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what is my e6500 doing ?? "second start" problems
1. first, a normal first start into dell screen and then into windows.
2. then "restart" from inside windows is not a problem, the laptop will reboot easily!
3. BUT: if i shut off the laptop completely, and try to restart it within 10 minutes or less, all i get is 3 blue lights! these lights only come on after a minute or so, then one of them blinks, then they all stay on.....
4. then, ONLY after a long while, the laptop can be started again!
this is NOT about the RAM or the CPU or the CMOS battery or the power supply !! those are all fine!
it sure works fine the first time, so i do not see a motherboard problem?
5. while it is in that "blue light" situation, it seems even holding down the power button does not turn it off or stop it from doing whatever it is doing!
is there some "after shut off' process in the BIOS that i don't know about? or what is going on??
gregory.jones
412 Posts
1
December 21st, 2014 08:00
Hey dipr123!
Power issues are generally isolated to the logic board, power cord or battery. Since you're pretty confident it's not the power supply we'll move on.
So let's look at the logic board. I'd suggest removing the RAM & hard drive. If you hear a series of beeps then the logic board is at least functioning well enough to realize it has no RAM. Reinsert the RAM if that's the case. Once the RAM is reinserted then go ahead & try a few power on/off cycles (remember you can't boot to an operating system without the hard drive, so you'll probably see a "no boot device found" message).
If this issue persists then it's probably a component failure on the board itself. Since we wouldn't be able to tell without taking the system apart to look at it it's going be easier to replace the logic board or the computer completely. My "shot in the dark" guess is that one or several of the miniature capacitors that regulates electricity to the board has suffered a failure & is not properly discharging the electricity it's stored within it. This could explain why once the system is on it stays on (as electricity continues to flow through the capacitors, nothing is stopping) and why once it's turned off or restarted the system won't reboot until some time later (because the capacitor(s) isn't discharging the electricity properly, therefore causing an electrical "traffic jam").
Hope this helps!
~Jim
dipr123
19 Posts
0
December 20th, 2014 19:00
pic is a minute after shutting down the laptop:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2v36d82&s=8#.VJY4tV4AA
gregory.jones
412 Posts
0
December 20th, 2014 22:00
Hello dipr123,
Well if you've ruled out this being the RAM, CMOS and power supply (I assume by replacing all these items) then it's fair to say you're probably having a logic board failure. Since the RAM & CMOS are the only things that can be replaced (and WiFi/Bluetooth on some models) then there isn't much to do except replace the logic board, I suspect.
If you haven't tried already you can see about reinstalling Windows completely (make sure to have all your data backed up if you decide to go that route!) to see if it's an OS issue. I'm not confident it'll work but if you've got the time to do it it also won't hurt anything.
Hope this helps.
Jim
dipr123
19 Posts
0
December 20th, 2014 23:00
hi jim, thanks for reply. i hear you about motherboard.
i am hoping for a simpler solution or more detail.
something bad is happening after the machine has been on and then gets turned off. to repeat:
starts easily the first time, restarts easily from windows restart
if i shut it down all the way and then try to start it again, the blue lights come on and stay on. also a very brief noise from the DVD. no Dell screen or bios or anything.
then a long delay before i can start it again <<<<<<<< !
pushing the power button down during that time just seems to make it repeat whatever it is doing, causing more delay until later it will start again.
dipr123
19 Posts
0
December 21st, 2014 14:00
jim -- sounds very likely. thanks again!