Dell Studio One 1909 not booting

Question

A while ago I bought a Dell Studio One 1909 off eBay. It was a demo model that was refurbished. It worked great for a year or two, but one day it refused to turn on. I called up Dell support and was informed that the service tag indicated that it was out of warranty so I put it aside for a bit.

I dragged it out the other day to see if I could fix it up, get Win8 running on it and use it in the kitchen for watching TV, looking up recipes etc.. I've got some idea of what could be wrong with it, but I need some extra help pinpointing what is going on before I buy parts to repair it.

When I plug the machine in to power, the media eject button on the front lights up for about 2-3 seconds then goes off. When I press the power button the light on the button goes orange, the HDD indicator light comes on very briefly, the fans, hard-drive and DVD drive start spinning, then after that (about 1 second later) the fan slows down and constantly runs. There is no beep codes, no image on the screen, no hard-drive indicator light, just the orange light and the fan running at a constant pace.

Using the service manual on the Dell website I was able to remove the back cover and metal plate and have been unplugging components to work out where the fault lies, but haven't had much luck. I've reseated the CPU, removed both RAM modules (still no beep codes etc.), removed the CMOS battery for an hour, unplugged the hard-drive, CD drive and back "panel" (that houses USB, Audio etc.) but with no luck.

I looked at another website (link) which seemed to suggest it was an LCD inverter issue, but after re-reading it and doing some testing, I'm not sure if this is the problem. Someone else suggested it was the graphics card, but I'm pretty sure that's on-board and not user replaceable without replacing the whole motherboard.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or can I organise Dell to fix it (at my own cost) if it's outside of the warranty period?

osprey4 · Answer

Hi Grayda, Your hint that the fan starts loud and then slows down tells me the system might actually be booting up. Have you tried the flashlight trick to check?

Grayda · Answer

Hi Osprey, thanks for the reply. By 'the flashlight trick', I guess you mean holding a flashlight up to the screen and looking for a picture (no matter how dim)? I just tried that and saw absolutely nothing. This machine had Windows 7 on it when it stopped working, so I would guess that I would hear the Windows 7 startup noise and see (or hear) the HDD light flickering if the machine was running as normal. If I could get a beep code that would make things so much simpler!

bcasey78 · Answer

I don’t know if you fixed the problem yet but I know on one of Dells online service manuals it tells somewhere what the beep codes might be.I know one beep is usually memory but two beeps I think it could be motherboard or power supplie.

gothicasper · Answer

you most likely need to reflow the graphics chip if you remove the ram chips off and don't hear a beep usually the cause is hairline cracks in the BGA all you need is a heat gun some no clean flux and a ir thermometer.

1. clean all the thermal paste from the gpu chip make sure you don't let any of the paste run into or around the corners or you're screwed.

2. apply the no clean flux to one side of the chip and tilt it vertically till you see the flux come out the other side do this to atleast two sides.

3. slowly apply heat to the chip in a swirling motion (dont keep it centered on the chip or you will fry you're gpu).

4. once you reach 380 degrees Fahrenheit stop and let it cool for 15-20 min.

5. Make sure you don't move it at all while it cools down or you might make a solider bridge in the bga and its game over.

also make sure the motherboard is balanced out flat when you reflow it.If you hear beeps after you reflow it(with no ram in the slots) than you successfully reflowed you're gpu

hope this helps

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Dell Studio One 1909 not booting

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