Inspiron 1520 - problematic hardware, trying to narrow down

tom.mcc

I've been tasked with repairing a relative's laptop which apparently stopped working after the battery fell out when the laptop was turned off. Now it crashes/freezes with some visual artifacts and banding, the hdd and fans making a lot of unusual noises. Have tried a repair install, using linux to backup the files, however the laptop stops working after a short time and needs to be restarted.

On the presumption that this is a hardware problem, can anyone give me advice as to how I would narrow down the problem to individual components, e.g. HDD or mobo? I'm guessing that it can only really be these components that are faulty for this problem to occur, although how it occured in the first place is beyond my comprehension... perhaps the battery was damaged when it fell and the motherboard and hdd were fried.

If there is no sure-fire way of determining which parts are faulty, would I be alone in thinking that a replacement HDD and mobo would fix the problem?

Thanks in advance

mp22

Remove the hd and boot from a linux live cd if the hd was the problem the laptop will work away,If it stops after a few minutes-overheating perhaps.