Inspiron 600m Power On Problem

I didn't bother to do any searches on it, but I will say that *yes*, your exact scenario sounds familiar.  And I think it's in more than just the 600m.  I think it's in the entire family (floorplan version) of this laptop series.  (i.e. 8600/d600/d500/500m etc. etc.)

You're doing the right thing by letting dell replace the system board.  The problem inherent to laptops is that so much is onboard and while there are places that do motherboard work, it's just not worth the time/effort involved to unsolder components from off the board and replace them.  Sooooo, the easiest/quickest/most cost effective thing to do is simply replace the entire board.

You will see many folks on these forums with different problems from a/c plugs to usb ports to intermittent power problems, to noises etc. etc.   All of these are typically fixed by replacing the board.  Sure, you if you were a clean-lab worker in a motherboard plant and had access to replacing a usb port plug off your motherboard, you could do that, but that's probably .000000002% of the people in the world and they're all located in 3rd world countries, so replacing the motherboard (while still a rather involved task) is the way these things are fixed by the other 99.99999998 percent of us.   LOL!!!  :smileywink:

I've been having the same problem you've been having, except my 600m's warranty expired before this problem started to occur. I'm suspecting either a defective component on the motherboard or a loose trace on the motherboard itself. I can make my computer turn on if I press down on different points while pushing the power button. If I release where I'm holding down while the computer is on, I can experience several things.

The keyboard stops working and the cursor moves to the bottom left corner of the screen. I also get a message (which I suspect comes from the BIOS) saying that my computer is docked to an incompatible dock. If I push enter, the computer keeps working for the next minute or two, until I get the same message or something else occurs. I do not own a dock nor have I ever docked to a dock. The computer can spontaneously give me a white BIOS screen and power off. It can freeze whenever it's moved.

I've disassembled my laptop completely, even removing the motherboard from its cradle hoping to find a bad component, loose connection or (gasp) a motherboard crack. So far, I've been unsuccessful in fixing my problem.

I've localized the problem area around the PCMCIA/PCI slot. I press down around that area, everything works. If I let go, the computer freezes/shuts down/gives me the error message. There's several chips in that area one of which is the BIOS chip, I believe. It might be coming loose, or something, my best guess. :\

So I've been without a working laptop for a while now.

BTW, I have seen a few reports similar to our problem, so we're not the only ones. It might be a widespread problem that Dell has been keeping hush-hush about because nobody really asked. It might be a design flaw brushed off by support as 'a bad motherboard'.