Dell Laptop Trouble - Not Powering On

[timwhit]

I'm trying to figure out was is wrong with my girlfriend's laptop.

It's a Dell Inspiron 6000, about 3 years old.

It was working fine until a couple days ago. Then it simply stopped turning on. There is a green LED on the power adapter and when I plug it into the adapter the green light immediately turns off. I tried another adapter, which exhibits the same behavior. So, I'm pretty sure I can rule out the adapter being faulty. I have tried pulling out the battery and connecting it, but this results in the same thing. I have not opened it up yet to see if there is some kind of noticeable electrical short, but I guess this is what I will do next, unless someone has a better idea.

It's way out of warranty, so that option is out too. Any other ideas or things to try?

When she bought it I told her not to buy a Dell, but that's what her school recommended so she bought it anyways, but I guess that's another story.

 

[ddrueding]

You can't get fired for buying Dell, they are the standard.

This sounds like the power connector inside the laptop has broken and shorted. Do you feel like shorting a power adapter to see if it exhibits the same LED behavior?

IIRC, on the 6000 the DC plug was still directly soldered onto the main motherboard (on newer ones it is a small, much cheaper to replace, separate board). Attempting to re-solder this piece is possible, but the lifetime of the fix is very short.

 

[timwhit]

I shorted out the power adapter with a paper clip. It sparked and shocked me. The LED did turn off, but the spark never happened when I plugged it into the laptop.

I opened it up earlier and pulled every connector that I could, but whenever I plugged it in the LED still went off.

You are correct, the power connector is soldered directly to the motherboard, I looked at it, but it didn't look like it had come loose. I do have a soldering iron, so I guess I could try to solder it, if indeed that is the problem. It seems like a lot of work to find out the motherboard is toasted. I might just build her a computer out of some spare parts I have laying around and pick up a few new parts to round it out. She doesn't really need the mobility anyways. Though having a working laptop around is nice for vacations.

We're moving on Saturday so maybe I will try to solder it after we move. I think I already have an ulcer from dealing with selling/buying condos. I don't really need to test my fine motor skills trying to solder that tiny power connector. Plus, I had it completely disassembled and when I didn't see anything I reassembled it. I was actually able to find a place for every screw I took out, which might be a first for me with a laptop.

 

[Howell]

Does the LED come back on do when you unplug it from the laptop? Try taking out the battery and waiting awhile then running the laptop off of external power only. Try reseating the memory and hard drive? Does the room smell funny after shocking yourself?

 

[mubs]

Singed fur? :-D

 

[timwhit]

Does the LED come back on do when you unplug it from the laptop? Try taking out the battery and waiting awhile then running the laptop off of external power only. Try reseating the memory and hard drive? Does the room smell funny after shocking yourself?

No, the LED never comes back on after I unplug it. I have to remove the adapter plug from the wall and then plug it back in, then the LED comes back on.

I had the battery out all the components removed from the machine and the LED would still go out when I plugged in the adapter.

At this point, I'm fairly certain it is the power connector. I won't know for a few days though when I have time to open it up again.