ON again, OFF again... 3

[Dimandja]

I have a PC (DELL Latitude D600, BIOS Revision A14) that when turned on, will shut down in about 5 seconds. This PC is new and behaved proudly for 2 months.

Any thoughts?

 

[micker377]

If it's still under warranty, I wouldn't mess with it - return it.

 

[mebkc1981]

aaaahhhhh!!! dell......*shudder* anyway, my first guess is a virus, but being a programmer, I'm sure you've covered that. by "shut down", do you mean it actually goes through the shutdown process, or that it just plain powers off? could be as serious as a memory fault, or as simple as a bad device driver. really hard to tell.

 

[Dimandja]

It just plain powers off. I can't even select 'Safe Mode' or anything. It simply ignores my commands and powers off.

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[paparazi]

Is the start button sticking? can you hear a clear click?
Is the CPU fan spinning, has the plug become detached?
It could be a PSU fault.
RMA is the way to go.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[Dimandja]

12 botched phone calls to DELL later...

I can reach sales, but it is impossible to reach Tech Support at Dell! Their automated answering system gave me all kinds of weird messages before unceremoniously hanging up... Their live reps keep blindly sending me to the same non-working extensions...

Aaarrrgh! I don't want to hear the word Dell ever again!

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[Dimandja]

>Is the start button sticking? can you hear a clear click?
Is the CPU fan spinning, has the plug become detached?

Although the start button looks awkward (and the way it's built looks like it could promote sticking), it doesn't seem to be stuck -- I'll probe it a bit closer though.

The CPU fan seems to be functionning, except in the 4 seconds it takes to power down, it's not easy to tell for sure -- I'll put my ear closer to the box. <a little later/> Ok, the fan barely spurts and barely engages, before the power down.



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[edfair]

Pull the offboard connector for power off the M/B and crank it up with a screwdriver blade across the contacts you just opened up. Takes just a momentary touch.
If the switch is the problem the machine will stay on.

Your CPU fan should be up to speed in less than a second. You may be shutting down because of speed problems there.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Dimandja]

Would you know it? As soon as I finally reached Dell, the machine decided to start working again!

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