Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
18 Posts
0
10955
Vostro 3700 Design Flaw? (While in suspend, memory shorts)
Hey everyone,
What:
I have a Vostro 3700. I've recently replaced the motherbaord/heat sink/fan due to overheating issues. (I had the integrated Intel card and the discrete NVidia card.) Once I received the newer motherboard I found out it only has the discrete graphic card and the Intel is no longer available. Come to find out the previous mobo is no longer available. Goodbye, 7 hr battery life and hello 4 hr battery life!
So I put everything together, no extra screws or parts, everything fit like a glove.
Powered the thing on, set the asset and other tags along with BIOS settings. Everything works great. BTW, the new Loctite thermal grease is awesome and now the temp on idle is around 40 degrees... awesome. Much better than the 55 degrees at idle.
So I put my laptop on suspend, to ram, not hibernate. I wait for the power indicate to flash showing it is in suspend. As I place it in my laptop bag... I notice the power indicator isn't flashing like it was.
I pull it out and turn it on and sure enough... it was no longer on suspend but the laptop starts anew loading my OS of choice, as if it was shutdown instead of in suspend.
I go ahead this morning and disassemble it and reassemble making sure everything is nice and tight and cozy... I turn her on and suspend again. I then start pressing everywhere on the casing to see if I can recreate the problem...
Where:
When I press on the plate directly in front of the battery that has the processor, memory, Wifi, HD and the CMOS battery... the laptop is no longer on suspend. I suppose the memory is shorting out when that area is pressed and causes the memory to loose its juice... i.e. gets out of suspend.
Can others with the Vostro 3700 test this to see if I am the only one having issues? I probably need another replacement mobo to resolve this issue but I wanted to be sure before going down that route again.
How:
Howto recreate the problem:
1. Turn on your laptop.
2. Place in suspend to ram. Do not hibernate.
3. Close the lid and turn over.
4. With the power indicator toward you, locate the housing plate in front of the battery.
5. Gently press on the plate in from of the battery.
6. Monitor the power indicator light to see if it stops flashing.
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
0
November 7th, 2011 10:00
"When I press on the plate directly in front of the battery that has the processor, memory, Wifi, HD and the CMOS battery... the laptop is no longer on suspend. I suppose the memory is shorting out when that area is pressed cause the memory to loose its juice... i.e. gets out of suspend."
Coming out of suspend is not the same as losing power to memory and restarting.
What you are doing is not a normal use.
Applying single point pressure to the middle of the laptop with the screen closed likely presses a key on the keyboard and or Flexes the trackpad causing the laptop to "wake" from suspend.
Dr416h7h
18 Posts
0
November 7th, 2011 10:00
@SpeedStep,
"Coming out of suspend is not the same as losing power to memory and restarting."
Thanks for posting... agreed that loosing power is not the same as waking out of suspend... the laptop isn't 'waking', the memory looses power.
When I open the lid after doing this, I have to power it on. It is not awake at this point. The information in memory is lost.
"What you are doing is not a normal use.
Applying single point pressure to the middle of the laptop with the screen closed likely presses a key on the keyboard and or Flexes the trackpad causing the laptop to "wake" from suspend."
A key isn't being pressed on the keyboard or flexing the trackpad. Again, it is not waking it is loosing power to the memory.
As for normal use... picking the laptop up and applying pressure to the bottom plastics should be 'normal'. Not everyone has two hands available when picking it up. Not to mention that I am not the only one picking it up with one hand. Also, since I have the 9 cell battery, which is much larger, you pick up the heaviest section and continue on... hence how I found the issue.
Dr416h7h
18 Posts
0
November 7th, 2011 10:00
BTW, even though I am DCSE certified, I went ahead and followed through with the tutorials that Dell has on the Vostro 3700:
support.dell.com/.../parts.htm
support.dell.com/.../Sys_brd.htm
Dr416h7h
18 Posts
0
November 10th, 2011 09:00
Hey everyone,
Well, this does seem to be a design flaw instead of a part flaw.
An awesome tech came out and replaced the motherboard again with the one I used to have. Thanks to the manager I have been speaking with, she was able to find a new motherboard with both the Intel and NVidia graphics adapters. Hello, 7+ hour battery life... oh I have so missed thee!
As it seems, when you press slightly on the "vostro" logo on the bottom side of the casing where the battery is... the connectors of the motherboard disconnect to the connectors on the battery... and hence removing the electricity from the memory as it is in suspend.
Sadly, there isn't much that we can do about it as it was designed this way.
Note that I currently have the 9-cell battery which maybe different than the 6-cell... the manager I've been talking to will verify this later today.
Y'all have a wonderful week and stay tuned if interested.
God bless,
Johnathan
Dr416h7h
18 Posts
0
November 17th, 2011 12:00
Well, I sent it off for Dell's review.
They were not able to reproduce the issue.
I did however record it and place it on YouTube for them to review as they requested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFcvPJR4Ez0
Waiting for their reply.
Dr416h7h
18 Posts
0
November 21st, 2011 10:00
Well, they have come to the conclusion that this isn't an issue.
If you press hard enough the result is as I've found.
With all said and done, I accidentally found this issue, and therefore it shouldn't be an issue for most.
I just have to be more gentle with the system.
So for anyone else having a similar issue... just be kind. :D
Thanks for staying tuned and God bless,
Johnathan