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    M15X wont turn on

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by fittyman, Jul 11, 2011.

  1. fittyman

    fittyman Notebook Consultant

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    Well, this is awesome. Had the laptop about a month and over the last 2 days or so I could hear a "ticking" sound, like a Geiger counter going off. I thought of hard drive and backed up everything I had immediately to the network.

    Today, I installed the bluetooth driver for the M15X for my headset, and ever since I was told to reboot, nothing. I figured hard drive was done for, but everything still lights up, my FX patterns are still going, all the keys are lit up. When I power down, and then back on I hear what I presume to be the DVD drive turning on, fans start up, then turn off, then the laptop turns off. Then it turns back on, does the same thing, and turns off again. It does this a good 3 or 4 times, by itself, not me doing it, before it just stops and leaves me with a blank screen and a few lights.

    I hope by the end of tomorrow I'll have my old HDD in the laptop ready to go, but I am starting to think its not the HDD at all, and something else. I have no idea what though.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    As for specs:

    Core i7 720QM
    Nvidia 260M
    BIOS version A09
    No warranty either

    Can take pictures if need be, but it'll be with a poor phonecam (Sorry, best I got).

    Thank you in advance, notebook gurus :p
     
    fittyman, Jul 11, 2011
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  2. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Try taking out the CMOS battery and do a power drain then.
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Jul 11, 2011
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  3. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    In case you need instructions on removing the battery, check here for a teardown (although you won't have to remove but two screws).
    The coin cell battery removal is on page 27
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Jul 11, 2011
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  4. fittyman

    fittyman Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah, was thinking I should do that.


    CMOS power drain first
    HDD swap second

    Might do that now I suppose. I assume the principle remains the same? Unplug everything remove the CMOS battery, hold power button down? 20 seconds?


    EDIT: Its like you read my mind. Thank you.
     
    fittyman, Jul 11, 2011
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  5. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    No problem!
    Let us know how it works out for you.
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Jul 11, 2011
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  6. fittyman

    fittyman Notebook Consultant

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    No Luck.

    Does the same thing.

    EDIT: Scratch that.. seemed to have worked. Thank you very much. I was greeted by a warning saying my AC adapter is not the recommended one. Could that be it?
     
    fittyman, Jul 11, 2011
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  7. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    And POST doesn't come up at all?
    Try punching F12 when it boots up to try catching the boot menu and be able to run diagnostics.
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Jul 11, 2011
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  8. fittyman

    fittyman Notebook Consultant

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    Seems to be fine. Temps are fine, no info lost.... and my Bluetooth works!

    I don't ever want to update my bluetooth drivers again.
     
    fittyman, Jul 11, 2011
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  9. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Glad to hear it!
    Is your AC adapter the stock one?
    It's not uncommon for that to happen, especially when the male part of the power supply isn't completely flush with the female part on the laptop.
    You can usually disregard it and, if it continues to bother you, you can disable the warning in the BIOS menu.
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Jul 11, 2011
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  10. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    i would check the S.M.A.R.T status of the hdd to be safe, you may find it's on it's way out. that ticking sound can only either be a fan hitting something or the hdd arm.

    make sure smart is enabled in the bios and you can use something like hddscan (it's free) for a smart report.
     
    xeroxide, Jul 11, 2011
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  11. fittyman

    fittyman Notebook Consultant

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    Thank you.

    I'll run the program, just to see, but all the data is backed up, and I plan to upgrade to an SSD sometime this month, probably just after I get the 6970 installed.

    I think me traveling everywhere with it did not help the drive. Work computer/ gaming computer, so it goes everywhere with me. Gets knocked around quite a bit.
     
    fittyman, Jul 11, 2011
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