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    Fault diagnosis M15x

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by MarkStevenson, Mar 14, 2012.

  1. MarkStevenson

    MarkStevenson Newbie

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    Hi.
    I'm new to this forum and to Alienware.

    I bought a second hand M15x with quad core 720 QM and GT240m gpu. Its out of warranty. Had it for about a month and its been great until today. Turned on this morning and started playing World of Tanks. After a short while, a cooling fan came on for a few seconds, and then the laptop turned off. The blue ring on the power supply was also off. I unplugged the power and unplugged from the wall. When I plug the power supply back into the wall outlet, the blue ring is on, but the moment I plug it back into the laptop, it turns off. The power button does nothing.

    I did a bit of searching online and messed around with it a bit, and decided to unplug the graphics card. When the graphics card is unplugged, the blue ring stays on when I plug it into the machine. I did not try to boot without graphics card in. So, it appears that the graphics card is bad. Is that fairly definite, or could it be something else? If so, what?

    Can I turn it on without the graphics card in it? Can that damage something?

    If its the graphics, does baking it in the oven work as a long term fix?

    Thanks
     
  2. craigscott0

    craigscott0 Notebook Consultant

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    Firstly unfortunately the m15x does not have an integrated graphics processor so you won't be able to turn it on without the card.

    Not sure that I can say for certain that it's the card as when my two 5850s died the symptoms were different. Ie o power issues and the error code was displayed with the num caps and scroll lock.

    My first question is does it power on with the battery alone? It could very well be the supply cable.

    Do you have access to a similar dell power supply?

    Sorry thought id clarify. The reason I think it's the cable is that you said that when you plugged it in without gfx card the light stayed on. This could be due to it not needing to supply as much power anymore.
     
  3. MarkStevenson

    MarkStevenson Newbie

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    It does not power on with the battery only. I have run it on battery for over an hour before, and the battery was fully charged, and only on for about 10-20 minutes before it went off. I know the power supply has a short auto cut off. So if a component is faulty, it trips the power supply. People have had probelms like this, either a faulty power button, cpu, mother board or GPU that makes the power supply turn off.
     
  4. evgasr2

    evgasr2 Notebook Deity

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    yes, you have to replace the vga to make it work, or you could try tighting the screw's to maximum so that will apply some pressure with die and pcb so that could make it work.
     
  5. MarkStevenson

    MarkStevenson Newbie

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    OK, just for anyone else with the same or similar problem, here is my story, and I'm still confused.
    I posted the original question on this thread. Since then, I removed and baked (reflowed) the graphics card and tried it again. Same problem. I then bought a second hand graphics card on Ebay and tried that, but got the same result. Today I took the laptop to an A+ technician to check, and he checked several things but could not find the fault. He suggested that I strip it down, remove the motherboard and bake it. I pulled the whole thing apart (and damaged the clip that holds the keyboard lighting effects cable) With just the motherboard on the table, everything else removed, I plugged in the graphics card and then the power, and this time it did not trip. I then reassembled each component with the motherboard and tried the power at various stages without it tripping. Finally, I plugged in the keyboard, and it tripped. I unplugged the keyboard, used a USB keyboard and plugged everything else back in and it booted and ran. Everything worked except that now it would not charge the battery. The power supply was not tripping, but it was as if the power was not plugged in. The battery slowly ran down. I tried several things, and eventually plugged the keyboard back in and it DID NOT trip, AND it accepted the power supply. Everything is back to normal, except that I now have 13 little screws left over that I can not figure where they go. I still don't know what was wrong.
     
  6. otosan

    otosan Notebook Consultant

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    So have u actually baked the board? i think maybe something on the board is indeed already deteriorating...