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M2010 issue
Helping a friend. M2010. Bluetooth light and power light and all lights on. MB,PRC, MEM, G Card Optical drive replaced various. Every part has after install same issue. Boue tooth light on, power light on. No video. Dell wants to send depot or exchange. Any ideas??
DrewDelawhere
6 Posts
0
January 13th, 2009 09:00
My M2010 won't boot....
I have the same issue.... I powered my computer back on from standby.... it went to screen saver.... the ribbon's screen saver froze... I came back to my computer and found it frozen. Crashed the power button for 8 seconds... tried to reboot... nothing... black screen... no bios... nothing.... Battery Light, Power Light and Blue Tooth light are on. Nothing else... it just sits there.... the Blue Dell Emblem lights up on the back of the screen. I tried plugging in an external monitor, and the monitor responded in that it was getting a signal, but nothing showed up on the screen. Any thoughts? I'm hoping that 9 month's later, someone found a solution to this. I don't want to start randomly swaping parts and waiting days for a tech support sub contractor to arrive
Here is the transcript of my chat with TechSupport... She had me pull some basic stuff to try to create a CODE on the LED's under the volumn and speaker controls which would indicate the problem.... Full details at the following link
http://www.drewandtracey.com/WebProjects/M2010WontBoot/DellTechSupport.htm
--Drew--
DrewDelawhere
6 Posts
0
January 24th, 2010 22:00
Wow - here I am 12 months later, and dell just had to ship me TWO new video cards (because the first one fried after a few hours) and a whole new LCD screen, mother board, fans, and the screen hinges to make sure I got all the cables replaced. I insisted on doing this CSR (customer self repair) because I had one tech out who just ripped my baby apart with very little care or concern. so if it won't boot, ask them to send you a new video card CSR if you are comfortable with taking it out. Looks like I'll have to make this repair every 12 months if the video cards don't start lasting any longer than that. And the crazy part is I'm a business guy... spreadsheets and web pages... no 3d, no games, no hacks, nothing... just straight business computing 10 hours a day 6 days a week. If you have to ask for parts... chat with the folks in India, rather than call the people in the US. Their india people are much nicer to deal with and much more accomodating.
No, plugging in an external monitor does nothing.
The best part of troubleshooting though is when they want you to boot the computer while pressing the FN key.... which doesn't work because its a BLUETOOTH keyboard that doesn't sync until you get to windows - SUCKY DESIGN that it didn't have a USB cord or something that you could pull it out and plug it in, or just contact connect it. I later found out that if you can get into BIOS settings while the computer is working, you can set the scroll lock key to EMULATE the FN key... which could be helpful... but somehow I doubt it.
This last order, I had the chat down to 35 minutes... Spent 3 hours in Queue... but actually only had to talk with the lady for 35 minutes before I had my shipping confirmation numbers / incident number in hand and was able to disconnect knowing that my parts were on the way to me and that I wouldn't have to wait the extra 24 hours for a Tech to schedule with me to come do a repair on a machine that they've most likely NEVER seen before and i have no idea how to take the covers off in order to get to the screws with out snapping off the plastic clips.
If you have an m2010, plan on replacing the video card and maybe the mother board yearly. But that's okay... the upside of this machine's capabilities, screen size and full size keyboard make it worth it to me. Buy the 5 year warrentee.
DrewDelawhere
6 Posts
0
January 24th, 2010 22:00
I powered my computer back on from standby. It went to ribbon screen saver which later froze. I came back to my frozen computer, crashed the power button for 8 sec. Tried to reboot. nothing. a black screen. no bios. Battery Light, Power Light & Blue Tooth light are on. Nothing else. just sits there.. the Blue Dell Emblem lights up on the back of the screen. I tried plugging in an external monitor, & the monitor responded in that it was getting a signal, but nothing showed up on the screen.
TechSupport had me pull some basic stuff to try to create a CODE on the LED's under the volume & speaker controls which would indicate the problem. She claims the lack of an error code when just the WLan card was removed indicates that it's a motherboard. What about those folks who got this machine WITHOUT a WLan card. Doesn't make sense, whatever. Also lots of fun CLUELESS tech support comments asking me to do things with the BlueTooth wireless keyboard right after they had me unplug the bluetooth module! my tech support transcript at this link. drewandtracey.com/WebProjects/M2010WontBoot/DellTechSupport.htm
how to disassemble your M2010
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsm2010/en/SM_en/
My tech arrived 24 hrs later w/three boxes containing the motherboard, I/O board from left side for USB & headphones, along with new video card, & 2 power supplies to replace the power supplies I bought. They sent me everything that could possibly cause the problem. But now I don't know which part was the problem as we swapped everything.
Techs don't see m2010’s often so supervise closely. Pull your battery out & press power button for 30 sec to try to clear power from the system. Stuff we learned.
Step 1. pull the bottom panel, your RAM, the WLan Card (leave the antenna attached) & disconnect the 3 cables from bottom of mainboard.
Step 2. work gently to remove your decorative plates to the left & right of the cd. 2nd, Do not try to remove the CD Drive... { { While it is possible to carefully finesse the CD if you don't force it. Don't lift it too high until you pull the ribbon cable off the back (a magnet on the screwdriver will keep you from losing screw) & until you remove the small ribbon cable from the front (do this last). But this isn't nessary... you can leave it as part of the top of the casing. }} Remove all the screws with arrows from top cover. Pay attention to which screws go back where, or just leave them in the frame and don’t tip it upside down. With the screws out, detach the cable in the center of the back without losing the screws.
Make sure your tech is gentle with all the cables. Pull by the connector & not the wire itself. She ripped 1 wire out of my microphone array by accident so we have to order another 1 & she'll be back tomorrow to put that in. Her Rep on the phone had a hard time finding the part number for that, & is actually sending a full mother board kit again because its "supposed" to be in there. Make notes as you go about any ports that DON"T have something connected to them so that you'll know if you forget something later on. Turned out it (JMic Cable) wasn't in the MOBO kit.... but rather in the Lower Chasis... the black part under your expensive toy.
Pull the 6 screws from the base which hold your Handle right after you have the hard drive & fans out, so you aren't juggling a lot of loose parts. Pay attention to which cables go over vs under the frame. You have to pull the hard drives & fans off the frame 1st before removing the frame.
If you can twist the release screw on your processor chip before removing it, you might save the silicon heat glue. If not, make sure they put more silicon heat transfer glue back on before reassembling the chip on the new board or your heat sink may not work as efficiently.
Get the frame out, then the board (taking the audio board & main board out at same time. You have to gently pry the plastic case away from your DVI port to get the board out.) Compare the 2 boards. My new board did not come with a modem chip or the associated jumper wire. Make sure you transfer these across & yes, I had to pull the other chip next to it, which was included on the new board, in order to route the jumper wire properly.
Put the new motherboard & audio card back. Get the the microphone array wire goes in early. Connect the small black wire with 2 white connectors to your Audio board & the MotherBoard. Check that you put all the correct screws back on the new boards. Transfer the modem across if you haven't already. Tighten up the frame leaving out the 6 screws for your handle arm hinge assembly. Get your processor & video card into the new board. Don't forget the heat sync glue. They go on before the Left Hard Drive. Encourage your tech to start all 4 screws & just like a tire on the car, tighten each 1 a little bit so you don’t damage any pins. Now in my most recent experience they not only sent me fans, but a new heat sync that appeared to have the heat sync silicon on it already. but if you don't get a new one, make sure your tech puts additional stuff on.
Reconnect screen, being sure not to pinch wires & feeding the 1 wire back across to where it connects underneath the right side fan. Keep in mind that your WLan card is now flopping around underneath so it might be a good time to plug it back in & while you are down there, reconnect the three jumpers that live down there. Stick your RAM back. Dropping the hard drives back in & reconnecting jumpers. Check at each step to make sure you have all the screws & jumpers in where they belong.
Bring your top cover back, reconnect jumper,& see if it the power button responds. You might have to hold the CD Retractor to a point short of it's extreme low to make it happy. I got a black screen saying press FN+X & that memory may have changed. Shut it off & continued reassembly. When we turned it on for real, that black screen stayed up for 2 minutes before it took us into the bios & re-enter the Service Tag. She also changed some presents in the BIOS. It booted Bios A05 and no info on A55 which came on CD, so we did not upgrade bios. --Drew--