Dell XPS 1530 won't switch On

[Mikefromlondon]

Any ideas what might be the issue with this hardly used Dell, purchased in Dubai, over a year ago, and is now outside the warranty, just wouldn't start.

When you press the ON button, all blue lights come up and the ones on the right of the ON/OFF button then scan lights sequentially and the ON button light goes out with the 3 blue lights on the left of this button stays On with the middle of the 3 lights continually flashing which has a symbol like a padlock with the letter A inscribed to it. this flashes rapidly and only go out when you press the ON button for 3 or more seconds long.

Screen remains totally blank, not even a cursor or a dot.

Has anyone had similar experience, checked the power supply is Ok and tested it on another computer and works fine. and same way i tried another good power supply adaptor and still nothing, and tried with or without batteries, and is just the same.

 

[Igorian]

Some possible solutions here.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Thanks for sending those links, one link described how if you press the D key and On button that you might get it to work, or Fn + Power On, the later one did nothing and D+Power oN BROUGHT SCREEN on but totally blank in various colours, then goes out.

So tried another solution, that is heating the Graphics Chip, first I removed the heatsink from the processor and the Graphics chip, the using a hot air gun heated the graphics chip, obviously some heat will escape to surrounding parts, but only heated for about a minute from about 6 inches, and let it cool down a bit and then everything came to life, screen showed DELL etc and started to boot up, half booting reaching about 80% it crashed and switched off, i tried again, and did the same thing.

Then I tried Fn + power to into bios, it came on but crashed again,

wait a minute I thought, I haven't put the heat sink back, so i refitted the heatsink and the fan assembly and there after it is now totally dead!

I can't see anywhere what i might have done wrong now that I am not even getting any leds on.

I have tried leaving the battery out, removed the power from the computer allowed it to reset naturally, and still no good. Its a dead duck now!

 

[Monkeh]

I can't see anywhere what i might have done wrong

Other than removing the heatsink, blindly attacking it with a hot air gun, and trying to run it without a heatsink?

 

[joinerjohn]

From the links Monkeh supplied, it seems to be a fairly common problem with this particular laptop. Perhaps a strongly worded email to Dell (pointing out the problems others have had with this model) might get some results (perhaps even an admittance of a design fault or manufacturing problem) Or perhaps I live in LaLa land.

 

[Monkeh]

From the links Monkeh supplied, it seems to be a fairly common problem with this particular laptop. Perhaps a strongly worded email to Dell (pointing out the problems others have had with this model) might get some results (perhaps even an admittance of a design fault or manufacturing problem) Or perhaps I live in LaLa land.

I think after trying to set his laptop on fire with a hot air gun any reasonable chance of claiming it's their fault is out the window.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

As I said, it started OK, and crashed half way booting, twice it did that, then when I placed the heat sink back up again, the power button won't respond, it isn't any issue with the processor or the Graphics chip anymore, its a power issue now, totally different issue and the heat did not even get there,

If you now think of it another way, jammed fans is a very common problem with many PCs and laptops, so if you switched on your computer with a jammed fan, it would overheat and crash, it never is the end of world for a pc that way, so i am sure the issue is now a differnt one, i will have to follow up on the power side of the things.

And if you thought i could apply heat to the graphics chip with any other method, name me one then, an average technician does not posess reflow soldering stations, and a high powered soldering iron would damage the chip on contact, due to intense localised heat spots and probably ruine it completely, i have reheated many hundreds of SMT boards and never had any problems, it was Not heated blindly as you suggested, I gave it a precise amount of hot air from a distance to just get it heated to the point where I could see solder begining to change its colour on near by components.

Further more, if I had a warranty, do you really think I was going to conduct my own repairs? hence the reason I asked here. If we were all just as smart, we would not be asking questions on forums.


I wasn't the first one or be the last one, here in post 47 this guy used paint stripping hot air gun, and he rescued his laptop! http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic136791-3.html#post1013208

 

[Monkeh]

As I said, it started OK, and crashed half way booting, twice it did that, then when I placed the heat sink back up again, the power button won't respond, it isn't any issue with the processor or the Graphics chip anymore, its a power issue now, totally different issue and the heat did not even get there,

Really? It magically became a power issue only after you blasted it with a hot air gun?

If you now think of it another way, jammed fans is a very common problem with many PCs and laptops, so if you switched on your computer with a jammed fan, it would overheat and crash, it never is the end of world for a pc that way

Actually, it often is, and you're not considering the fact that there's a heatsink involved. Even a small heatsink, without a fan, absorbs a lot of heat from the chip.

And if you thought i could apply heat to the graphics chip with any other method, name me one then, an average technician does not posess reflow soldering stations

A technician does. Someone in a shed with a hot air gun, on the other hand..

it was Not heated blindly as you suggested, I gave it a precise amount of hot air from a distance to just get it heated to the point where I could see solder begining to change its colour on near by components.

A hot air gun is not a precise tool. It's a brute force tool. You cannot control the temperature nor the reflow area with any sort of precision.

I would be inclined to consider the laptop and all components on the board completely fried, at this point.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

As I said, it started OK, and crashed half way booting, twice it did that, then when I placed the heat sink back up again, the power button won't respond, it isn't any issue with the processor or the Graphics chip anymore, its a power issue now, totally different issue and the heat did not even get there,

Really? It magically became a power issue only after you blasted it with a hot air gun?

If you now think of it another way, jammed fans is a very common problem with many PCs and laptops, so if you switched on your computer with a jammed fan, it would overheat and crash, it never is the end of world for a pc that way

Actually, it often is, and you're not considering the fact that there's a heatsink involved. Even a small heatsink, without a fan, absorbs a lot of heat from the chip.

And if you thought i could apply heat to the graphics chip with any other method, name me one then, an average technician does not posess reflow soldering stations

A technician does. Someone in a shed with a hot air gun, on the other hand..

it was Not heated blindly as you suggested, I gave it a precise amount of hot air from a distance to just get it heated to the point where I could see solder begining to change its colour on near by components.

A hot air gun is not a precise tool. It's a brute force tool. You cannot control the temperature nor the reflow area with any sort of precision.

I would be inclined to consider the laptop and all components on the board completely fried, at this point.

No disrespect, you sound very professional, but I am one from a DIYnot community, i.e. use whatever tools we have at our disposal, i am still confident that nothing is fried, and the issue is probably the power switch, may be the ribbon cable may have slipped out of its connector, I will look at it a bit later. nothing dies just like that when one minute its been working and its dead the next, never.

Still.. if it is a dead duck, then be it, I will be putting it in aq microwave than to ask Dell to supply a new mother board.

 

[Monkeh]

No disrespect, you sound very professional, but I am one from a DIYnot community, i.e. use whatever tools we have at our disposal

Assuming they're appropriate for the task. Doing a few simple DIY projects with a hot air gun is one thing, assaulting a laptop with one is another entirely.

nothing dies just like that when one minute its been working and its dead the next, never.

I think you'll find they do. Very, very often in electronics.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

No disrespect, you sound very professional, but I am one from a DIYnot community, i.e. use whatever tools we have at our disposal

Assuming they're appropriate for the task. Doing a few simple DIY projects with a hot air gun is one thing, assaulting a laptop with one is another entirely.

nothing dies just like that when one minute its been working and its dead the next, never.

I think you'll find they do. Very, very often in electronics.

Again with due respect, I can assure you the issue is now something else.

Only I know how much heat I applied, be that i used a crude device to apply with, I was indeed quite scared not to apply undue heat which could have resulted in surrounding smt parts coming off the board! including some extermely tiny smt parts on the Nvidia chip itself, which are still intact. Belive me if I had I had heated it undually, these tiny parts would have come off!

I also kept feeling the chip to see how hot it was getting and I could feel the heat and stopped it when I felt it was getting fairly hot! probably no more than about 100 degrees celsius! Near by palstic labels proves that I did not assult the laptop.

I am just keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully I will find the issue with the power distribution. I am pretty certain the chips were not overheated.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Thank God, all is now well, it was the ribbon cable I had taken out earlier when I disassembled the top cover strip, earlier on when I was trying to find out why it wouldn't start, this is before coming on here to seek help. The ribbon cable had not engaged properly, and had slipped out possibly the clamp did not go in as far as it should have. It obviously worked intermittently and after I refitted the heat sink it must have got disturbed and came out or fell loose as the clamp was not pushing on it hard.

Re-fitted the cable clamp all the way in, and it is now up and running quite well, for how long it will run is anyon's guess, many people having similar problems with theirs say they need to apply heat from time to time, I just hope mine is fixed now for good.

thanks everyone for their valuable information and links, although i agree one should not just blindly apply heat with any means but rather direct the heat specifically to the suspect part as other parts could have got damaged or come off.

friend whose computer it is, will be well pleased as he had taken it to a repairer, who returned it to him saying it needed a new mother board, at a cost of £250 fitted, so my mate gave it to me as a last resort to have a go, if it gets fixed then fine if not he asked me to keep it for spares.

I already have a couple of laptops, and told him he can have it back and bring it back if it goes wrong again.

Cheers everyone.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Not a happy chap, my mate phoned up and the XPS is showing same symptoms again, the fix was only tempory, it does after all seems that i probably did not apply strong enough heat, however i am reluctant to apply too much in fear of components falling off or some other damage through excessive heat.

But since this I have also found a lot of things about this common problem with Dell, on Ebays there are scores of XPS in faulty state for sale!

I suggested to my mate that we might be able to get a mother board from an xps being sold cheap due to screen or other parts damage,

There are companies offering cheap replacement serviced mother boards for around under a £100.

But there is no guarantee, most will only issue a 3 months guarantee, here is the reason why;

Nvidia GPU, supplied faulty either by design, or by quality, hence why HP, Dell and Apple are ina law court over sudden death of laptops using this graphics chip by Nvidia.

A link about the law suit in the USA will give you some idea how bad the problem is:

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/affectedmodels.html

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/pdfs/NVF_NOT.pdf

 

[Monkeh]

It will most likely need reballing. You're not going to manage that with a hot air gun.

Even reballed it won't last too long due to the mechanical stresses. Laptops which are better built don't generally suffer these problems.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

It will most likely need reballing. You're not going to manage that with a hot air gun.

Even reballed it won't last too long due to the mechanical stresses. Laptops which are better built don't generally suffer these problems.

Thanks for your post, I certainly don't want to try and heat it again with a hot air gun, I did explain to my mate that it would keep on suffering this fate, due to an inherit fault with the GPU, and also during reheating it could suffer permanent damage as you said through thermal stresses.

I have suggested to him two routes one being what you suggested, reballing/reflow and the second one is to purchase a refurb mb, again there is no certainty if the refurb board would last past its 90 day guarantee.

If you have any reccomendations on this replacement MB or a company you know who would supply a good one for a reasonable price, I would welcome that.