Hardware Failure on my XPS?

I built an XPS from scratch, buying each part off ebay. (Stupid I know.)

After assembelling it today, i found that when i plug it in and try to boot it up (everything hooked up correctly) the harddrive spins for 3-4 seconds with the green LED on and then it shuts down. No fans. No screen. No life?

Whats going on? Can anybody help?

Ps. Also when i touch the on button, the Wifi LED flashes for what feels like a millisecond. It has no BIOS or anything else installed, the battery got disconnected so i guess that means im in no mans land.

Thanks peeps! Please help!

UPDATE!:

Just reseated the CPU and it kind of works :/ It turns on and stays on, with the first 2 leds of power and the one to the right turning on. No fans spin and the screen is blank but atleast its turning on now... Ill fiddle some more and find out whats wrong.
Any advice is still truly appreciated..

UPDATE!UPDATE!:

I entered a disk to the drive.. It spins it and seems to run. The screen (monitor) is still black however? But does this mean i can boot on the bios off a disk now?

 

Try re-seating your memory. I had a very similar issue with my Studio 15, in which the power LED would come on and the status LEDs would flash, which turned out to be caused by improperly seated RAM.

 

Reseated the RAM twice and nothing happened - I suppose that its not an issue in this case but the advice is helpful none the less.

Im guessing the issue is with the graphics card i have in there. The screen stays black and i see nothing. I tested the screen on another machine and it worked so it wasnt that.

Also - I noticed when i boot up the mobo the fans dont run. The disk drive spins, the harddrive does too, and since reseating the CPU it has progressed to a stable state so i spose that is responding. So is the fact that the fans arent running normal?

Please respond guys. Thanks!
JR

 

Depends on the unit - if its a M1530 or M1330 then I suppose no (its not normal) since the latest BIOS has the fans running at startup.

If its the M1730 or M1710 then yes - the fans will kick on once the initial thermal threshold is reached - not before. My fans are not on after powering up.

 

Thanks! Atleast that relieves me abit.
So im guessing with a fryed GPU the screen wont even turn on?

Ps. I want to add extra cooling to my laptop - internally. Using a fan adapter and tiny fans, do you think i could just fit another two near areas where it typically gets hot? Thanks!

 

It would be very challenging, if possible at all. Notebook frames don't exactly have much room for anything extraneous. The best you could probably do is replace the heatsink's own fan with a fan of higher speed or something, and even that would be tricky.

 

Right guys.. New issue:

The Computer is working great! Fit it with a 7900GS and its fantastic.
Problem? It shows up white screens on load up and shut down. is this normal? Also, on load up, without a powe supply it turns off on this white screen on battery power. Whats going on? Cheers guys you have been great! JR

 

7900GS? What XPS model is this, an M1710?

 

Well... m1710 in m90 clothing.

Solution:
Turned LCD brightness on battery down, but the white screen still pops up on loadup and shutdown. Is it to do with the card being on its last legs?

New question: The fans run SO SLOW! Is there any way to boost them up?
Thanks for the help guys

 

Just a thought... do you have the correct AC power adapter? I remember reading something when I was troubleshooting a m170 a while back saying you need to have the 130w power supply, not the 90?

 

Reaaaaaally??! No way?? It seems there is a power issue now!!

The PC will run on AC, but cuts out randomly on battery, seems they just wanna make my life hell. Once it cuts out I cant turn it on again, is this a board fault??

Thanks Peeps!

UPDATE: I can boot it up on PC, and it will run on battery fine, hell, sometimes it runs on battery even from startup, but every now and then it just cuts off on loadup or later on in operation
Cheers guys youve been invaluble!!

UPDATE!UPDATE!: I think its a motherboard fault. The sensor on the CPU thinks its at 12 degrees! Thats ridiculous! As a result I think the CPU sensor is telling the laptop its too hot, as when it boots up from battery it thinks its 50 degrees. Therefore i belive the laptop sensor is malfunctioning. Is there a patch or way of turning it off? Thanks guys!

 

That's a red flag right there. Could be either the CPU or the motherboard itself.

Have you tried booting into Dell Diagnostics using a USB Flash Drive? If not, try that and see if anything errors out - I would run the full diag suite.... Grab the installer here:

ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/diags/CW1355A0.exe

 

Does it matter that i have a 90w power supply???? Its the only thing left to question after much trail and error.... Thanks guys!

 

sorry for double posting. BUMP!

 

My 1530 charger is a 90W model. I think the other type available is 65W. Both are fine.

 

It tells me in the bios when i try to start with the charger in. "You need the 130 W charger" so i will give that a go. Should it matter?

 

130w M1710 Dell Powersupply
http://www.softarcade.net/Dell-X7329-AC-Adpater-130-Watt-195V-DELTA-WORLD-WIDE-40RoHS41_p_5335.html

$48.95