M1530 dead with squeak

I bought my xps m1530 back in January and I've been pretty happy with it.

Yesterday I went to power it up and I had a problem.
I ended up talking to Dell and a technician will be sent, but I thought I'd share the details in case anyone else had the same problem.

When I push the power button it turns blue. I hear a short squeak sound from the hard drive area. The caps/num/scroll lock lights turn on, the caps lock flashes. Then the media buttons light up, left to right, right to left.

This all takes just a few seconds.

It then automatically seems to turn off, but then immediately turns back on.

No squeak this time... but the lights all flash again as before. But this time is doesn't turn off and on... it just stays "on"... though nothing happens.

The power light on the front edge next to the microphone jack is on, and I can feel the normal slight fan/hard drive vibrations.

If I pull the power (and battery if installed) I hear the squeak again when it powers off.
The squeak seems to be associated with power on and off.

At no time does the lcd come on or show any signs of life whatsoever.

My tech support experience from Dell was pretty good. The guy listened well and had me do some tests.

To check if the mobo was the problem, he had me remove the memory. The logic being, if there is no memory the mobo WILL complain... I gathered that the caps/num/scroll lock light(s) will flash some sequence or something.
But that didn't happen. Nothing changed at all from the behavior I described above.

He also had me remove the hard drive, and the behavior was almost the same... the only difference being the squeak went away.

He insisted that since the no memory test didn't work, the mobo was the problem. He didn't offer a reason for the squeak, or its correlation with the hard drive. He just said that clicks are the bad hard drive sound to look for. But I guess if the mobo is screwy, maybe it is sending the hard drive into some weird state that cause a squeak?

The tech also had me try an external monitor, but no signal was every detected.

It sounds like the repair guy will bring a new mobo and new memory.

Is there anything I should look for on the new parts before he installs them?
My current memory (3GB) is one stick of Samsung and one Hyxxxxxxx (not in front of me) some Korean brand. Neither had the speed anywhere on it.

How about the mobo rev? Anyone know the latest/preferred?

Had anyone seen this problem?

Thanks
Ion

 

The tech guy fixed my laptop today.
He replaced the motherboard and I think the ram too. A relative of mine was there in my place, so I'm getting everything second hand.

The motherboard was refurbished. I have mixed feelings about that.

Here is an interesting picture:


I gather it is working well. But I won't know until I've used it for a while.

Ion

 

Yikes! I had to look away from that picture. I build PC's all the time, but seeing a laptop like that is like seeing a loved one torn limb from limb by feral pigs.

 

Awesome picture much appreciated.

 

The squeak is definatly from the hard drive. I'm wondering if the drive heads have crashed on the the platters so hard that it is barely letting the platters to spin (thus the squeak). I'd get the drive replaced as well.

 

Wow, that's ... lots of screws

 

If I ever do decide to have a tech replace my noisy DVDRW drive, I'm giving him a bowl for the screws... holy cow.

 

I've had many laptops splayed apart like that on my desk. It's a geeks best and worst moment.

 

Is it just me? I would be pissed if I saw a tech do that with my laptop. Maybe me being a tech myself. But to me that just looks careless. That is how stuff gets broke/scratched/missing screws. Regardless of how good the tech is that did the work. Regardless of how nice he might be. If it was my laptop I would have sent that picture to Dell.

There is a very important term and procedure in cooking, called Mis en' place which means "Put in place".

Anyways, I am happy to hear that your laptop got fixed

 

The tech guy who worked on mine was just about the same, but I always am very careful with all the screws. I guess they do it a lot, so they don't need to be as careful.

 

I'm kind of surprised he didn't have some kind of special table cloth or towels to cover the workspace and containers for screws/parts.
All those parts on my table could have scratched it. It's a pretty plain table... would they have done more if it were some mahogany heirloom?

I'm surprised they do any work of this extent at a person's home. It just seems awkward for both parties.

 

Now that I'm using my fixed laptop... I'm looking for problems. Generally it looks good.

But I noticed a click/pop when I push on the right palm rest in a specific place.
I hear and feel a click/pop when I push on the right palm rest immediately below the Right Ctrl - Context Menu - Left Arrow keys. The area is the width of those keys combined and down away from the keyboard about an inch or so. It also includes the finger print reader and an inch below that.

Come to think of it, I hear it when I try to scan my finger... and I would have noticed that in the past.
So it is definitely a new thing.

Does anyone have this click on their m1530?
Ion

 

Yeah, it strikes me the same way too.

 

Oh... another thing. The squeak is gone. My guess is that it was a side effect of the mobo failing... maybe causing the hard drive to do something strange.

The clicking sound on my right palm rest area definitely sounds and looks like the palm rest is allowed to be pushed in (making a sound) and when I let go it pops up (making a sound). Kind of like a pop-o-matic bubble.
It is like there is something missing under there that used to support it.
Or maybe something is snapped in place quite right.
It's not terrible to me... but still not right.