m17x R1 - Brand New - Not Turning On

In 2016 ... a BRAND NEW R1 ?

Yes ...

I originally purchased this beauty for 4900$. Worst purchase ever. Never worked properly, got Dell to replace multiple of parts ... until end of warranty, unit got fully replaced. It worked for 1 week (didn't used it, just booted up to see if it was working). Got a new job, bought a Razer Blade.

Suddently, this laptop shut down randomly after 4-5-6-10 minutes.

Eventually, it never booted up. When I plug in the power adapter, the blue LED at the end of the cable turns off when I plug it in.

On battery, the laptop won't turn on, no activity, led, fan, nothing when the power button is pressed.

Extra info :

This R1 is using a Dual 5870 Crossfire Setup. I replaced the motherboard. 8GB Ram, Core 2 Extreme.

Any idea ?

 

Any ideas ?

 

Hi @masterfred. Is the power supply your original PSU from 2009? If so... do you have access to another? My first guess would be that the PSU is done (granted - it's a guess). If that isn't it... I think you're pretty much in to mainboard replacement territory. Pain in the ass to be sure.

 

That said, there was a thread describing similar symptoms on an R4 recently ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-m17x-r4-wont-power-on.786979/).
I'd reach out to @Artonix and ask if it turned out to be their mainboard or their PSU.

 

The psu shuts down to due a short circuit (that's why the blue led goes off when plugged in), 100% sure it's a mainboard issue.

 

FYI, main board was replaced ... and I get the same symptoms from 2 PSU ...

Any ideas ? I might try to remove items and test it 1 by 1, like ram, hdd, gpu ...

Just a quick though, could it be the power button ??? Because even with no PSU (on battery), it won't turn on.

 

Remove both GPU's and then try to turn it on, most likely one GPu is dead if you've ruled out the mobo, ring turning off is definitely not a PSU issue though.
My bet is on one of the GPU's being faulty, (i suspect the primary/left one).

 

OMG, I found it !

Keyboard and Power button / media bar ! I removed both and now AC Adapter light won't turn off when I plug it in, no more shorting !

Anyway to boot this notebook without the power button ? or Keyboard ?

 

You can jump-start it by shorting the 'pbn_on' pin with a ground. It's easy if you have the schematics, but without is possible too;

1. Take a small sewing needle and thread/wrap some wire through its eye.
2. Connect other end of the wire to a ground (outer side of the adapter's plug is fine).
3. Touch the left- or rightmost pin on the mb connector where the cable to the power button board was hooked up to.
4. If nothing; next pin and so on, until there's a response.

It's all very little power (most is 5V at 0.xA for the leds), so there's not much risk provided you use a ground that can handle that. Having found the correct pin it'll attempt booting right away and the system will stay powered on even after disconnecting the pin. Pushing the 'On' button merely triggers a small relay, which in turn kicks off the larger power circuits. Turning it off is the same procedure, except touching the pin for ~5 seconds, same as a normal 'forced shutdown'.

Keyboard is difficult. It may be part of the power-on sequence and if it has shorted then you'd have to fake it to be present. Problem is that there's not a lot of standardization with keyboard connectors, but usually voltage and ground are at the outermost pins. Shorting these with a small resistor in-between should do.

 

Ok, that's great, it's probably just the ribbon cable that's gone bad If you need any i can hook you up

no, stop, you don't need to do that. There is a power button on the board itself as has been discussed so many times before, here:
M17x R2 Won't Start, Boot or even Stir! Possible Causes???

 

Check the ribbon cable ends on the power button board, those cable were bad for splitting and fraying on the ends. If it's not too bad try trimming the end of the cable with a VERY sharp pair of scissors, I've done this before to fix these cables and it's worked like a charm, just don't trim too much off.