Is my laptop dead?

I have a Dell Studio 1737, its about 2 years old and still under their extended warranty. It worked fine last night, turned it off & tucked it down the side of my bed like I always do.

Came to turn it on when I got back from work & the keyboard backlight turned on & i heard typical laptop like noises...but the screen stayed blank. Tried turning it off (unplugging it) and rebooting it but still nothing. I have tried a different charger, with the battery, without the battery. I have also tried the HDMI output & cycling through the display modes incase it was the screen, but still nothing

I can't hear the HDD spin up, nor can I eject the CD drive (via the 'touch buttons' or the keyboard short cut.

Can anyone guess as to what it could be, failed Motherboard? It is under Dell warranty so I'm not panicing (yet), however I have replaced the keyboard & been using a Studio 15 charger for the last few weeks after I was sent the wrong one. Neither have caused any adverse changes from what I can tell.


Has anyone had any experience with the dell warranty service before? I have the 3 year, 1 business day home warranty and checked their website so its got plenty of it left. Before I ring them tomorrow afternoon, can anyone offer a suggestion of what will happen, are parts for the old Studio 17 still floating round?

 

Have you tried plugging it into an external display? It could possibly, from what you are describing, be a bad motherboard.

 

I'd second that it's probably a bad motherboard. It might not be, though. When you call Dell, they'll try to troubleshoot it, and it might be something simple.

 

I tried connecting it to my TV using the HDMi cable (what I usually do whenw atching films etc) but couldnt swop to it desbite several attempts.

The fact that the CD/DVD drive didnt respond to any eject attempts nor the sound of it turning on/loading into windows made me think it was something beyond the display causing problems.

Whats the turn around time like with Dell? I have next business day, but is that a replacement, fix, shopping etc?

Thanks for the replies!

 

Right, 2 weeks on and dell have messed me round to the point where I blew a fuse & they are now sending me a new Dell 1747!

Few questions, will I be able to use my studio 1737 battery in the 1747, spec wise they are the same...but fitment?

Second, I have seen the fact that the 1747 has the option of a touchscreen, is this an option in the UK, it isnt on their website?

FINALLY....

I am still keen on trying to get my old laptop working, esp if I manage to avoid sending it back.

Dell replaced the power supply & motherboard, but the problem persisted. Can anyone offer any more ideas?

Cheers guys

 

First; It doesn't seem like it does, though I may be wrong. Actually, it might.

Second; It's probably not available in the UK then.

Final; Don't you have to send it back though? I don't think it's something Dell would let you avoid.

 

Yeh, I imagine they'll request it back, will drag my feet ever so slightly...seeing as it took them 4 engineers, 2 days off work for me and over 5 hours on the phone to them over 2 weeks for them to sort their act out! it's chilish you see, you I like to play dirty!

Bah, I have seen a few of them on ebay but with it not being listed on their website I wasn't sure. I suspected some sort of import!


I still can't figure out what could have caused the laptop to die though. especially if it wasnt the power supply or motherboard that did it! What else is there could could cause it!?

 

Yeah, that's a little odd, your essentially getting a whole new system when you replace the motherboard, just adding in the other bits and pieces.

There could have been the chance that the replacement motherboard was faulty, but that would be a one in a million chance.

 

Apparently it was a brand new motherboard he brought out & he looked suitably concerned when it didnt turn on! The fact the symptons are exactly the same is somewhat suspicious. Surely depending on what failed on the motherboard slight differences would be apparent sympton wise?

(i imagine, could be wrong!)

 

If they just replaced the motherboard and transferred over the parts from the old on, one of the components like the CPU or Ram could have done it? I'm not too sure, it could have caused a short and fried the board... Who knows really.