You could try to reseat the CPU or video board, but this can void your warranty if they (Dell) detect fingerprints on the heatpipe/heatsink.
However I'd suggest that you send it in to let Dell fix it as you are still under warranty. The fact that you can easily reproduce the crash will be very helpful when contacting technical support.
I agree - deal with it under warranty. You might consider adding warranty and even upgrading to onsite if you only have one year - it must be added to before the warranty runs out.
Actually.. whats eerie about this is I hopped on the messageboard to see if I could find an old post relating to my problem... and here you post this just today. Weird
I am having, and literally, the EXACT same problem you are. Same exact symptoms. Mine is touchy when I grab it underneath to move it.. like going from my lap to a desk. Whenever I put the slightest pressure underneath (usually around where the memory is), the notebook acts just like yours. Glad to know its not just me. I still have 60 days or so worth of warranty left. I hope this is something that can be fixed w/out having to send it into Dell...
What are you planning on doing? Have you called tech support yet?
OK sorry about not editing my last two posts.. but for some reason I am having problems doing that.. so I am creating a third post.
However, this is getting pretty strange by the minute. I just hopped on the Power Management forums here, and someone else is having the SAME problem.. and it started around the same exact date as us. Now that is just too much of a coincidence.. wouldnt you agree? Anyways, here is the link below to that thread
I emailed Dell in Sweden about it a few days ago, haven't gotten a reply yet.
Will phone them next week if they don't reply
Another problem is that I bought the comp in the states, and now I'm in sweden.
I asked them in the email wether the swedish technicians
could take care of it, or if it had to be sent back to the states.
One would almost suspect this was some sort of time triggered thingie,
like there being a button inside the shell or summin,
but that's not very likely, is it :)
About extending the warranty, I just might do that. 240$ for two more
years is a lot cheaper than having to by a new one every nine months...
And I'm NOT going to fix this myself unless there's a really easy way to do it.
I wouldn't want to risk making things worse, cause it is actually working
to some degree right now, and I value it highly.
Hope everything is solved eventually. Will be back if anything developes.
This has started happening to my 5150 today as well.
Very strange that it should happen to several of us all at the same time - how can a hardware issue affect lots of people simultaneously. If it was a software problem, I would put it down to a virus or something, but a hardware problem? Bizarre.
Anyway, I've e-mailed support (I'm in the UK) and I'll let you know if they have anything interesting to say.
Please do the same and post here if you get any more info on this.
Ok, got my reply from the swedish technical staff.
It was quite uninformative.. Actually, it didn't have anything to do with my problem.
They want me to do a "service tag transfer" to Sweden for my computer. Is that safe? Anyone had any bad experience from it?
Maybe I should just take the extra few weeks it would take to send the stuff to the states?
My problem does sound very similar to yours. In fact my problem has progressively been getting worse in fact now the computer on AC no battery or with battery does not want to start. It beginnes to power up then power down but the power light stays on. Then the power my startup again and now I am in a cycle. I am really worried all I can say is I am glad I got the 4 year warrenty on this computer. Needless to say Dell will definitly be getting a call tomorrow to report this.
On a side note has anyone else run the Dell utility (provided they can get the computer to boot and stay on). What were your results? My computer claims that my hardware is A OK. I would hardly call what I have A OK.
Also has anyone got their computers returned from service for the same problem. What did they say was wrong?
So now we try to powerup agian with me watching the LED on the charger to make sure it stayes constant it did. Once agian i have a blinking power light on the fornt and the fan went on and off. Nothing else happend. Unplug and get rid of power light. The battery may or may not have been plugged in with the adapter in. We try one more way to get to the diagnostic FN (the blue key and the power key). Once again we get the blinkin power liht and the fan goes on and off.
No I am instructed to unplug the battery and ac adapter. Then I am instucted to hold the power key for 15 seconds. This is some sort of reset to the component. it wips the memory of what is there and makes the system try to find it agian. Reinster the power plug and hit power. You got it. NOTHING. Now we are really getting desperate.
I am next instructed to remove the battery and AC flip the machine over and remove the pannle labled m. Once inside I am instructed to remove the memory and look for any signs of damage. Corrosions anything. Looks fine. I reinsert the memory and we try the power up sequence again. same thing as before blinging light and fan on and off. see part 4
I decided I could not wait and called tech support and talked with them for about an hour and a half. Here is to the best of my ablity the an account of what I have learned and done.
Let me start with sympotoms and how they progressed:
At first it was intermitent power failure during boot up and during normal operation. The power button would still blink but nothing eles was happening. I first attributed this to a Windows operating system issue or conflict. At this point I was calling Microsoft about Service Pack 2.
This gradualluy progressed to a problem at boot where the computer would loop at the Bios screen and the fan would cycle on and off. At one point the computer did not even want to shut down the fan was cycling on and off. Called Dell suspecting the battery. After talking with the tech I learned about the F12 diagnostic test, which is done as followin at the intial boot screen hit F12 then select diagnostic. The will then perform a few basic system test. Once completed another screen will come up that gives you several options on level of diagnostic. I was told to select the extended button. Note: This is a pre windows boot level program intended to check only the functionality of the hardware. Hence any windows conflicts are not there.
My computer powered down half way through this check. Once again the only indicator light that was working was the blinking power light. I was forced to due a hard reset by holding down the power key for about 4 seconds. Callded tech support and they asked me to run this over. They tech stayed on the line the whole time (1 1/2 hours). This was rather nice that the tech took the time. The process finished with no errors being reported. based on this the tech agreed that i was probable talking about a battery issue. So we talked and he and I agreed that if it truely was a battery issue I could test this by popping out the battery and running under AC for a few days.
So that night I started and stoped the computer a few time cold and warm. Everything was going pretty good. Looked like a battery issue. Right. Wrong. After about a day of this the problem proceded to get worse. The computer now was having trouble powering up under direct AC. The power light would come on the fan would come on and then i might or ming not see the boot screen. the computer would shut down and the fan might or might not cycle. Note: the computer if it powered and got running appeared normal. Battery indicators said full, lights working ect..
No it gets worse. The next moring the computer will not even boot up the first few times I try it. Almost as if it needed to warm up or something. But did finally boot. Later that night at home tryed to boot nothing works battry in/out. All that happens is that the computer fan comes on the power light comes on and then within a second powers down. The power led continues to blink.
Now comes the fun part. Whoo Baby I get to call tech support again. Here is what happens. With the AC in they have me hold the i key (this is the key next to power on key for a few second). This was supposed to be another way to get to the diagnostics screen I mentioned earlier. Nada, nohing happens no lights no nothing on the computer screen. So now we check the charger to make sure the Green LED indicator stays on. I also check the pin on the plug and back of the computer. Part 3 to come.
HMKrieps
713 Posts
0
September 29th, 2004 12:00
However I'd suggest that you send it in to let Dell fix it as you are still under warranty. The fact that you can easily reproduce the crash will be very helpful when contacting technical support.
johnallg
2 Intern
•
7.3K Posts
0
September 29th, 2004 19:00
KingSnake1
2 Intern
•
193 Posts
0
September 30th, 2004 00:00
KingSnake1
2 Intern
•
193 Posts
0
September 30th, 2004 00:00
I am having, and literally, the EXACT same problem you are. Same exact symptoms. Mine is touchy when I grab it underneath to move it.. like going from my lap to a desk. Whenever I put the slightest pressure underneath (usually around where the memory is), the notebook acts just like yours. Glad to know its not just me. I still have 60 days or so worth of warranty left. I hope this is something that can be fixed w/out having to send it into Dell...
What are you planning on doing? Have you called tech support yet?
KingSnake1
2 Intern
•
193 Posts
0
September 30th, 2004 01:00
However, this is getting pretty strange by the minute. I just hopped on the Power Management forums here, and someone else is having the SAME problem.. and it started around the same exact date as us. Now that is just too much of a coincidence.. wouldnt you agree? Anyways, here is the link below to that thread
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_power&message.id=28469
99erist
1 Rookie
•
17 Posts
0
September 30th, 2004 15:00
I emailed Dell in Sweden about it a few days ago, haven't gotten a reply yet.
Will phone them next week if they don't reply
Another problem is that I bought the comp in the states, and now I'm in sweden.
I asked them in the email wether the swedish technicians
could take care of it, or if it had to be sent back to the states.
One would almost suspect this was some sort of time triggered thingie,
like there being a button inside the shell or summin,
but that's not very likely, is it :)
About extending the warranty, I just might do that. 240$ for two more
years is a lot cheaper than having to by a new one every nine months...
And I'm NOT going to fix this myself unless there's a really easy way to do it.
I wouldn't want to risk making things worse, cause it is actually working
to some degree right now, and I value it highly.
Hope everything is solved eventually. Will be back if anything developes.
cordless_larry
69 Posts
0
September 30th, 2004 20:00
This has started happening to my 5150 today as well.
Very strange that it should happen to several of us all at the same time - how can a hardware issue affect lots of people simultaneously. If it was a software problem, I would put it down to a virus or something, but a hardware problem? Bizarre.
Anyway, I've e-mailed support (I'm in the UK) and I'll let you know if they have anything interesting to say.
Please do the same and post here if you get any more info on this.
KingSnake1
2 Intern
•
193 Posts
0
October 1st, 2004 00:00
99erist
1 Rookie
•
17 Posts
0
October 1st, 2004 12:00
It was quite uninformative.. Actually, it didn't have anything to do with my problem.
They want me to do a "service tag transfer" to Sweden for my computer. Is that safe? Anyone had any bad experience from it?
Maybe I should just take the extra few weeks it would take to send the stuff to the states?
cordless_larry
69 Posts
0
October 1st, 2004 12:00
Another victim of this problem:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=166723
KingSnake1
2 Intern
•
193 Posts
0
October 1st, 2004 17:00
lisowskimf
63 Posts
0
October 2nd, 2004 01:00
My problem does sound very similar to yours. In fact my problem has progressively been getting worse in fact now the computer on AC no battery or with battery does not want to start. It beginnes to power up then power down but the power light stays on. Then the power my startup again and now I am in a cycle. I am really worried all I can say is I am glad I got the 4 year warrenty on this computer. Needless to say Dell will definitly be getting a call tomorrow to report this.
On a side note has anyone else run the Dell utility (provided they can get the computer to boot and stay on). What were your results? My computer claims that my hardware is A OK. I would hardly call what I have A OK.
Also has anyone got their computers returned from service for the same problem. What did they say was wrong?
lisowskimf
63 Posts
0
October 2nd, 2004 03:00
So now we try to powerup agian with me watching the LED on the charger to make sure it stayes constant it did. Once agian i have a blinking power light on the fornt and the fan went on and off. Nothing else happend. Unplug and get rid of power light. The battery may or may not have been plugged in with the adapter in. We try one more way to get to the diagnostic FN (the blue key and the power key). Once again we get the blinkin power liht and the fan goes on and off.
No I am instructed to unplug the battery and ac adapter. Then I am instucted to hold the power key for 15 seconds. This is some sort of reset to the component. it wips the memory of what is there and makes the system try to find it agian. Reinster the power plug and hit power. You got it. NOTHING. Now we are really getting desperate.
I am next instructed to remove the battery and AC flip the machine over and remove the pannle labled m. Once inside I am instructed to remove the memory and look for any signs of damage. Corrosions anything. Looks fine. I reinsert the memory and we try the power up sequence again. same thing as before blinging light and fan on and off. see part 4
lisowskimf
63 Posts
0
October 2nd, 2004 03:00
I decided I could not wait and called tech support and talked with them for about an hour and a half. Here is to the best of my ablity the an account of what I have learned and done.
Let me start with sympotoms and how they progressed:
At first it was intermitent power failure during boot up and during normal operation. The power button would still blink but nothing eles was happening. I first attributed this to a Windows operating system issue or conflict. At this point I was calling Microsoft about Service Pack 2.
This gradualluy progressed to a problem at boot where the computer would loop at the Bios screen and the fan would cycle on and off. At one point the computer did not even want to shut down the fan was cycling on and off. Called Dell suspecting the battery. After talking with the tech I learned about the F12 diagnostic test, which is done as followin at the intial boot screen hit F12 then select diagnostic. The will then perform a few basic system test. Once completed another screen will come up that gives you several options on level of diagnostic. I was told to select the extended button. Note: This is a pre windows boot level program intended to check only the functionality of the hardware. Hence any windows conflicts are not there.
My computer powered down half way through this check. Once again the only indicator light that was working was the blinking power light. I was forced to due a hard reset by holding down the power key for about 4 seconds. Callded tech support and they asked me to run this over. They tech stayed on the line the whole time (1 1/2 hours). This was rather nice that the tech took the time. The process finished with no errors being reported. based on this the tech agreed that i was probable talking about a battery issue. So we talked and he and I agreed that if it truely was a battery issue I could test this by popping out the battery and running under AC for a few days.
I will stop here and post part 2 in a few minutes
lisowskimf
63 Posts
0
October 2nd, 2004 03:00
So that night I started and stoped the computer a few time cold and warm. Everything was going pretty good. Looked like a battery issue. Right. Wrong. After about a day of this the problem proceded to get worse. The computer now was having trouble powering up under direct AC. The power light would come on the fan would come on and then i might or ming not see the boot screen. the computer would shut down and the fan might or might not cycle. Note: the computer if it powered and got running appeared normal. Battery indicators said full, lights working ect..
No it gets worse. The next moring the computer will not even boot up the first few times I try it. Almost as if it needed to warm up or something. But did finally boot. Later that night at home tryed to boot nothing works battry in/out. All that happens is that the computer fan comes on the power light comes on and then within a second powers down. The power led continues to blink.
Now comes the fun part. Whoo Baby I get to call tech support again. Here is what happens. With the AC in they have me hold the i key (this is the key next to power on key for a few second). This was supposed to be another way to get to the diagnostics screen I mentioned earlier. Nada, nohing happens no lights no nothing on the computer screen. So now we check the charger to make sure the Green LED indicator stays on. I also check the pin on the plug and back of the computer. Part 3 to come.