M17x-R2 will not power on. Need help please:((

Hi guys. I know this is stupid but I'm not willing to give up on my investment just yet. The laptop was working fine until I turned it off and opened it up (and yes, I did follow every step in the Service Manual) to replace the optical drive with a new one I got off ebay. I re-assembled the laptop, plugged the ac cord in, put the battery back and pushed the power button. Nothing happened (. The laptop just wouldn't power up. Where did I go wrong? I checked the psu and it worked well. I suspect the power hinge and the ribbon cable connecting it to the mb since those are quite fragile. Still, how can I check the rest of the hardware? I'd hate to think about a fried mb since I did ground myself properly when opening up the machine. By the way, warranty is useless since the laptop came from the US

 

take it apart and double check everything you did. most likely, something is loose or not connected. or a short screw is used in place of a long screw...

 

Well I did recheck many times. Still if it wasnt't the power hinge, what else could cause this problem? I am sure there was no screws missing, no cables unplugged. Thanks

 

So absolutely nothing happens when you press the power button right? try pulling your cmos and take out your battery, hold the power button for 20 seconds and put the batteries back in. See if that works, it probably wont do anything but it's worth a shot. A better solution is to disassemble everything and start over.

 

Where can I pull the CMOS out? Thanks

 

Did you happen to see it on your way in the first time? I don't have the M17x lol.

 

Well I don't know the exact location of the BIOS. I just followed the Service manual optical drive replacement section. I repeated the process so many times trying to find what went wrong to no avail. What else could cause the problem beside a bad power hinge connector?

 

He probably meant to have you remove the CMOS battery, not the CMOS chip. It is near the cpu fan in the middle of the rear of the system & shaped like a coin with a couple wires coming off of it.

If it powered on with the old drive, but will not power on with the "new" ebay'ed drive & you are 1000000000% sure everything else is the same, put the old drive back in & see if it will power on.

 

I did try swapping the drives back and forth, even no optical drive at all. Still nothing (

 

Just because the laptop was purchased in the US doesn't mean you don't have warranty in Australia. You need to go to Dell US's website and use the warranty transfer form for international users and you will have it. I've done it for a friend that had me buy an M17x-R2 for him in the US and then ship it to Australia.

 

Well i have opened the laptop and tore its guts out Will the warranty cover that? Any Aw tech guys can easily tell that my m17x has been opened and tampered with. Thanks for your info Joker. Anyway, what i'm concerned about is, are there any other parts that can cause rhe prob beside the power hinge?

 

How can they tell you opened it? When I gutted my M11x and M15x and put them back together, they were spotless and still new...Of course you don't tell them you did anything to it lol.

 

I'm with Joker. Try to get your warranty transfered and use it. You are trouble shooting in the dark and if no cable seems undone it will be up to dell to fix it. Just put the original drive back into the laptop and tell them it just stopped working one day.

Also check some of the disassembly threads on this site. They are very detailed and may give you more ideas on what to check.

Good Luck!@

 

by cmos, he meant battery. it's the round battery next to the middle fan.

pull both batteries and hold down the power button - sometimes there's a residual charge thing that fubars the m17x.

if that fails, i'm stumped from this side of the globe...

 

I encountered this issue a number of times when disassembling and reassembling my machine and it always came back to either the palm rest or media panel ribbon cables not being seated correctly.

I found the media panel ribbon cable, in particular would, at times, unseat itself when manoeuvring the panel into position so I placed some tape over both connectors to try and correct this problem.

Since applying the crude but effective solution, I haven't had this issue. May be worth a try?

 

^^i double agree had the same issue and used the same method,for piece of mind.Never had any issue after doing so!

 

Thanks a lot for your advise. Will try again and report back