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M1730 XPS 17 Battery issue
Good Morning!
I have an older (circa 2009) XPS 17. It is the m1730 version -- last night I started having a problem booting the machine. I use this machine almost exclusively as a mobile desktop, that is always plugged into AC Power. Last night the laptop was working fine as usual and then I moved it into the bedroom to watch some football as I worked. When I had it set up on its portable table I got the following issue -
Before I powered it up I notice the battery icon was flashing blue and orange, like 1 blue pulse and 3-4 quick orange pulses. I verified that the power brick was connected properly and had a solid blue light on the brick. When I turned the laptop on, the power and battery LED's turned blue very briefly and then the laptop shut down. Further I noticed the the solid blue LED on the power brick was gone as well. The only was to get the brick to return to a solid blue LED was to disconnect from power and the then reconnect.
I tried a number of things, from checking the LED meter on the battery itself (all LED's green) to removing and reseating the battery. I even tried to start the laptop with the battery removed. Nothing seemed to work. I looked here and noticed the article about the orange lights meaning is is to hot to charge so I waited overnight with it unplugged, but get the same behavior.
Couple questions here:
1) If the laptop is plugged in, shouldnt it start with the battery being installed?
2) Does anyway have an idea what to try next? I am stumped ....
Thanks!
ABundy
6 Posts
0
December 23rd, 2013 04:00
I have 2 of these PA-19's and neither works. TO be honest I would be happy if it just ran on AC power, but that doesnt work either.
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
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December 23rd, 2013 04:00
New m1730 owner. Learning curve on the m1730. Suffering from blue and orange flashing battery LED. Mine would only run on Ac Adapter. I just replaced my power brick with a New Dell Power brick from eBay. Listed as " New Original Dell XPS M1730 230W AC Adapter PA-19" That took care of my flashing freaking out orange battery light. and Now the computer is working normally again. I read on another forum here somewhere that there is communication between the laptop and the powerbrick via a chip on both devices. If either fails, the system can act strange. Some people had to replace Moboard, for others it was the 230W AC Adapter PA-19 that had to be replaced to resolve the issue.
ABundy
6 Posts
0
December 29th, 2013 00:00
Anyone? Do I need to replace the power inlet on the computer? The motherboard?
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
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December 29th, 2013 01:00
I don't wish a motherboard swap out on anybody....There are m1730 repair people on ebay with good feedback, who repair m1730 boards for a myriad of problems. Mostly "No video" because the Nvidia chips used faulty solder and would melt down when over heated even a little bit. Also they replace the power inlet on the board and maybe the signalling chip that " talks" to the Pa-19...Ive searched through a bunch of them, because i wasn't sure i want to tackle laptop disassembly 2-3x trying to " throw parts at it' and not fix it the first time through.
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
0
December 29th, 2013 01:00
You would have to verify that either Pa-19, is in fact 100% operational. If so, then you can move to the next step. The clue I learned is the Bios Screens. If you ever saw,
" Unknown device installed" It should read "230W" That is the tip off that a chip in the Pa-19 is bad or the chip on the motherboard that "talks" to the Pa-19 is bad. Does it boot with NO battery installed?
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
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December 29th, 2013 01:00
Seller information
ABundy
6 Posts
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December 29th, 2013 02:00
No, I have tried removing the battery at booting with both of the pa-19's i have, no luck
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
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December 29th, 2013 12:00
Somewhat doubtful that both power bricks (pa-19's) both go bad at same time.
I'm thinkin something on the motherboard is at fault.
Swap that out, and see if each power brick reads " 230 Watt" for " Ac Adapter type" in the BIOS screen. If one of them is faulty the whole system defaults to half speed. my 2.5 GHZ was only allowed to run at 1.87GHZ. And it appeared as though the graphics processor was slower too, because it wouldn't stream Youtube or Netflix Properly. once I got a new one....the processor/system was allowed to run full speed.
ABundy
6 Posts
1
December 29th, 2013 17:00
If only I can get to the BIOS -- its slightly interesting that when i hit the power button on the laptop, the blue light on the pa-19 goes out as well. At that point the only way to get it back on is to disconnect at the outlet.
Is there another way (other than the m1730 bios) to read the performance on the PA-19's?
tumblweed9999
26 Posts
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December 30th, 2013 01:00
I'm sure somebody can answer that...but I don't know personally. Somewhere I ran across this post on a forum about m1730's and this guy had taken a pa-19 apart, and researched the faulty chip and resoldered one onto the board. Now thats a kind of dedication I dont have. If the laptop repair community is aware of this fault in the dell power adapters....they must be able to test for it in some simple way........Might be a question to ask on the web in more places?......Be nice to find out how you get this resolved.....I was going to buy another one on ebay with a charging problem...now that i know its repairable.....but Sheesh, you can get a refurbed Alienware m18x thats 3 generations newer with a warranty for 1300$.....maybe I shouldnt even be buying old tech.
wfor1pilot
4 Posts
0
July 9th, 2014 21:00