XPS M1330 Power Problem

the power supply on the motherboard is gone. Since it is intergrated onto the board you will need to replace the motherboard.

This site lists both versions of the board

Yes, the problem happened just a few hours ago.

The motherboard in my system is a replacement board that a Dell engineer fitted under warranty about 9 months ago. My 12-month warranty expired in January...

Did this problem just happen to you today?  I did a Shutdown last night in order to run a Windows Update, and this morning when I turned my XPS M1330 on, it overheated within about 5 mins, shut itself down, and now I am basically having the exact same problem that you are.  If your problem occured at the same time, I am wondering if that is just a coincidence?

I can't believe I have to pay $300 for this.  I appreciate the first response, but does anyone else have any alternate opinions???

If the LED on the adapter goes out when you plug in the notebook end of the power cable, the board is faulty - it will need to be replaced - the cost should run between $400 and $500.

If you decide on replacment rather than repair, consider a few things:  first, notebooks need repair at the rate of about 1 in 4 for the first three years (regardless of brand).  And despite the cost of a board with Dell, there ARE others that are far worse - a board for an HP, Toshiba, Sony or Apple notebook will run about 2-3 times the cost of what Dell charges.  So, if you replace - and don't want to wind up in the same boat, buy a 3-year minimum warranty on anything you replace the M1330 with.

Hello Husky,

Thanks for your input.  Here is exactly what my LEDs do; if you can diagnose anything from this, I would appreciate greatly:

Battery In:

LED on adapter comes on when plugged into wall (obviously), and does NOT ever go out after plugging into notebook.  However, after plugging into notebook, the LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) that looks like a battery blinks VERY slowly.  This continues until I press the power button, at which point the Power LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) blinks very briefly one time.  Then all LEDs on the notebook go off (the power and the battery indicators).  Again, the LED on the adapter itself never turns off.

Battery Out:

Again, LED on adapter comes on when plugged into wall, and does NOT ever go out after plugging into notebook.  However, after plugging into notebook, the LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) that looks like a battery blinks just ONE time.  Never again.  Then, if I press the power button, the Power LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) blinks very briefly one time.  After that, no more LEDs on notebook.  Again, the LED on the adapter itself never turns off.

Would appreciate any add'l help (if any) that anyone could give based on these specifics!  Again, just to reiterate, this all started this morning; I booted up my computer for the first time after a Windows Update, it finished the update and seemed to be working fine, until it got very hot and suddenly shut down after about 5 mins.  Battery was completely charged at that time (but not plugged in).

To the OP (and anyone else with similar tales of broken computers just after warranty expires):

IF you used a credit card for purchase, a lot of the time your credit card company will extend the original warranty by up to 1 year.  I just got off the phone with Mastercard, and it sounds like they might cover this repair (will find out for sure tomorrow).  So if you used a credit card, call and ask.

In this case, try reseating (remove and reinstall) both memory modules.  If the system won't then power up, it's a bad mainboard.

Unfortunately, though the CPU will throttle down to save itself, the board can be damaged by a single overheating event, just as your car's engine can be permanently damaged if it overheats just once, and just for a few minutes.

Still nothing.  Thank you again though for your input.

It kills me that my laptop would (apparently) overheat and fry its motherboard in less than 5 mins, rather than detect the heat and save itself.  Epic lose.

Remember a laptop unlike a desktop has all the major componets on the motherboard so if one part fails the only recourse is to replace the whole system board.

This story has a happy ending for me, in that as a gesture of goodwill Dell replaced the motherboard free of charge. I will now look into extending the warranty for another two years.

Thanks for the help.

That is so exciting to hear!   I've got the short circuit problem, and all I'm getting is bad will.  Every rep is happy to explain that my remaining "warranty" only covers the video card, and asks if I would like to be connected to the pay service, but nobody is willing to actually fix it.  The overall warranty supposedly expired in March, even though the website says I have a "Rapid Response Depot" warranty through next year.  No love, probably because I'm speaking with the wrong people.

RNobes or anyone: Please, please, please point me toward the "nice" dell folks who will stand behind their product and offer a gesture of goodwill.  Thanks so much!

Same story here.

Bought the beast in August 2007.

GPU failed Dec 2008, replaced mobo under the extended warranty.

June 2009 woke up tried to switch it on no power, plugged in the power supply, the blue LED switched off.

Got the mobo replaced by my company but I am interested to find out the exact cause of this as we have another couple M1330 here. DELL are point blank refusing to diagnose the faulty board just now.

I did notice that the GPU temperature started creeping up last month so it may be another issue with NVidia chips, but DELL appear not to be interested...

I have had around 10 DELL laptops over the past few years and most of them are still going strong but the M1330 has seriously made me think about dealing with DELL.

Hey Bob,

Is your problem sorted out? Even I'm facing the same (LED on adapter comes on when plugged into wall (obviously), and does NOT ever go out after plugging into notebook.  However, after plugging into notebook, the LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) that looks like a battery blinks VERY slowly.  This continues until I press the power button, at which point the Power LED on the front of the notebook (next to headphone jack) blinks very briefly one time.  Then all LEDs on the notebook go off (the power and the battery indicators).  Again, the LED on the adapter itself never turns off.). Just started few hours back. Worst thing is my warranty has expired.

Please help!!!!

Shiv...

Shiv,

Unfortunately, my computer was about 4 months out of warranty, and I had to pay to get mine fixed.  Needed a new motherboard.  Staples told me 10 business days and $400; turns out, they tell you 10 days, but don't actually mean it.  Took 24 business days; they kept coming up with excuses about how Dell didn't stock extra boards.  Very annoying.  I wouldn't recommend them unless you have nowhere else to go.  But, the computer does seem to work fine ever since (I'm on it right now).  No data loss, either.

If you contact Dell, and are nice, and your warranty didn't run out very long ago, and you get lucky with who you talk to, then I hear that they will sometimes replace the board for free.  I would recommend trying that before you pay for a new board.  Dell must know that this is obviously not an isolated problem.  This is a bad part and/or configuration.

Good luck!

Bob