Black screen when cold booting

Hi Metamoron,

If the laptop is in a cold environment, condensation can form inside the computer. The condensate can cause unpredictable electrical problems and even hard drive failures.

Also check if this happens only when adapter connected or with only the battery. Ensure that you don’t leave the laptop in the car overnight.

Please run a diagnostics to check for any hardware issues on the system. Please follow the steps below to run the diagnostics.

Turn the computer off >restart the computer.

At the Dell logo screen, start tapping the F12 key a few times until you see the ‘One Time Boot Menu’ appear.

At the one time boot menu, press the down arrow key to highlight ‘Diagnostic’, and then press Enter to begin the diagnostics.

You can also refer to the link below.

http://dell.to/OUGnqT

I am not talking about booting it up in a cold environment, I am talking about the fact that the laptop has sat for a period of time, say over night, turned off.  So I turn it on in the morning, and nothing shows on the screen.  If I wait long enough I can hear the Windows 7 startup sound.  At that point I turn the computer off.  When I power it back up the screen works that time, I boot into Windows and go about my business.  It doesn’t matter if I have it plugged in or if I am running it on the battery.  If I turn it off and wait a short amount of time before I turn it back on it is still OK.  When I wait to long, and I am not sure how long that is, I am back to the same issue.  That is why I call it an issue at cold boot.

I have already run the diagnostics scan once, which I failed to mention, and all the hardware passes. There is some sort of hardware issue on a cold boot that causes the display to not start.  

Hi Metamoron,

Try connecting an external monitor and check if you face the same issue on boot up.

Harish,

I hooked up an external monitor to the laptop.  On cold boot it, the external monitor, had video.  Windows booted completely up.  At this point the touchpad is not working though, but the keyboard is.  Again everything is fine once I reboot.

Hi Metamoron,

I would suggest you to take a data back up and perform a factory restore.

Harish,

I performed a factory restore on the unit and no change.  The screen is still black when I boot it up cold.

Hi Metamoron,

This might be a hardware issue. Please check the warranty status from the below link and provide the system service tag through a private message if the system is under warranty.

http://dell.to/11Y5A6E

To send me a private message, click on my Forum username and then click Start conversation.

Unfortunately this system is no longer under warranty.  Any ideas on what the hardware issue might be?  I know that I am willing to pay a little bit to get it fixed, but I don't want to pay to much.

Hi Metamoron,

You could contact spares team on 1-800-357-3355 (US only).Kindly let me know if you are from a different region.

I have 'fixed' the issue at this point.  What I discovered was that if you had a thumb drive in the one USB port when you turned it on that there was no issue.  So I bought a compact drive and put it in there.  Last I knew there were no issues.

@Metamoron Although it's an old post. I am facing the same problem in 2020 with my Dell Optiplex AIO 7440. Mine is a 3 year old system, just out of warranty
How did you exactly fix this issue?

Thanks