Dell Laptop Hell

[Goreblast]

Ok guys - here's the deal.
Father-In-Law has a Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop which is just 2 years old. He seldom uses it and whne he went to use it the other day it was dead. Wouldnt work from either mains or a fullly charged (you can take it out and push a wee charge level button) battery. No noise, no lights, nothing nadda zip.
I figured it could be the cmos battery (similar thing happened on my 486 desktop I recall - many years ago). Replaced that and nothing. I have a couple of spare bios chips that are the same size and would fit in the chip socket on the laptop. Mine are from dead nforce boards, but I have bios savior and could force flash one to the correct Dell bios. I will try that becase why not - it might work?!
What you guys think is the problem? Power not getting to board somehow - could turn it on and try proding with multimeter to see if any power going through anything. If it is the System board those things are expensive - cheapest is 200 for a refurb on egay! 400 new!!!

[daverobev]

Try unplugging, taking out battery, taking out hdd, leave 5. Put back together, try?

Sometimes there is a reset power management key combo...but a proper discharge might help. If that fails, try leaving without battery overnight?

[davidstone28]

If if its just dead, it really could be anything. Main culprits would probably be the motherboard and then the PSU.

I used to have a ThinkPad that wouldn't turn on after I'd thrown it around too much.The insurance company sent it back to IBM HQ who diagosed the exact fault / error code / location of the area of the motherboard that was faulty etc (impressively detailed diagnostic report BTW). Problem was that repair costs were astronomical - about £500-£600 labour / parts / testing + VAT etc. I spoke to independant engineer and he said putting it back together was nothing short of a nightmare because everything is so densely packed. Basically, it's a complete rebuilding the laptop.

Problem you face is that you can't just swap out components one by one and test them sequentially - you don't have the alternative components which will cost money to buy, and won't know which component(s) you need. Unless you want to buy everything to test sequentially.

Sorry, to say this, but I think you're looking at a replacement - repair costs will be more than the value of the laptop itself.

[Goreblast]

Thanks for the replies. I took the thing apart completely last night to see if reseating everything would have an effect or if anything was broken. But no joy. Tried everything mentioned above. Put it all back together and it still wont work. Sigh. Price new mainboards and you are looking at near 400 for a new one NOT from egay. of course. You could get it put it in and have it still not work. Not worth the effort.

He'll not be getting a Dell again! My wee Hi-Grade Notino 500celeron (re-badged asus) is still going stronge after several years and shall be recommending them to him instead.

[satay_hut]

D/Hell's customer supported tried to poo poo my request to fix my Inspiron 4150 - I had the exact same problem and it's because of the original motherboard design flaw when it over heats and the fans are not able to cool it down sufficiently and the the back fan, not the main fan at the bottom, fails leaving only the main fan to do all the work. They admit to the laptop overheating but refuses to admit that they should issue a recall.

I have directly influence or bought 3 Inspiron 4150 - which I now horridly deeply regret. D/Hell - as a reputable company will hurt their image further.
I have checked all configurations and it is indeed the motherboard that is fried. No battery, adapter, CMOS battery or fan problems just your plain old motherboard frying.

I suggest writing to Dell repeatedly about this problem and pressure them into issue a recall to fix our laptops or compensate us with coupons for new products

[Tifosi]

My I8200 had water spilled on it, and I purchased the expensive £300+ insurance policy for them to Collect it and Repair ot 3 years. They tried to get me to open it up and troubleshoot it over the phone and I was like its just not going to happen. I was worried about "turning" the screw heads.

Anyway the RMA'd it eventually after many hours on the phone to an idiot. When it came back they had replaced the mobo, HDD, CD/DVD-rom, Ram, Keyboard, Touchpad, I plugged it in and the keyboard didn't work.. said a lot for the extensive testing which i expect is all software based.

RMA2 this time it came back and only a few keys on the keyboard were working and in the process they had damaged the LCD slightly.

RMA3 eventually it came back and worked but they had nicely put a huge scratch in the top, I guess they stack em up. This is around 3-4 months later!

RMA4 the fans had stopped working again he asked me to start taking the machine to pieces or put the fans next to the phone and I was ready for a fight having paid all this extra cash for them to do it. The prick cut me off the phone so I phoned back and asked to speak to his manager and file a formal complaint. Eventually they RMA'd and it came back with new fans and a new LCD and they extended my warranty for another 6 months.

I then bought an IBM which is built amazingly I'd never buy Dell or touch them with a barge pole their customer service is the worst in the world. However I am yet to encounter IBM's service but looking at the build quality I won't have to.

[joshwa]

Is it possible to take out the CPU and reseat that if you haven't already? This is what I used to do on old latitudes that would often fix them...

[inspiron]

Hi to all concerned about this problem .

My unit started to get intermittent power also and eventually it died.
Pressing the power button only made the green light come on for 5 seconds
and then it turned off again.

I am a television repairman by trade and decided to have a go at fixing
this laptop.

The problem turned out to be the 22 pin surface mount i.c. marked as maxim.
number on i.c. is max1623e.
Its located at the top under the power button p.c.b.
It was hard to get but eventually i got it from wes components in sydney.

This i.c. is a low voltage d.c. to d.c. converter and when it goes bad it really goes bad.