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Latitude D830 Won't Boot Up
Hey everyone - I am looking for a little help trouble shooting my trusty 4 year old Dell Latitude D830 laptop. I turned it off last night with no problems, and when i went to boot it up this morning, nothing -
The 'start' light comes on, and the disk light comes on but goes off very quickly and then nothing much happens. If I press the power button, it goes off very quickly (as opposed to when you have to hold the button down for a few seconds to get the disk to shut down). I have tried on and off the docking station, battery vs. power cord, etc. Nothing. It seems like maybe the disk died? Overnight while I was sleeping?
Any suggestions would help!
Thanks.
Derekj
ieee488
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February 29th, 2012 08:00
You can try burning a self-booting Dell Diagnostics CD and see what it finds.
But you are probably right, that the hard drive or motherboard died.
ejn63
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February 29th, 2012 08:00
Remove the battery, unplug the system and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Remove and reinstall both memory modules.
Then plug in the AC adapter to the wall but not the system - if the LED doesn't come on, replace the adapter.
If the LED on the adapter comes on, plug in the notebook end and try powering up. If the system will, then try with the battery installed. If the system will power up without but not with the battery, the battery is bad - replace it.
if the system still won't power up, the mainboard is bad.
Derekj21
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February 29th, 2012 09:00
I will try this later this evening - thanks. The battery is about 2 months old (replaced the factory original). And I just noticed a few days ago that it was at "90% and charging" which i thought was odd for a new battery, considering the laptop stays in a dock and is plugged in (I figured a new battery would stay more charged).
Derekj21
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February 29th, 2012 09:00
@ieeee488 - can't burn a diagnostic disk if the laptop is dead :( (or can I burn one off the dell website?). I should have one that I made soon after i got the laptop, but that is a few years ago and I can't find it right now.
One question - how would I tell if it's the motherboard or the disk? The disk light goes off very quickly on startup, leading me to believe that is the issue, but I suppose a motherboard fault could cause the disk step to not advance.
I did send this back to Dell once about a year ago to get the video chip/heat sink on the motherboard replaced (warranty fix). Otherwise, the laptop has been a real workhorse.
ieee488
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February 29th, 2012 10:00
You can download the EXE for the Diagnostics program on another PC with internet access. According the Dell website, you should be able to create a bootable diskette set, USB flash drive, CD, or hard drive image.
Derekj21
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March 1st, 2012 14:00
i tried booting it with a SpyBot Windows 7 Boot disk and it doesn't do anything, just like it won't boot of the hard drive. I have removed and reset both RAM chips to no avail. :(