dell c610 laptop, no power 1

[iBe]

Hello,

Last night I had my wife's machine turned on and sitting on the coffee table. I dozed off acidentally for about 15-30min and when I woke up the machine had lost power. Now the machine is completely dead, it shows no signs of life. No blinking lights, no noises, no nothing.

We've had this laptop for at least 4 or 5 months and in all that time we've had no trouble with it except for that ocasionally it will not sleep after having been closed.

Without having spare parts to swap out, how can I go about figuring out which component is bad (PS, MB, etc.)?

Anyone have a trouble shooting workflow I could try?

tyia,
iB

 

[franklin97355]

About the only things you can easily change on a laptop would be the battery or the power cube. You can test the power supply with a voltmeter to see if it is outputting anything and the battery the same way. If you don't have the tool need to do the tests take it to a shop and have them do it for you.

 

[cdogg]

From my experience working with Dell Lattitude laptops:

- Unplug the device and take out the battery. Hold the power button in for at least 30 secs. Leave the battery out and plug the power adapter back in. See if it will power on.

- These laptops were notorious for having a loose grounding screw in the middle on the underside of the laptop. Tighten this screw along with any others that you can see.

If still no go, it would be pretty costly to troubleshoot it any further. You would need access to a spare power adapter and other parts, which might be easier and cheaper to have it serviced by Dell.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[pudda]

When you plug the power supply into the laptop see if the indicator light is on. Have seen a few with a loose ps connector on the motherboard...

The test continues...

 

[iBe]

thx for the quick replies, cdogg; would you think it matters if a screw is missing?

thx again !

 

[cdogg]

Well, the one that matters is in the center on the laptop's underside. That screw goes into the motherboard and acts as an extra ground. Without it, you can experience power issues or keyboard problems (some keys not working, for example).

The C610 weren't as bad about this than the earlier lattitudes. If you're missing any other screw, I would say it's less important, but again might be worth contacting Dell about.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[iBe]

cdogg, your advice for the latitude did the trick. Cutting all power sources and then holding the power button for approx 30 seconds, plugging in AC, and then trying to power up brought it right back to life. No problems since.

I was absolutely amazed b/c I was convinced it was dead, I was completely skeptical... but thank god it worked...

THANK YOU!

 

[cdogg]

I'm glad it did. It's been a while since I've worked on them...



~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884