Weird, Random Power-On Behaviour: Inspiron 8600

Found a possible solution... ^^

Flashed to most current BIOS (A08) from A06 and now everything works as expected although I have tested only a couple of times. Looks promising though... the laptop starts almost immediately when I press the power button compared to before when it would take a couple of tries to get it started.

I have the exact same problem, but am already running the A08 BIOS! Noooooooooooooooo! When I push the power button, the LEDs flicker wildly, and the screen sometimes flickers, and I have to hold the power down until it turns off. Sometimes, the LEDs come on without flickering, but the machine just dies after a couple of seconds anyway. This happens both with the battery and with AC. Any other ideas? THanks

 

DC

Oh.... so sorry DC.

I forgot to post updates... my exams are concurrently running and I'm quite busy the last few days.

When I updated to A08 BIOS, at first, it seems like the problem is solved. But after a few hours when I tested it again, the same problem re-emerged.

I made some observations:

1) It gets harder to start when it is warmed up. I checked all temperature probes and they report temps below 50C, so I don't think it is a overheating problem.

2) Sometimes it is harder to turn on from mains (AC) and sometimes from battery. :(

3) If you are running off battery and the lights flash, remove the battery from the laptop when the lights are still flashing. Then you'll find that the laptop is easier to turn on after replacing the battery. However, that technique only works around 90% of the time. You wouldn't want to do that all the time bcos you might get the battery hinge broken or a broken battery connection or somesort. :(

Well, I sent my system in to Dell for repair 2 days ago and when I receive the system back, I'll post if the technician has fixed the problem or not.

I advise you to send it in because I tried all possibilities trying to fix the problem , e.g. removing all HDD, CD drive, miniPCI cards, etc; reseting BIOS, changing most parameters in BIOS to 'Disabled', tried updating BIOS, Windows and drivers but all were of no avail.

I seriously think it is a HARDWARE PROBLEM in the NEW LINE OF DELL INSPIRON 8600's because I got in touch with a few who are facing the same problem. I couldn't tell for sure which component is causing such failure but my current bet is on either the motherboard and/or the screen. Can I have your system specifications so we can both diagnose the problem together? My system specs are on the top of the thread.

Hope all that helps...

amazingspeed11

Thanks for the advice. I have tried some of the battery removal tricks, etc., but nothing works perfectly (as you said).

 

Here are my specs:

XP Pro; P-M 1.5 GHz; 512 (2x256) DDR-333; 128 MB ATI 9600; 1200x800 native (and max) resolution; 60 GB 7200 RPM HD; Dell Wireless mini-PCI; and I think that's about all the relevant info.

 

I suppose that sending it in will be a must at some point, but that is so inconvenient, especially now, as I'll be gone for 3 weeks and I need my comp with me. Oh well, best of luck with your machine's repairs.

 

DC

I was also thinking that it may be related to the power management settings, or the RAM. I checked the manual for the 8600 line, and it claims that start-up failures are sometimes related to badly installed RAM modules. However, that is of course too simple to be the actual problem (and naturally re-installing the RAM didn't help the problem). I'm not sure how to deal with the power management possibilities.

 

DC

Hey...

I've just got my laptop back and it works properly now.

The technician said that it is a motherboard problem, so he exchanged it and subsequently, the problem (kinda) dissapeared.

The only problem I have starting it up is when I switch on the power adapter and attempt to turn on the laptop immediately within a 5 second time frame. This would cause an 'error' and the lights would hold steady and the laptop would not POST or boot then switching off automatically after 5 seconds.

Other than that, it starts up properly now either from battery or mains (AC).

I highly recommend asking them to send you a new motherboard or just send it in for a motherboard replacement. Hope that helps.... Gd luck!

Hi,

I have the same problem, and seem to get wrose and wrose with the time. At beginning powering on well, now sometime need 4-7 tries to get it working. Battery remove and other try doen't help, it really seem to be fully random. I would like to be able to fix it without having to send laptop back for repair, i imagine it will take one week at least. Have somebody found a solution of this problem ?

Kim

Dell sent someone to replace my LCD and video card, whcih seem to have fixed the power problem. Problem is, they replaced my vid card with a GeForce 5650 when I had an ATI 9600, so now I have no useable video card. :(

They'll have to come back and fix it.

 

DC

Hey there.

I don't think the ATi 9600 card is causing the problems... (I love ATi too much... :P...hahahaha )

I think it is the motherboard problem. It could be some chips that got 'burned' or something... I'm not too sure. When I sent mine in for a repair, the technician found a fault on the motherboard and left everything else on the laptop intact. He didn't elaborate any further on what was wrong with that original motherboard but just claimed that it was fixed.

Maybe try to get Dell to change it back or something... Say that you're not happy with the graphics performance and heard that the problem is fixed via a correct motherboard replacement. Hope all works out well... Gd luck. :)

Cheers.
Amazingspeed11

There is a possible solution that works for me - the slightly impatient student:

If you are like me, (a college student), you do not have the time to send 6your laptop into the shop to be fixed - especially when your school requires laptops in class and you don't want the "rental".

I push and hold the power button until the LED lights up for Num lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll lock and I let off the power button. (When plugged in AC, there is no need to hold down on the button, it lights up right away.) I wait until the lights turn off, as soon as the lights turn off, I push the power button semi-forcefully, (for example, count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi to get the right tempo), down twice and my computer will magically power on.

This solution came from a case of impatientness and I kept pushing the power button about a million times till I notcied a reoccuring theme.

This doesn't exactly solve the problem but it does help deal with the problem until a long enough break to get it fixed.