C600 - Seems to turn on then shuts down, nothing is displayed

Question

Hello,   I have a Dell C600 in which the following scenario happens:   I press the power button, the power light turns on, caps lock, num lock, and scoll lock lights turn on all at once.  At this time, my display still doesnt show anything, and you can hear the harddrive spinning.  After about 15-20 seconds, the C600 powers off completly.    I confirmed harddrive, LCD screen, battery works by placing them in a known good C600.  AC adapter works as well.    Odd phenom is that if I leave the laptop off for a number of days and goto turn it on, it will boot up fine into win2k.  At this point I notice that the battery is almost depleted.  At this time, it just happened to me, and I was trying to locate the AC adapter for it and by the time I plugged it in, the C600 turned off and all the above problems are back again.    I'm Baffeled.  Please let me know of any suggestions I may try.   Thank You

JBlonde · Answer

Have you found a solution to this yet??  I have the exact same problem, but have not resolved it yet.   Thanks in advance for any advice you have.   Jarett

wackojedi · Answer

Well I been having this problem for a while now, and felt compelled to share it in to forums since I have seen topics very similar to this one.

AussieChris · Answer

Hi,

Try with an external monitor. If it works, you may have a faulty suspend switch. The switch is on the IR card, and is available as a seperate part to the MBD assy. It is a fairly common failure, and I reckon many motherboards would have been replaced instead. ( the switch assy comes with it )

Regards Chris

wackojedi · Answer

Well I connected the C600 to an external monitor and same symptoms occur. Nothing is displayed either on the LCD or CRT and the machine powers off after about 10-15 seconds.

BTW, where can I look up more info on the suspend switch?

Thanks

JBlonde · Answer

I left the laptop plugged in over night and it seemed to turn on for 10ish seconds but when the screen turned on, there was about a half inch pure white vertical line off-centered to the right (almost middle of LCD).   Any more suggestions? Thanks so much in advance Jarett

AussieChris · Answer

Hi,

The white line sounds like an LCD fault. Reseat everything and try again. The next step, take out the power plug and battery, then hold down the power button for a 10 seconds. Put the battery in and try again. It does sound like you may need a motherboard. The suspend switch is a reed switch. It is a glass tube and a magnet in the display will switch it. You can remove it and test it with a magnet and multi-meter.

Regards Chris

wackojedi · Answer

Heres my updated testing:

Plugging into external monitor failed

If the suspend switch is the compenent that sits on the right side and contains the IR, headphone and mic jacks, and hardrive and battery indicator light, I removed it and attempted to run the computer without this part and failed.

If anyone has a dead C600 and willing to part with this compenent, Ill gladly accept it.

Any other suggestions are helpful cause at this point the poor c600 is sitting gathering dust.

AussieChris · Answer

Hi,

The reed switch is between the IR device and the mic, the glass tube. Your problem seems to be elsewhere. You may need a motherboard. http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=712&prevaction=category&previd=18&prevstart=30 This is a link for one. Be aware that there are many, and dont all work with all speed CPU,s. Check before you buy if you decide to go that way.

Regards Chris

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