New Inspiron 6000 won't power up

Question

I bought an Inspiron 6000 for my mom. It arrived yesterday. I plugged in the AC charger to charge up the battery. Today, after work, I drove to her house to give her the laptop.

Well, the laptop won't power up.

I pushed the power button. The power LED lit up. The CapsLock LED flashes. I hear the HD spin up. The screen remains black. Then after about 8 seconds, the laptop turns off.

This happens with the battery in the battery bay and the AC charger plugged into the outlet. The LED on the charger is lit. The same thing happens with just the charger plugged in (and battery removed). The same thing happens with just the battery in the battery bay.

I remember seeing the 'battery' LED on the laptop flash last night. Today, I saw the same LED flash a few times after I plugged in the charger connector into laptop. But I can't see it flash anymore, no matter how hard I try to fix my eyes on the LED and refrain from winking. The LED on the charger itself remains lit.

The battery has a self-test strip with numbers like 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 on a strip. I pushed the button and nothing lit up. Either the self-test isn't working or the battery is always dead. It still has enough power to spin up the HD and flash the CapsLock LED, though.

I can't find any information on self-test battery strip on Dell website. The automated message played during my 2 hour wait for customer support over phone talked about system reset. I did remove the battery and charger for 5 minutes and plugged them in. It didn't help. BTW, I didn't get to talk to any Inspiron support person after two hours.

The web support website is a mess. I couldn't find anything remotely related to this power up problem. The laptop came with no user manual or troubleshooting guide whatsoever. I am at a loss.

Thanks

fredhsu · Answer

More datapoints:

I left the charger plugged into outlet, but disconnected it from laptop. After half an hour, I came back and plugged it into the laptop again. Lo and behold, the battery LED on the laptop started to flash green again, every 5 seconds. After about a a minute, I tried to power the laptop again. Same sympton. It shutdown after 10 seconds. And the battery LED continued to flash. After another 30 seconds, I closed the laptop lid, and the battery LED stopped flashing. Nothing would make it flash again.

I found the user manual at the support site. It doesn't mention this symptom.

I guess either the charger or the charging circuit inside laptop is damaged?

linetest · Answer

Try reseating the memory module?

fredhsu · Answer

Yeah, I read about this last night in the online user manual.  I think the manual is also stored in the HD, but without being able to power up the laptop, I can't get to it :(   Will reseating the memory module void the warranty?

linetest · Answer

No, you will not void the warranty. The owners manual will have instruction on adding/removing memory modules.

insp1150_14CK56 · Answer

It sounds like maybe a memory module has failed or even the slot itself has kicked the bucket. Call dell and have them send you a new system BEFORE YOU RUN OUT OF THE 21 DAY PERIOD. This is a sign of things to come. Don't let dell diagnose you for 15 some odd days, get a new unit ASAP.

GAGuy · Answer

My girlfriend has an older Inspiron and had pretty much the same problem when she got hers. It turned out to be the power adapter. It would look like it was charging, but it wasn't, therefore the battery didn't keep the laptop running and since the charger wasn't working right it wouldn't keep it running either. After requesting a new power adapter from Dell all has been fine.

Just a thought,

-GAGuy

Message Edited by GAGuy on 03-07-2005 12:57 AM

fredhsu · Answer

Thank you everyone for helping.

I opened up the cover on the back. Well, one memory chip was not seated properly. I am quite amzed at this. I did request a memory upgrade to 1GB... but I expected someone would have at least rebooted the machine to see if it was working.

Anyway, the laptop is now working. But I didn't see the charging LED on the laptop go on last night. I'll them her to use the laptop until it runs out of juice, so she can check whether the adaptor can properly recharge the battery.

Let's hope that I don't have to go through this ordeal again to get a new adaptor.

GAGuy · Answer

Since you found out what was wrong, the adapter is probably fine.  I've only seen a bad adapter in the one Laptop and just thought it was worth mentioning since the symptoms seemed similar.   -GAGuy

Mike Gong · Answer

I got same trouble as you got, the new Inspiron 6000 won't power up. I wasted 2 more hours for waiting Dell's technical support call and didn't got anyone. I never thought there's so poor service. When I considered sending back the computer, your information solve my problem. Thanks.

Please update your experience for the battery recharge since the charging LED on my laptop didn't go on too.

tritondevil · Answer

Hi guys   I got the same problem on my new inspiron 6000 as well.   From my understanding of what you guys post, you are saying that the memory is not inserted correctly. I tried to open the machince and re-inserted the memory, but the problem was not solved. I got only one 512MB memory and have tried to re-inserted into the same place and inserted into the other slot but without any success.   Does anybody have idea what I should do?

fredhsu · Answer

Sorry folks for the late updated on the battery problem.  My mom always left her laptop plugged in, so initially I couldn't tell if the charger was working.  This week, I told her to unplug it and keep using the laptop until it activated hibernation by itself.  She reported successful battery charging operations.  I don't know if the LED is blinking, though.  I'll let you guys know when I find out.

fredhsu · Answer

Sorry, I should have posted the memory reset URL:   <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>   Make sure you feel the click...

PolarXL · Answer

I'm having a similar problem with my new 6000, but not quite...
When I initially got the laptop, I plugged it in to let it charge up, but noticed there was no blinking LED indication that it was plugged in at all.
Later I tried turning it on. Heard everything rev up, but the screen was completely black. Looking closer, I could see the faint outline of the windows icon on the screen, so I tried FN+up to increase brightness, but it didn't work.
I then tried taking out the battery and running on pure AC, but it had the same effect.
I read this thread, and decided to attempt reseating the memory module, but it didn't change anything. I also tried the System Reset that was mentioned on dell's tech support line, but that did nothing.
I'm kind of lost here. I don't think it's the AC adapter, because when I take the battery out and leave the AC plugged in, it turns on, even though it's dark.
I'm not entirely sure it's the battery either, because I tried leaving the battery in and unplugging the AC, with the same effect.
It might be the computer itself. It won't change from being dark, and the LED makes absolutely no indication when it's running off battery, or charging, or running off AC. All I see are the "Power On" LED and the "thinking" LED. The battery LED is permanently dark, except sometimes when I unplug and replug the AC when the computer is on, the battery icon flashes green exactly once.
I called Dell, told him I didn't think my computer was able to charge the battery correctly. He suggested I charge it longer. Frustration.
Anybody else have similar problems, or have ideas on how to conquor this?
Much appreciated.
-Alex

Wintleg · Answer

I have recently purchased the Inspiron 6000 as well and when returning home today, I went to power up the laptop and had no startup. I have gone through every possible fix which has been posted by this forum and Dell indicating how to reset the computer to bring it back to life. My battery has a full charge, I re seated the memory modules, I pulled the battery out and reinstalled it hooking the power up and then pressing the start up button. I gave up after an hour of waiting on the phone to to talk with a Dell tech at customer support and on their computer chat line which I used on my desktop machine. How do I go about sending this item back before my warranty runs out and I end up with a useless fishing weight? Will Dell not honor their warranty? Thank you all for your comments and help in this matter.

xu111 · Answer

same problem here. My Inspiron 6000 works find for 4 months. Then I noticed the problem of not powering up. At the beginning it just come and go. This week, it can not be booted totally. After pressing power button, you just see indicating lights on for several seconds and everything is dead.

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New Inspiron 6000 won't power up

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