M15x Won't Run off Power Supply but will run on battery.

So one of my M15x's will no longer power on or charge the battery from the power supply port. No boot, no nothing, But when i put in a fully charged battery it boots right up. I disassembled the laptop and removed the motherboard and the power supply port is on tight with no play. is there anything else i should check? Thanks in advance.

 

Try re-seating the power cable that connects the adapter to the wall. If that doesn't work, then maybe you can try a different adapter.

 

Already tried 3 dell power supplies and no go

 

Try Power cycling it. But before that, remove the cmos battery (the pin battery that is hooked up to the board and not the big battery) for 4 minutes then pop it back in. Then without putting the regular battery...hold the power button for 30 secs, pop in the charger and see if it turns on.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. tried that about 5 times or so. still a no go. let it sit for hours after power cycling and no go. still works on battery power but wont charge or power through the power supply jack.

 

You will need to replace the power supply port I think. It sounds like it is broken. If you can solder you can probably fix it yourself. If not maybe a local repair shop can do the job cheaply especially if you source the part for them.

 

Maybe you need to reseat the jack (re-soldier it) or maybe the MB is just jacked. Either way... ;/

 

yea what a pain. i did take the mobo out and i plugged the PSU in and tested for voltage with a multimeter and i was getting 19Volts to the board. i bought a spare power jack, but the old one feels on there solid and not sure it would really do anything. thinking maybe somewhere on the board something burnt out, but just gotta take a closer look at it. This blows.

 

Might be easier to replace the board. Batfinks has one he is willing to give away that works fine except for no alien fx. At least you get a functional machine at zero cost.

 

Thanks for the heads up. i sent him a PM but hes in the UK and im in the US. hopefully i can pay for the shipping to have that sent here. Thanks for your help! appreciate it!

 

I just read though that the mainboard is gone. Just missed it

 

ah boo. theres one on ebay for a cheap price also. do you happen to know if the FX light board is removable from one motherboard to the other?

 

Nope. You need to find a mainboard that has it functional. Non functional fx boards you can find as people brick it by mistake by installing software from original alienware resource dvd. It means cheap replacement mainboards though!

If I were you I would go cheap and at least have a nice machine to game properly on. Lights are just for show! Also they add 5 watts to the power consumption. I measured this with a killawatt. For me this is important I turn them off to game. My PSU overheats otherwise! 920xm overvolted at nearly 4ghz across all cores takes some power!

 

AlienFX lighting system can be fixed now, as I did it on my old board before I gave it away. just a heads up for anyone wondering.
but yes board is now gone, only have 2x NVidia 260m cards remaining

 

How would one go about fixing the fx lights?

 

by reading this and doing it

AlienFX repair.....WORKING LEDS at last!! - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community I can confirm it works.

 

Amazing stuff!!