Dead Dell

[Ken Ibold]

My wife has a Dell Inspirion 6000 laptop that is about 8 months old. It has worked flawlessly from the get go. She used it until late last night, and then this morning put it in the case and took it to work. No unusual bumping or jostling, but this morning it simply would not turn on. Nothing. No lights, no humming, regardless of attempts to boot from the battery or the power cord.

The only work that has ever been done on this is that last week I upped the RAM from 512 to 2 gig, if that might somehow matter.

Any ideas?

 

[ScottM]

A couple of things.

Did she have it plugged in? was there really power i.e. the PS green light was lite?

If that does not help check to see if the power connector is undamaged i.e. no bent connectors etc.

Remove the battery in case it has developed a failure and is placing a load on the computer that is causing the input voltage to sag to a point that cannot power the computer.

Check to make sure there is nothing sitting on any of the docking pins. This could cause a problem with turnon signals being shunted to ground.

If none of that helps it is time, IMHO, to open it up and look to see if something inside has become loose.

 

[Greebo]

Well, if it worked after the RAM update, you should be able to eliminate the RAM, but... process of elimination - take out the new ram, put in the old, and try again. It won't make a difference, I suspect, but...get it off the table.

Sounds to me like something's come loose or disconnected. Any of the snap-in parts sitting wrong or anything?

When the power cord is plugged in (and the computer is off), do you get any kind of charging indicator? Should you?

 

[Brian Austin]

Battery, power supply or motherboard.

If you plug it in, do you get a charging battery indicator?

Most laptops (not all) route power through the battery. When you're using it on the power supply, you're drawing off the battery while it's being charged at the same time. If the battery is dead, the whole thing is down, with no indication of charging.

Call Dell. It's still under warranty at 8 months. Don't bother with any paperwork. Just give them the Service Tag on the bottom. You can even do it through the web.

Oh, and just so I can beat the Mac-daddies to the punch: throw it away and go buy a MacBook. You won't have these issues. Macs are invincible.

 

[poadeleted3]

Have you tried percussive mx?

 

[Ken Ibold]

Have you tried percussive mx?

That has been her method until recently: POUND on the keyboard/monitor/CPU whilst shouting all sorts of words we don't want the kids to say.

Her temper around computers has improved as the user interface has improved.

 

[Ken Ibold]

Oh, and just so I can beat the Mac-daddies to the punch: throw it away and go buy a MacBook. You won't have these issues. Macs are invincible.

Hah! I have worked on Macs from the days you had to boot them with a floppy disk. They certainly have their own set of issues.

 

[bbchien]

Ken, this is why I have now gone to the $750 disposa-laptop. Crush it lose it bruise it gone....no issues.

 

[JRitt]

Your computer would last longer if you hug it once a day and tell it how much you appreciate it. My mother in-law does this every day and her K6-2 300mhz Win98 machine that I built 7 yrs ago still runs great (so does their Athlon 2000+ I built 4yrs ago). I don't take credit for them lasting. They keep them clean and maintain the HD's themselves.

 

[gkainz]

That has been her method until recently: POUND on the keyboard/monitor/CPU whilst shouting all sorts of words we don't want the kids to say.

I usually bow to the Northwest 3 times a day to honor Bill Gates, and bow 3 times to the West to honor Larry Ellison. The rest of my day is spent using the above methodology.

 

[mikea]

I usually bow to the Northwest 3 times a day to honor Bill Gates, and bow 3 times to the West to honor Larry Ellison. The rest of my day is spent using the above methodology.

...and you skip the sacrifice of a chicken?

 

[Ken Ibold]

Well, after going through the dog and pony show with the Dell chat gurus ... basically taking out everything that could be taken out ... it's off to the repair depot. Good thing it's under warranty. And good thing it's not MY computer. And good thing we have a spare laptop lying around.

 

[Steve]

Had to do that with Cheryl's Dell I bought off their refurbished online store in '02. It went dead about a month after purchase. Pulled the battery and the hard drive before Airborne picked it up. New motherboard installed. 5 day turnaround. Basically a new laptop for just over half the MSRP of one if I had spec'd a new to the same equipment.

Kathleen made straight A's last year so she got a brand new one (E1705) this summer before she goes off to "smart" school this fall. The school requires a 2 yr service agreement on any laptop brought on campus, which is usually worth it with teenagers. I keep threatening to switch her computer for my '01 Inspiron 8200.

Well, after going through the dog and pony show with the Dell chat gurus ... basically taking out everything that could be taken out ... it's off to the repair depot. Good thing it's under warranty. And good thing it's not MY computer. And good thing we have a spare laptop lying around.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Your computer would last longer if you hug it once a day and tell it how much you appreciate it. My mother in-law does this every day and her K6-2 300mhz Win98 machine that I built 7 yrs ago still runs great (so does their Athlon 2000+ I built 4yrs ago). I don't take credit for them lasting. They keep them clean and maintain the HD's themselves.

I still have a working Timex Sinclair 1000 with the 16K upgrade. 23 years young!

 

[Eamon]

CAll Dell before you send it off.

Mind did the same. If I remember correctly, They had me take the battery out, then hold the power button down for 2 min, then reinstall the battery, plug it in & it has worked fine for the last 4 months.

Something about an auto sleep mode.

 

[Ken Ibold]

CAll Dell before you send it off.

Mind did the same. If I remember correctly, They had me take the battery out, then hold the power button down for 2 min, then reinstall the battery, plug it in & it has worked fine for the last 4 months.

Something about an auto sleep mode.

Yeah, we did that. Actually, Dell now uses online chat instead of phone when possible. Of course, if your computer is dead you may not be able to get the online chat! But we have, like 6 computers or something. Anyway, took out the battery, then took out the hard drive, the CD drive, the PCI looking to see if maybe one of those had failed in such a way as to kill the whole thing. No dice, so they sent an overnight box to have it repaired.

Warranty expires in 26 days. I guess they miscalculated by a month when they built this one.