E1505 screen goes dark when power cord is pulled out (battery is full)

Hi,
I've just got my E1505 which is my first notebook ever.
When I am working at a desk, I keep the machine plugged in.
But when I pulled the power cord out, even if the battery was at 100%, the screen went dark and I couldn't get it to wake up by any single key, Fn-key combination, or mouse click
(the power light and the wifi light remained on without blinking, however).

Note that the screen was not truly off (black): the backlight remains on, so it is grayish just like when the machine is booting up and still in Dell/BIOS mode.
I ended up having to press and hold the power button to reboot.

I have found that if I turn off the power strip switch instead of pulling the cord, the machine remains on and responsive. But if I pull the cord, this behavior is always reproducible.
Could it be that pulling out the cord result in power alternately and irregularly flowing on/off (toggling) that the machine decided to protect itself by turning comatose?

Am I missing something very very obvious? I would hate to shut it down each time I need to pull the power cord out if I was plugging it directly into the wall outlet.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide

 

try just moving the mouse or pressing ONE key...I'm not too sure how the computer would like the Fn key.

is your power light (or battery light) blinking at all? fast or slow?

 

I've modified my original post to add clarifications regarding lights, screen condition, and actions taken that resulted in the problem situation.

 

Try pressing Fn + F8

 

you can choose the brightness level of your backlight on ac power and on battery power. But this should turn back to full brightness if you plug the power back in. I do notice a flicker (backlight shuts right off) when I change power situations wich is kinda wierd. Is the backlight just low? or compleatly unreadable but on/.

 

Multiple tries of Fn+F8 couldn't get it to wake up.

The screen was on, but completely unreadable (dark grey like when it is just being booted up).

 

Ive noticed the same problem have you done a reformat and reinstall I think it did it once before i did this but it is doing it after i'm believing it has something to do with it detecting the battery and going into a power saving mode because sometimes the brightness will just go down but once in a while the screen blanks and i have to shutdown and restart....Haven't tried the MS fix yet though don't think it describes the right problem

 

check all your power settings

 

I've checked the power setting, and everything looks normal to me.
I've been told to look at MS KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889673
"A hardware DEP-enabled computer may stop responding when you resume from standby or from hibernation in Windows XP Service Pack 2"

I'll explore this option on Monday as the machine is not with me right now.

Thanks to everyone for your advice

 

mine has done that a few times too. i just restart, even though its not good for the comp

 

i just started getting the same problem...


Anyone found a solution for this yet?

 

Yup, I have an e1505 and does the same thing!

 

I have the same problem on a inspiron 6400, i notice that if i uninstall the ati control panel all think seems to go right, i think its a problem of the video card..

 

same here, Just started today, and its really annoying. Have to reboot everytime! any suggestions? Thanks

 

Your notebook has ATI x1400 or Intel 950 ???

E1405 has a same problem ????????????

 

doesnt happen to mine with x1300, check ur quickset setting, check ur "on battery" setting perhaps

 

Since you just got your laptop and you have a very detailed write up of what is wrong with it I would suggest that you go here and contact these people. Im sure they will be able to help you with your problem.

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/chat/en/hardware_chat?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

no body answer continue ?

 

Mine just started doing it too. I was really low on battery when it happened so that may have something to do with it.

 

If you haven't already, I would reflash the BIOS and make sure all of your drivers are up to date. I can't guarantee that will fix the problem, but worth a shot.

 

Do you think ATIX1400 has a bug ?

 

I am trying the way zx10guy said but does anyone know another solution if this doesn't work?

 

I have this same problem on the E1505 that I have. I have just implemented zx10guy proposed solution, and will let you guys know if it works. If anyone talks to Dell's tech support about this, please come back here and let us know how it goes.

 

I can tell you that I tried the above solution and it definitely does NOT work. Anyone have anything else?

 

Yeah I tried it and it doesn't work either. I don't know what to do. Does anyone have an idea? Thanks

 

I called Dell today, they said I'd need to send in the laptop to get the motherboard replaced. I was on the phone with them for about an hour and twenty minutes.

I think a good temporary solution would be to put the laptop in hibernate mode (so that the laptop is effectively off), and then remove the power cord. This way, although it is a pain in the neck, you wouldn't have the problem of the screen going dark and having to restart and losing all your work. If you just change the power settings so that when you close the lid, the laptop goes into hibernation, I think that would be a good fix. What do you all think? You think that would work?

 

idk about that...I am not sure that it is the motherboard. Unless every laptop has the same motherboard issue...it is something else. I am thinking it is something different but I could be wrong.

 

Solution to this Problem:

I have just purchased an Inspiron 6400 with an ATI X1400 256 MB video card and Win XP Pro and have experienced this exact problem.

I also ran this laptop under Linux and the problem does not appear. The blank monitor issue is related to the ATI Catalyst "feature" called POWERPLAY under Windows XP.

- Load The Catalyst Control Center:
(Start -> Programs -> Catalyst Control Center -> Advanced -> Catalyst Control Center - Advanced)

- Select POWERPLAY from the left hand menu

- Remove check mark from Enable POWERPLAY

- Click OK and reboot

I haven't yet checked if ATI and/or Dell are supplying an updated version of Catalyst Control Center to fix this bug. If someone does check, please report back to let us know.

 

Just to clarify for those that may not know, the Inspiron 6400 is pretty much identical to the e1505 spec wise. If purchased through Dell's business site, it is called an Inspiron 6400 ... if purchased via Dell's home / home office site, it is called an e1505.

 

Hey MyNameIsPete. I am just wondering if you know this is what is causing this issue or if you just think it is? Thanks.

 

The Powerplay feature is causing the issue.

It is really quite easy to test if you are experiencing this issue. Just disable Powerplay and reboot. Unplug and replug the power cord in to your hearts content ... screen won't go dark anymore.

 

I have disabled and it seems to be working fine. I was just wondering if you had talked to Dell and they told you that it was causing the issue or if you just figured it out. Don't get upset...I was just wondering.

 

LOL ... why would I be upset.

I just figured it out ... haven't check with ATI or Dell about it yet.

Just to recap ... I ran linux on this laptop and the issue did not exist. Since it wasn't a problem under an different OS, that confirmed that either WinXP was causing it, or it was a ATI bug with the software driver or support software programs.

Since POWERPLAY seemed to be the most suspect cause as it relates to the handling of the video card usage under battery power, I disabled it .. and ... problem solved.

 

Dumb question but how do you disable powerplay? I can't find it, sorry...

 

- Load The Catalyst Control Center:
(Start -> Programs -> Catalyst Control Center -> Advanced -> Catalyst Control Center - Advanced)

- Select POWERPLAY from the left hand menu

- Remove check mark from Enable POWERPLAY

- Click OK and reboot

 

if u enable POWERPLAY feature, the system will underclock your GPU to save power (while in battery mode), but if u disable it, the clock speed for the GPU remains the same thus it will drain ur battery life. I have another method but its annoying if u do it frequently:

1. Before disconnecting the AC Plug close the LCD lid

2. Wait 2-3 seconds for the LCD to turn off

3. Disconnect the AC plug

4. Reoped the LCD lid and resume ur work

I do that all the time and it solved my problem, if this bothers u then just disable POWERPLAY and loose some battery life.

 

The post quoted below worked great!!! Thank you for posting this. I've had my Dell Inspiron E1505 for 6 months now, and did not experience this problem until after I replaced a faulty hard drive with one of Dell's refurbised drives. Nonetheless, this is NOT a motherboard problem!

 

I experience this problem(sometimes) on my 6400 (x1400) when I try to open video files in Windows Media Player. Basically, the screen goes grey, as described, but the laptop freezes as well. I was wondering if it could be the x1400 drive.

 

Edit to above: "driver" Lol.

But anyway, does anyone else have any input? I do not believe it would be the POWERPLAY, as it is meant to save battery life. As I said, the problem does not occur when I pull the power cord from my laptop, but it does occur(sometimes) when I open a video file in Windows Media Player from an external harddrive(Western Digital 80 GB). I believe there may be a bug with the card OR a bug in the driver which controls the card.

 

I have reproduced and isolated this problem. The problem is related to the version of .NET that you installed. The ATI A3 drivers appear to work best with 1.1 of the MS .net framework. I think 2.0 and 3.0 break it, unless you have service packs applied.

The way to fix this problem is to go add-remove programs and uninstall your current .net framework. Then download and install the 1.1 redistributable from Microsoft.


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en

 

I am a computer novice and have had this problem with my 1505. It was driving me nuts. When I was working off the battery and I streamed video into media player the computer screen would go dark blue/purple. I could hear the computer running but I couldn't see the screen, etc. Control alt del would not work. It did not happen all the time, but it was frequent.

I spent three hours with dell tech support and they did not have solution. He was a nice guy, but he could not help. I did a bunch of searches on google and found this website and thread. Your solution worked. This seems to be happening to a lot of 1505 owners. You would think that Dell would have this in a knowledge base somewhere.

Thank you very much.

 

This happened to my 1505 when I received it. I originally unchecked the option to allow hibernation mode and upgraded the BIOS to A17. I recently had to put the machine back to original settings and re-installed everything. Oh the joy and waste of time, but it was worth it.

I tried to contact Dell about this issue, that didn't work. I explained to the phone jockey....I mean tech support inDUHvidual, that I know this is a HUGE problem and to do a search for solutions in Dell's fast database of solutions. He insisted on going through the typical BS of trying to diagnose the issue. Again, I told him to search his database on the issue and get me some solutions. 20 minutes later, I hung up and dug deeper on the internet.

I'll try this POWERPLAY solution and hopefully it'll help. Other than that, Dell Tech Support sucks when it comes to solving this issue. I'm not a big fan of Dell's Tech Support outsourcing.

We'll see how it goes and thanks for posting that possible solution!!! This is much better than Dell's Tech Support!!!

Mark

 

Thanks a lot for the solutions. i have tried the Powerplay disable thing on my 1505.
However, in addition to freezing when i unplug the charger and when i try to stream video AND when i try to access data from my 120GB drive, my 1505 also freezes sometimes at the blue WinXP "welcome" screen.
Any suggestions?

P.S Looks like this forums gonna be the ultimate Dell 1505 discussion forum

 

I also use an Inspiron 6400 with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 grafic card with Windows XP Media Edition and have the same issue. With the Dell hotline I have gone through the following standard procedures:
1.) Update Bios
2.) Update Grafic driver
3.) Restore the complete system partition from the recovery partition
4.) Completly format the system partition and reinstall Windows XP with the latest grafic driver from Dell home page
5.) Use the latest grafic driver from ATI
A lot of work and hours has gone, but nothing has solved the problem.

For the German Dell hotline the problem is totally new and now they want to change the Motherboard and the grafic card, but when I read this thread, I am not really convinced in their procedure. Because the German hotline don't know the root cause, diassemble the Notebook and exchange hardware may not solve the problem.

I have found a lot of discussions about the same problem in other threads:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=78053
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=112673
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=116808

The best and longest discussion to my point of view is this thread.
Everything is pointing in the direction, that this seems to be a real big problem.
Under some conditions like:
- pluging the AC-Adapter
- activation of the power save modus (switching of the display)
the system sometimes will hang up. This will not happen always on my system and perhaps also on your systems. What I have noticed, that you might have the same problem or get it sooner or later is when you see following behavior:
1. unplug AC-adapter
2. the screen will go to reduced brightness directly
3. but in two seconds or less it will change brightness again for a very short time and turn back to brightness of item 2. You will notice this as a one time flickering.

For those who need a quick "solution" for allowing to unplug the AC-adpater without a crash please try this:
1. Switching of the hardware acceleration for the grafic card in the windows display setting (move the slider to the left position)
2. Unplug
3. switch hardware acceleration on again.

This is definitly no real solution, because it will not help in the situation, when the screens brightness is reduced by the power management, because you have not use the computer in switch on modus for al onger time.

I think we have to make this problem more public to force Dell to really work on this issue.

 

i have the SAME problem described in this thread on my dell 1505. it's only in vista that this occurs. anyone have a solution yet?

 

PROBLEM SOLVED!

for those that ever have this problem, the solution is get new RAM. the RAM you have is bad

 

I have this problem on my inspiron 6400.
I've found a solution, but it reduces my battery life from 4-5 hours to 2 hours.

In Dell Quick Set go to->
Display->
Brightness Options->
Disable the option.

Not too sure what it's doing as I'm a bit of a computer novice.
But I think it's just changing the quality of the display.

No idea why this problem is caused, maybe a battery problem?

 

This is not a problem! It is a power saving feature! ALL laptops do it. The screen uses the most battery juice when it is bright. The darker it is the longer the battery will last. You can raise and lower the brightness at any time using the fn and arrow up / down keys. This thread needs to be closed. It is so old.

 

That's NOT what they/we mean. The screen goes black, as in nothing on it, at all.

 

I have a Dell laptop Inspiron E1505 1.66Ghz. with 2gb ram, and I had the same problem with unplugging the power adapter while running Windows 7, the screen would go almost totally black. If I plugged the poer cord back in the screen would light up again. After much trial and error and with some help, the solution was as follows:
1) go to control panel
2) double click on"Intel GMA driver for Mobile"
3) click on "power settings"
4) click on "modify settings"
5) move vertical slider to "disable power settings"
6) click on "apply" then click "OK"
7) restart the computer and enjoy unplugging your computer while in
running your windows. Your screen should stay on!