DELL 700m won't boot HELP!

[pmb212s]

Hey folks,

I've got a DELL Inspiron 700M specs as follows
-80GB HD
-1.25 GB RAM
-Intel Centrino

I can't think of anything else you guys might need. So here's where I am It will not start, I cant even get that initial DELL screen. I hit the power button and absolutely nothing, no beeps or anything. If I plug it in I get a green led to come on behind the battery charging symbol and that's it.

The weird thing is that if I pull out the battery and plug the A/C adapter in, the LED behind the little power symbol lights up. Still no noise and still no response from the power button. I've tried switching the HD out with a known working HD and still nothing. I've completely dissassembled the guy and the motherboard has no obvious fried chips or anything but I know that means very little.

So I appreciate any help,

Sincerely

Patrick Burke

[roadrage]

Hello Patrick

motherboard has no obvious fried chips or anything

Does that include the solder points.

You had it apart once so you might take it apart again and look at the solder points around the power jack and the power button, look (take a good look) for any discolered solder spots they would be dark in color or different from other solder points in general, use the picture below as a reference.

You may try twisting the AC chord as well when it is plugged in if you have not done it already. Is there anyway you can borrow a AC adapter of the same kind and try that as well.
Let us know.

[pmb212s]

Well I opened her up again, this time I pulled off everything including the fan etc to get a look at the entire board. I had a buddy who is more into computers than I am (he's built a few and is a programmer) give it a look over as well and we both came to the conclusion that all chips were as they should be (asthetically at least) and that no bad, blackened solder points existed on the board. I went through DELL's diagnostic for my power charger (which included plugging it in and making sure a green LED came on) and it checked out. I don't know anybody else with a DELL so can't really find another. I twisted the power jack earlier to no avail (that is the same thing happened as soon as I put in the jack the battery and sometimes "power on" LED's came on. As said I ran through DELL's diagnostic for no power etc. and at quite a few points I was getting a response from the laptop that weren't options in their diagnostic. Apparently my LED's are supposed to blink out codes which indicate what the problem is and, well, they don't. I only get one of two LED's on at any point in time one of which is the battery symbol. the other being the power on symbol.

Thanks again for your help.

Patrick Burke

[roadrage]

Hi Patrick

What lead up to this, it was working onetime then you turned it off and it just didn't boot back up, do you think it might be the screen inverter or a backlight problem, did it have a BIOS battery when you opened it, when it used to start did it beep and could you hear the drive spinning, it sounds like from what you say you are getting power from either the battery or AC but nothing from the off/on button and no post.
I am moving this post to the Laptop topics maybe someone else has an idea, I will do some research and see if I can come up with anything else for you.

[pmb212s]

The lead up was that one day it worked fine. I shut it off overnight, the next day it absolutely ceased working. I don't think that it's an inverter problem as I get no HD spin up or fan noise or anything when I hit the power button at all. Thanks for moving it, hopefully that will develop some leads.

Thanks again.


Patrick Burke

[supergirl81]

My insprion 1100 is doing the same thing. I turned it off last night, and when attempting to restart it this morning, the power led will light up for a second or two, then go blank. It's not making any noise, and from what I can tell, the motherboard looks ok.

Has anyone come up with a solution to this yet?

Thanks,
Amanda

[Big Al]

Have you tested the memory?

[pmb212s]

How would I go about doing that al?

[Big Al]

Either substitute your memory for 'known working' memory from another working laptop. Another way is that if you have 2 memory modules installed you can remove one and try boot up with the other module installed. You can then switch them. If the laptop boots up when one module is removed that could be faulty memory module. This problem can prevent the entire system from booting!

[Gseip]

Hey guys, the clock/BIOS battery is dead! Replace it,
If you messed around too much, you may need to replace the PS.

G.