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Dell XPS 13 L322X (early 2013) - no output whatsoever - any hints for self-repair?
Hey everybody,
my XPS 13 L322X Sputnik recently stopped working.
Syptoms:
- When pressing the power button (on AC or on battery), the keyboard backlight turns on and the battery status indicator shows the battery status (blinking read when battery low and white when fully charged)
- After a while, a fan spins up but otherwise no beep signal or anything like that can be heard
- Neither the BIOS video output can be seen on the Laptops screen, nor the screens backlight. The screens remains perfect dark.
- Pressing Fn+F6 doesn't turn the keyboard backlight off nor does any Fn+F* combo do anything perceivable
- When i blindly enter my (software) disk decryption passphrase after a while of waiting (just as if only the display died and everything else was working normally), the laptop doesn't appear on the wifi network as it used to do automatically after bootup.
- If i connect an external display to the laptop (which used to be working perfectly with it), no video signal can be seen on the external display
My assumption is that a loose screw that i found inside the laptop (belonging to the mSata SSD card) after opening it had caused a short circuit and destroyed one component of the laptop. I am out of Dell Complete Care and would like to try a self-repair. Now the big question is: How can i conclude which part to replace?
My findings are few:
- Overall electric wiring must be ok, otherwise the power supply would switch itself off when being connected to the laptop and the keyboard backlight and fan wouldn't work.
- battery must be ok, otherwise keyboard backlight would'nt work when running on battery
- Keyboard is dead or BIOS malfunctioning: otherwise FN+F6 would switch off the keyboard backlight
- thermal sensors seems to be ok - otherwise the fans wouldn't spin up after a wile
- graphic card itself should be ok, otherwise there would be a beep signal from the bios (it used to be that way back in the days)
any more hints? my next step would be to replace the motherboard - what would you recommend?
Kindest regards,
Rouven
DELL-Todd S
1.8K Posts
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June 15th, 2015 11:00
Hi,
You are not hearing any beep codes at all on the system when trying to start it up? Do you have any mini-Display Port capable monitors you an attach to it to see if the video is seen on an external display? If no post is happening, and thus no video to the screen, I would expect there to be diagnostic beeps coming from the system.
Here is a link to an article on No Power / No Boot troubleshooting that you may find helpful. You may also want to go to the Dell Support Home page, type in your service tag, and take a look at the diagnostics that are available for that system.
I'm not sure that replacing the motherboard without confirming that an external monitor isn't receiving video would be what I would recommend. On the support pages you'll find an owner's manual that will show you how to remove the battery in that system. Have you tried removing that to see how the system responds?
Let me know what you've found out and I'll see if there are other ideas I can think of to help you.
Todd
autoditac
6 Posts
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June 17th, 2015 07:00
Hey Todd,
thanks for your kind reply.
No, i don't hear any beeping sounds. And i have already connected the system via miniDP to my external monitor (that used to work flawlessly) but i don't get any signal whatsoever.
i haven't tried removing the battery yet and will do that as a next step.
Thanks!
Rouven
autoditac
6 Posts
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January 5th, 2016 07:00
Hey Todd,
my update on this (very old) thread: The battery unplugging didn't help either. I then ordered a refurbished replacement motherboard which i only now got the time to give a try. Apparently & unfortunately, the motherboard wasn't the issue. I get the exactly the same behavior (as described above).
Do you have any other hints where to digg any deeper?
Thanks in advance,
Rouven
Invisible Rasta
5 Posts
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February 13th, 2016 11:00
hello, i have the exact same problem with mine, was going to buy a replacement motherboard but as i see that you did that alredy and did not solve the problem. id be really interested in figuring out what is causing this problem.... could it be the monitor?
autoditac
6 Posts
0
February 13th, 2016 16:00
Hi,
i am sorry that you experienced the same issue an i hope that a knowledgable Dell person jumps in to help - i doubt that the monitor is the issue since plugging in an otherwise working external monitor doesn't give any output either.
Does you keyboard backlight still work like mine and does Fn+F6 do anything to it? Do you hear the CPU fan come up after a while as well?
Cheers!
justinloel
1 Message
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October 6th, 2016 00:00
Hi Rouben, I have just had the same problem develop on my ultrabook L322X
I wonder if you've found a solution yet?
I don't understand how Dell gets away with only providing a 1 year warranty on their laptops, the consumer laws in this country state products have to be fit for purpose and last a reasonable amount of time, my unit has not lasted a reasonable amount of time for a laptop that cost $1800 AUD
End of rant. Please post if you have found a solution.
Cheers,
Justin Loel
autoditac
6 Posts
0
October 7th, 2016 07:00
Hi Justin,
no, unfortunately i haven't. The XPS still is defunct.
Dell-Todd S didn't give any update either. I will try to ping him directly ...
Cheesr,
Rouven
autoditac
6 Posts
0
October 7th, 2016 07:00
Hi Todd,
i know, pretty old thread - still, since other people are experiencing the same problem as i am (see above) and replacing the motherboard didn't help, could you try to give a hint for further steps regarding debugging & self repair?
Kind regards!
Rouven