the premium on site service I have from the 1 year premium customer service subscription. 

Sorry for the semi- rant but I just want to get this fixed asap as I need this laptop for school and I don't have a replacement.

Thanks,

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