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43709
October 2nd, 2008 19:00
Studio 1535, blinking LEDs on startup (speaker buttons)
I have a Studio 1535 running Vista Enterprise SP1 w/3GB RAM. BIOS is 1535_A03.
Normally on power-up/POST, the 'capacitance' buttons sequentially light up & down, and go away while the laptop boots up.
Recently however, the 3 speaker buttons will act oddly: the Speaker off (left most) and Speaker louder (right most) buttons flash alternatingly, and the Speaker lower button (middle) is constantly lit.
Even with these shenanigans, the machine will usually boot up normal, but I've had instances where it's lost it's mind in terms of what resolution to use or what was normally in the taskbar. As expected, a reboot makes all this go away and it will reboot normally next time.
Anyone else encounter this problem?
aharown
15 Posts
0
October 4th, 2008 12:00
Yes... me too. Lots of others I suspect. It's not the same buttons for me but same intermittent irratic led behavior on startup. Oddly, I've found that changing bios settings clears it up, but only temporarily.
Take a look here
And here
Not precisely the same problem but I suspect they are all connected. There is something wrong w/the bios/multimedia panel hardware.
With the second one, some have reported a fix that seems to last. Hasn't worked for me.
mainframe00
3 Posts
0
December 17th, 2008 13:00
Update as of 12/16/2008
After a few tries modifying the various BIOS settings, there was no improvement. The 3 LEDs continue to come on with each boot. There were occasions where I tried boot-up/shut-down for many many (>20) times, each to no avail. I've tried battery removal-reinsertion, and AC-only boot-ups, each with no better outcome.
Without taking the computer apart (to investigate wire routing or loose connections as others have tried on this forum), I decided to physically press down on the area near the 3 LEDs as I powered-on the computer. This has consistently worked for me now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see if this is a workable solution for me.
I use this laptop for work, and I'm on an insane deadline. I cannot afford to send this laptop back to Dell, as recommended by their chat support staff. My warranty (for refund) is long past, but my regular warranty still has time. I was told by the chat support person that I will not void the warranty if I remove the capacitance button cover to inspect it. I will have one more chat session to confirm this.
When my work deadline is over, I intend to remove the capacitance button cover and check the connections.