What's involved in swapping other motherboards? I have built several desktop PCs but have never dinked around too much with laptops. Do i just remove all ~10 screws on the back?
First I would get the
floppy version and make the floppy and try and boot to it. It just might have enough brains to boot to the floppy and run the flash.
I had the exact same problem. My problem started with installing new batteries, which seemed as if they would not charge without the new bios that came with them, so I installed it and WHAM, nothing. I worked the problem and I found that if I took everything out of all of the removeable slots, PCMCIA, USB, battery and swappable bays then I was suddenly able to start working again. Through trial and error I traced the problem down to the right battery bay. The computer worked fine as I added other parts, but as soon as I added a battery to the right bay, it froze again. I inserted one of the batteries into the left bay and it started to charge, finally, once the system recognized that battery I was able to move it to the right bay and the problem has gone away and both batteries now charge and the system works pretty well.
One remaining problem I have is that if I have the bios set to battery optimization under the power settings, the computer is really really jumpy (mouse stalls and then jumps to catch up etc) when I insert the power cord. If I change the bios back to maximum performance then the problem goes away, but the batteries don't last as long (which was rather annoying on a nine-hour flight this weekend).
Maybe this info will help you. If anyone else has an idea about the battery optimization vs. max performance I would appreciate it.
I actually had the same power-on issue with the Inspiron 8600 when I first got it. A week later, the issue became worse where it wouldn't boot up 9 out of 10 times. I returned it for another one. So, what I'm saying is that it may not necessarily be a BIOS Update issue (unless of course whoever upgraded my brand-new laptop's BIOS messed up)
psuwtb
3 Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 15:00
That's great, any other suggestions, remove the batteries, etc. ?
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 15:00
if that's the case you're looking for a new m/board.
Acrufox
1 Rookie
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98 Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 20:00
Dead is dead there is no other suggestion than to take it in to be serviced :P
Marc
psuwtb
3 Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 21:00
What's involved in swapping other motherboards? I have built several desktop PCs but have never dinked around too much with laptops. Do i just remove all ~10 screws on the back?
schmieg
335 Posts
0
May 12th, 2004 03:00
Before replacing the motherboard, you might want to check and see if the BIOS chip is socketed and logon to
http://www.badflash.com/biosdownload.html
and see if they have a BIOS for the machine. It might save you some money and heartache.
johnallg
2 Intern
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7.3K Posts
0
May 12th, 2004 19:00
unit1444
1 Message
0
May 30th, 2004 16:00
Bill,
I had the exact same problem. My problem started with installing new batteries, which seemed as if they would not charge without the new bios that came with them, so I installed it and WHAM, nothing. I worked the problem and I found that if I took everything out of all of the removeable slots, PCMCIA, USB, battery and swappable bays then I was suddenly able to start working again. Through trial and error I traced the problem down to the right battery bay. The computer worked fine as I added other parts, but as soon as I added a battery to the right bay, it froze again. I inserted one of the batteries into the left bay and it started to charge, finally, once the system recognized that battery I was able to move it to the right bay and the problem has gone away and both batteries now charge and the system works pretty well.
One remaining problem I have is that if I have the bios set to battery optimization under the power settings, the computer is really really jumpy (mouse stalls and then jumps to catch up etc) when I insert the power cord. If I change the bios back to maximum performance then the problem goes away, but the batteries don't last as long (which was rather annoying on a nine-hour flight this weekend).
Maybe this info will help you. If anyone else has an idea about the battery optimization vs. max performance I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chris
hksscom
20 Posts
0
June 17th, 2004 19:00
I actually had the same power-on issue with the Inspiron 8600 when I first got it. A week later, the issue became worse where it wouldn't boot up 9 out of 10 times. I returned it for another one. So, what I'm saying is that it may not necessarily be a BIOS Update issue (unless of course whoever upgraded my brand-new laptop's BIOS messed up)
Michael