Dell Latitude E6510 Black screen before posting during cold boot

Hi,

I would suggest you to update the BIOS on the computer. Please enter your service tag # on the link below, then download the BIOS required onto the system and install it.

http://dell.to/18r60nI

Also, I would suggest that you run the diagnostics on the computer by following the steps mentioned in the video below and check if there is any issue with the hardware on your system.

http://dell.to/164l6g4

Please let us know if this helps.

I received a new XPS13 9343 last week and unpacked it yesterday (Friday 4/24/2015). When I first opened the lid and powered it up there was no display. It was completely black, not blank. I went to close the lid and when slightly jarring it I noticed that the initial screen appeared but briefly.

After analyzing the symptom I decided:

• It is a physical issue - not firmware related
• While I apply very slight pressure compressing the lower right corner of the display it will function
• It is the LCD backlight that is intermittent as the image is perfect otherwise and turns on an off with pressure not quite instantaneously
• Once the laptop warms (2 minutes) the display becomes completely reliable and unaffected by lid motion

My bet is that this is a problem with the conductive rubber mounting strip used to make the many connections to the LCD panel. Envision a very thin foam double sided tape with the characteristic that current can only flow front to back through the thin dimension of the tape. Adjacent pads (connection points) are not shorted by the tape and pads (carefully) aligned on the other side of the tape are connected. Its very ingenious actually.

In my case probably the circuit for the LCD backlight is at the end of a strip on the bottom right. It didn't properly bond during production. Probably once current flows through it (when I compress the display or hold the lid in just the right position) the adhesive warms and grabs hold. It probably doesn't take much to pass the low currents involved. I wonder if after some use or exposure to warmer operating conditions if it might not finally bond permanently and the issue go away?

Anyway this is what happens when you present an engineer with a problem, it gets over analyzed. You would like to think that within hours of posting this a bunch of production engineers will run over to all of the fixtures in their facilities that are used to assemble the displays and make sure there isn't one out of adjustment. Uneven clamping force or some such science.

The problem now for me is in finding out if I need to replace it and how much of a pain that is going to be. Unfortunately now I don't want to migrate from my prior laptop if I am going to have to send this one off someplace.

In some way this represents a security feature. Haha. I mean there is a trick to getting the thing to come up that I would only know. Another level of security at no extra charge. Still, one wishes to not have a quality concern floating in the back of your mind.

But, this might be your issue too. Anyone else have this experience?

I tried the BIO update and the 10 sec of blank screen before posting still remains.

Just to follow-up on my post. In my case for once my wishful thinking came to pass. After a couple of days the adhesive must have bonded or something. My XPS 13 no longer exhibits the symptoms. It definitely improved slowly. When I first received the machine I had trouble keeping the display active in order to complete the initialization. After a day or so I could tell that the display was still a little intermittent but it would only blank when I wiggled it to check it. Now it is solid and reliable. Hopefully it won't return.

It's a good outcome. I hope you and others with issues have the same luck.

Hi,

Please follow the steps mentioned below to load the BIOS to defaults and check for issue resolution.

1. Reboot the computer.
2. When prompted during POST, press the key to enter the setup screen.
3. On the System Setup screen, press the key.
4. Press the key on Yes to Load Optimized Defaults and restart the computer.