M17x no power issue

hey guys, i have a m17x r1 that wont power on, i was working fine then all the sudden bam. no lights, no charging alien head. when i pull the battery and plug it back in, the fans move for a split second but thats it. any ideas?
thanks in advance.
mhart

 

Take the battery out and plug the laptop directly in. If you are still having the problem then its not the battery. If it goes away and works just fine then you need a new battery. If it still doesnt work, get a multimeter. You can get them real cheap from Wal-Mart check the power from the adapter. If you are getting power from the adapter, then it has to do something with the motherboard. If you are computer savy open up the laptop and get into were the power comes in and traces it. I do not know much about the M17's but the port might not be a solder connection but a plug in. Those usually will come lose and all you have to do is reconnect it. Hopefully its that simple for you.

 

it doesn't work with the adapter plug in, i had at least lights yesterday. but went to mess with it today it was dead, no lights at all. thats when i pulled the battery and put it back in and the fans moved just for a split sec. if it is the motherboard is it worth replacing?
thanks again
Matt

 

Hello, mhart032, welcome to NBR.

First of all the M17x and M17x R2 plugs are soldered to the motherboard.
Does the blue ring around the charger's plug lights up when plugged in?

If it doesn't, try another power outlet. If it does, pull the battery out and see if the laptop starts with only the charger plugged in.

You may also want to perform a CMOS reset:
-turn the system off
-unplug the charger and system batterya
-take out the back cover and unplug the coincell battery located near the system fan
-flip the laptop over and press the power button for ~1 minute.
-plug the coincell battery back and the charger and see if it turns on.

IF none of the above worked, try with minimal hardware (one stick of RAM, one video card no HDD etc.).

As for a motherboard replacement, it is up to you to decide based on its price, but let's see if we can find the problem first.

 

Ive tried all ways i can think of, ive done the cmos and tried a different power adapter tested my power adapter with ill results. i havent taken it down enough to test the soldered in plug. i guess i will try that next. im really stumped with this one. noramlly when fans show some signs of life its a hardware issue. but it not getting any power worries me that the mobo mite be shot. but it didnt get hot. just quit. wouldnt boot back up.
thanks
Matt
P.S love the green m17x it looks awesome. makes me miss this laptop even more.. also thanks for the welcome.
Matt

 

So with ill results.... meaning you do not get power to the motherboard?

 

same results with both power supplies. If it comes down to the mobo do you guys thinks its worth replacing? but im just wondering. they fans down turn when i plug it in w/o the battery. witch is odd, im thinking its power related. thinking maybe mobo issue or a/c jack. i know the jack is soldered on, i havent broken the laptop down to check the ac jack. but thinking that mobos are only around 100.00 bucks. so mite just replace it if its worth it. the specs on the lappy are dual core 2.8 nvidia 260m 4gb ram. ive also been thinking that if i do the mobo swap could i put a newer mobo into it and run a i7 or i5? that would make replacing it a little better option, if it does come down to that. i really want to paint it now after seeing your custom paint. mine is the red

 

At this point i think you should disassemble it and check for the following:
-any damage to the ribbon cables.
-any signs of burned components (close inspect), take your time with this.
-check the solder points of the power plug.
-now that you have everything apart put it back together with only one video card, no RAM, no HDD, no battery and see if it will beep or get any SCROLL CAPS NUM codes.

You didn't answer earlier, does the blue ring around the charger's plug light up?

Concerning the motherboard, no, you can't put a i7 chip in it and have it working :| the M17x and the M17x R2 motherboards are different (different chipset, CPU socket etc.) same ports alignment though.

Thanks for the compliments

 

Hello,

I'm having sort of the same issue. One day I plugged in the ac power and it sparked. Now when I plug in the ac power the blue ring turns off. If I unplug the ac power from the outlet and reconnect it, it will turn on again. <-- what does this mean?

I bought a refurbished motherboard and a tech installed it but he called me saying that one of the video cards burned!!! and now the laptop won't turn on.

Could the motherboard have fried the video card?

Please help.

 

Your motherboard has a short if you plug in the AC adapter and the blue light turns off. It's possible it fried everything attached to it. Are you still under Dell warranty?

 

Hello Tsunade

Long time no talking to you since the meeting with the Hokages. Anyway, no am 3 months out of warranty >.< and it seems the technician at this shop is trying to rip me off.

 

Ok, a bit differnt problem here.

One day my M17x R2 just stop seeing charger at all, (the charger blue ring is on, so i thought that is it working)
I was able to use the Laptop until battery went out.
Because the AC seemed to be working (the charger blue ring is on, and doesnt go off when i plug it in) i bought a new mobo from NBR.com Marketplace,
... but guess what?
It does exactly the same thing, doesnt charge the battery even with the minimum hardware.

On my old mobo when i was able to get into the bios, when i connected the AC to it, the AC Rating, was still blank, (not 240W, or unrecognized)
The DC jack pins were all ok, i double checked.

My only guess now is that it must be the AC adapter.

Am i missing something?
What should i do if a replacement Adapter doesnt work either?

 

If both motherboards failed to communicate with the ID chip of your PSU, i suspect the chip in the PSU to be the culprit or the wiring (it's pretty fragile).
The PSU may still be functioning but, unfortunately, the BIOS needs to 'see' that the correct Dell adapter is plugged into the power jack.

Try wiggling the cable(not the plug or you risk damaging the power port) a little and see if you get the message "Plugged in, charging" in Windows' system tray.

 

Well that was my thought too, but i've exhausted those options before replacing the motherboard.
The thing is i can't get the laptop not even to power on, or basically do anything.

If the PSU chip failed to communicate i should still be able to turn the laptop on, right?

 

I don't remember if it does with the battery empty but i will try it myself and tell you.
What BIOS version are you running? Have you tried a full power drain?

 

Tried power drain and running unlocked A10 version.

Thanks for helping