Problem with Inspiron 1720

I wonder if anyone could shed any light on this.

I received a brand new Inspiron 1720 in November with several upgraded parts, battery, memory, hard drive etc.

The machine worked fine for at least 2 months and then suddenly would fail to turn on, i couldn't believe it but thought it was possibly due to the cold weather of January.

I spoke to a Dell representative who after explaining my position told me to try draining the static from the machine (take out battery, hold down on/off button for 20-30 seconds, plug in AC cable and power on, then replace battery) - this worked absolutely fine and I was able to use the machine again. She asked me to check the BIOS to see if it was the latest version, it was, yet I reinstalled the BIOS on her advice)

Now from that day, the machine has been working absolutely fine, yet occasionally, perhaps if I don't use it for a day or two, or it's a cold temperature, I have to repeat this procedure which can be annoying and I'm sure not good for the machine having to remove and replace the battery all the time - the last thing i want to do is upset the connection between battery and laptop or bend or break the connectors so I am extremely careful when doing this.

After a couple of months of repeating this procedure and using the laptop fine (remember it starts fine on most occasions, and always when the power cord is left in - it's only when it's removed for a few days then attempt to turn it on that it doesn't start without static drain) - so of course I thought this is no good and decided to return the laptop to be looked at and possible repair as it is of course under the Dell warranty.

They took it two days ago and I received a call today saying it would cost £285 to repair and replace motherboard, memory and keyboard - due to a "liquid spill".

Now I know I have never spilt any liquid on the machine - and I know for a fact the memory is fine because I have been using fine since I bought it and since these problems began - and I don't want to be treated like a mug by the Dell techs because I know my systems pretty well.

Personally I suspect a fault with the motherboard or some reason why this static is building up - but then again I've never received any shocks from the machine which you might expect.

I spoke to one tech who advised me to pay this as the problem may only get worse (scare tactics i think).

He has now promised to get photographs of this "moisture buildup" (note they refer to it as that now instead of liquid spill - and then email me the photos)

I would appreciate any advice from anyone who may know about these problems or has experienced similar.

 

I dont think your motherboard, Ram are malfunctioning.. as it was working perfectly most of the time.. Now for me it might be the battery which is the culprit... Do you ever check your battery health..
i am telling this because you have no problem of running this m/c when plugged in.. The only problem you face is that when you try switch on with battery after 2-3 days unuse.. This may means that your battery cannot hold up enough power to switch on the m/c..

By the way.. Li ion batteries would hold less charge when they are operating in extrame cold.. Even worst although it has charge.. its wrongly shows up as empty battery.. this is happen to all camera/ mobile phone batties and they are told to warm the battery to body temp and reuse if they shows empty through the device..(warming the battery may not be the viable soln for you.. but if the ambieant temp is lower than operating temp..(typically -2-3C) you can switch on with AC power and after sometime switch to battery mode..

 

please view the images and judge how/why this might affect the startup problem that i have mentioned. - here you can see that they are descibing moisture buildup, but i know for a fact that no liquid has EVER been spilt into this machine as I am the only person who has ever used it and it has always been close to my person

Any advice/information greatly appreciated

 

I have just received the computer back from BancTec Service through Dell, after we decided not to do any work on it due to the cost they were asking, I switched it on fine first time without AC power from the battery charge remaining from before it was sent, loaded up Vista and the B, N and SpaceBar keys do not work anymore at all, they worked perfectly fine before it was despatched there.

As I said before I did not have a real problem and if i wanted to startup the machine after a few days cold, all i did was drain the static and it was fine, then I could hibernate, sleep the machine, use it, close down startup with no problems. Now, that is is back from BancTec, 3 of the most popular keys that I use regularly are not working.

Before I was told I would have to pay £285 for new motherboard and memory, which should not be the case as I have been using the machine fine without problem for 2 months - but as it has been returned now 3 major keys do not work.

Please advise.

 

thanks in advance for any ideas

 

I don't have any ideas that will help you solve the problem.
I just want to say that your problem sound like mine when I first received my Dell notebook (almost two years ago). I called and they replaced my motherboard: the problem disappear ever since.

 

regarding your battery, hook it up to a voltmeter. There are several connections but that is so the power adapter balances the cells. Lithium batteries can not go below 3.7 volts per cell without being wrecked. If one cell goes below then that cell is wrecked, now you no longer have the voltage you used to have. Find out how many cells your battery is. Onece the battery is getting low, hook it to a voltmeter. Divide the voltage by 3.7, if the number is less than the number of cells in your battery then the battery is no good. Now what you will want to do is check the voltage of each cell individually.

To do this you

1) put the positive voltmeter lead to the positive battery terminal (no matter how many cells there are there will only be one positive terminal)
2) now you want to take your negative voltmeter lead and attatch it to each of the other terminals, this will check the voltage of each cell individually. It sounds complicated but its not really. If any are below 3.7 then you have a dead cell which could be causing some/all of your problems.

Another thing that can happen with lithium batteries is this.

They are wrapped in an air tight package type thing (bad description) if this package gets damaged then charging the battery causes it to absorb moisture from the air. This will cause the cell to swell up (sometimes noticable from the case of the battery but not always)

In either of these cases dell should send you a new battery. The battery is under warranty for the first year.

 

I wonder if what Dell thought was a "spill" could be residue left behind from condensation that evaporated. You said your laptop got cold in January weather.

 

don't you have a warrenty on your notebook?