Dell complaints

Miltrez · Discovering Dellhate Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

Plug power supply in, get a quick flash on the power light. Unit will not power up. Was working fine up until this point. Power button doesn't get any response when pluggd in.

Left in charger to see if maybe battery was dead. Let it set for about 14 hours. Pressed power button and got a quick flash on the lights and nothin.

Any ideas? I can not be the only person who has experienced this.

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject:

If adapter light is on and/or battery charge meter lights are on and all you get from the power light is a quick flash, a power component on the motherboard has failed.

It is remotely possible a peripheral device is overloading it, you can remove the drives and other plugins to see if anything changes.

Common failure with Dells, their vendor cuts the specs on the power parts to the bone.
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diashto · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject:

I agree. More often than not, this issue results in a motherboard replacement.

incident_man · Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:17 pm Post subject:

What's going on here is the same thing that happened to my 5160 until I got it exchanged. The power plug on the motherboard is losing electrical contact with the motherboard itself. This is caused by the massive amount of heat produced by the unit combined with a few other factors, one of which is the plugging and unplugging of the ac adapter into and from the port. It obviously gets worse over time. I suspect that Dell used RoHS-compliant solder in the original boards too, adding to the problem. Replacement of the motherboard is the only official Dell solution, although there are individuals who advertise on the web for power jack repair. Both of these, though, are typically short-term solutions because they don't address the core issue: overheating problems. That was the case with my 5160. I had 2 motherboards replaced and the issue cropped up again. My advice is to find out if you have any warranty left on the unit and if you do, call up and demand a system exchange. Don't settle for anything less.
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pspgamer90 · Journeyman Dellhater Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Posts: 21

I had the same power up problem and guess what.. motherboard fried..
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sfpcservice · Apprentice Dellhater Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 6

This sounds more like a motherboard issue than a broken power jack to me. The fact that the lights come on briefly when you plug in the power adapter in tells me that the computer is reacting to the adapter. The jack would need to be at least partially intact for this to happen. I personally think your board is cooked, unless you can see an obvious problem with your jack.
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Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 5:20 pm Post subject:

You don't spoze the poster from 2 years ago has moved on by now?
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