15 R3, powers on but screen wont turn on

Question

Leading up to this I have had:

warnings about my intel SSD potentially failing
3 blue screens in the last 2 days
- MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
- THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
the last blue screen froze at 0% so I had to power it off manually (which probably corrupted the OS)

Ever since then it will not boot and the screen won't even turn on even though the laptop is clearly on and fans are whirling. I got some kind of Dell Support Assistant diagnostic to show up on the screen (I don't know how) that just ran a test of the RAM and found nothing but said 'No bootable devices found' at the end with only a 'Shutdown' option. I can't even get the BIOS to show up (I've tried F2, F12, Fn).

Don't know what to do.

Eimy_B · Answer

Hi @sm3388,

If the system is still in warranty send me a private message with the Service Tag so I can review your case. Otherwise you can call our out of warranty department at 866 287 6727 opt #4 for repair options.

gregory.jones · Answer

Hi sm3388,

If you've got series of messages that the SSD was failing, then that failure is what likely damaged the OS.

The 3 errors you received could also be tied to the that failure. MEMORY_MANAGEMENT could be indicative of the system not being able to load files from the SSD into RAM. THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED is somewhat more broad but generally means some processes couldn't complete properly. DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION indicates a failure to prioritize processes (for example, not being able to load drivers).

This one seems pretty cut and dry based on this, but try to see if you can get the Dell Diagnostics to run by pressing Fn & F12 at the same time immediately upon pressing the power button (keep pressing them over and over until you see the menu; it shouldn't take more than 10 seconds or so). This should give a boot menu and there should be a "Diagnostics" option there. Look here for additional information & expand the "How to Enter the Built-in Diagnostics (32-bit Diagnostics, ePSA and PSA)" section.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln115162/resolve-hardware-issues-with-built-in-and-online-diagnostics-epsa-or-psa-error-codes?lang=en

Whether you can or can't get it to run, go to support.dell.com and enter the Service Tag of your computer to find out if it's covered under any warranty.

Let us know what you find out.

sm3388 · Answer

I can't get anything to run, or if it is running I can't see it because the screen is off.  External monitor doesn't show anything either.  I had just enabled HyperV in Windows 10 so I could run Docker right before OS performance started suffering and the blue screens started.  I'm completely out of ideas since there's no way to get any feedback from the machine without a screen.

gregory.jones · Answer

Yeah, sm3388, that would be a hardware failure. If absolutely nothing is appearing on an external or the internal display it's a hardware issue.

I'd give your information to @Alienware-Eimy as requested & look at getting it serviced as soon as possible. Just make sure to stress that you were having issues with the Intel drive prior to the screen no longer displaying so that the service personnel can be sure to scrutinize it closely, as well.

Alienware

15 R3, powers on but screen wont turn on

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