Can I replace a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series power board with a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series power board?

[mrmike16]

So Dell made a really terrible decision. They have a transparent strip in the power button for an LED light to indicate if the power is on. A power indicator is a given in any laptop, no matter how cheap it is. However, Dell in all of it's genius decided to not include an LED bulb on laptops up to the Inspiron 7000 Series, despite leaving a transparent slot in the power button for it. Seriously, what happened to this brand- Are they trying to be like Apple?


Anyways, I want to fix this, as my laptop is no longer returnable and a power indicator is absolutely necessary. So the only thing I can think of is replacing it with one from the 7000 Series somehow (with some help probably).


This is for a Dell Inspiron 5559. I'm not sure which exact 7000 model I should get the part for to replace the one in the 5559 with.

Are they compatible? Is it extremely risky to the computer to replace it?

Is there an easier way? Like how Fn+H turns on the hard drive indicator (Took me a while to figure that one out)?


Thanks,
Mike

 

[holyprof]

It should be possible to glue a small LED (maybe SMD part is best) and connect it to power wires near (like the 5V fror USB ports which shouldn't be far). Use a LED with internal current limiter so you don't need to include a series resistor.

From the images and videos i see on the Internet, it's hard to give you further advice without seeing the laptop myself.

If Dell uses the same board for all models (very common) but just didn't include the LED, it might be possible to solder it directly to the board below the on/off switch.

 

[mrmike16]

It should be possible to glue a small LED (maybe SMD part is best) and connect it to power wires near (like the 5V fror USB ports which shouldn't be far). Use a LED with internal current limiter so you don't need to include a series resistor.

From the images and videos i see on the Internet, it's hard to give you further advice without seeing the laptop myself.

If Dell uses the same board for all models (very common) but just didn't include the LED, it might be possible to solder it directly to the board below the on/off switch.

I would definitely need help with that! I never soldered before. Well, looking at the external of the laptop probably won't help you much, so not sure what to do about that.

Wouldn't it need to have some sort of connection to the power board to have that blinking sleep functionality and all?

 

[Corwin65]

Your lack of experience soldering leads me to this solution.

Press the spacebar, if it wakes up then do your "stuff".

If it does not wake up, press the power button to turn it on.

Do you really want to take it apart and learn to solder on something so special?

 

[mrmike16]

Your lack of experience soldering leads me to this solution.

Press the spacebar, if it wakes up then do your "stuff".

If it does not wake up, press the power button to turn it on.

Do you really want to take it apart and learn to solder on something so special?

That did not contribute to the question at all. I'm not an idiot- I would have a friend do the hardware part. I know how to wake a laptop up or turn it on. Does that have anything to do with the question? Not really. I wouldn't want to turn on my computer just to see if it was off. Nobody would.

I understand you're trying to help me be cautious, but at least have some relevant information to the posted question before you call it a solution.

 

[COLGeek]

Your lack of experience soldering leads me to this solution.

Press the spacebar, if it wakes up then do your "stuff".

If it does not wake up, press the power button to turn it on.

Do you really want to take it apart and learn to solder on something so special?

That did not contribute to the question at all. I'm not an idiot- I would have a friend do the hardware part. I know how to wake a laptop up or turn it on. Does that have anything to do with the question? Not really. I wouldn't want to turn on my computer just to see if it was off. Nobody would.

I understand you're trying to help me be cautious, but at least have some relevant information to the posted question before you call it a solution.

The suggestion is valid. Given your inexperience, learning to solder with a working laptop could result in a broken laptop. This was actually good advice.

A thanks, but no thanks, is better than bashing another. Please keep that in mind. Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

It should be possible to glue a small LED (maybe SMD part is best) and connect it to power wires near (like the 5V fror USB ports which shouldn't be far). Use a LED with internal current limiter so you don't need to include a series resistor.

From the images and videos i see on the Internet, it's hard to give you further advice without seeing the laptop myself.

If Dell uses the same board for all models (very common) but just didn't include the LED, it might be possible to solder it directly to the board below the on/off switch.

I would definitely need help with that! I never soldered before. Well, looking at the external of the laptop probably won't help you much, so not sure what to do about that.

Wouldn't it need to have some sort of connection to the power board to have that blinking sleep functionality and all?

There are various states of a laptop power.
ON
Idle
Idle+screensaver
Sleep
Hibernate
OFF

Which is this LED supposed to represent? On a system that does not come from the factory with that teeny bit of brain, simply soldering an LED on to a couple of contacts is worse than useless.

 

[mrmike16]

It should be possible to glue a small LED (maybe SMD part is best) and connect it to power wires near (like the 5V fror USB ports which shouldn't be far). Use a LED with internal current limiter so you don't need to include a series resistor.

From the images and videos i see on the Internet, it's hard to give you further advice without seeing the laptop myself.

If Dell uses the same board for all models (very common) but just didn't include the LED, it might be possible to solder it directly to the board below the on/off switch.

I would definitely need help with that! I never soldered before. Well, looking at the external of the laptop probably won't help you much, so not sure what to do about that.

Wouldn't it need to have some sort of connection to the power board to have that blinking sleep functionality and all?

There are various states of a laptop power.
ON
Idle
Idle+screensaver
Sleep
Hibernate
OFF

Which is this LED supposed to represent? On a system that does not come from the factory with that teeny bit of brain, simply soldering an LED on to a couple of contacts is worse than useless.

Apologies for my previous reply.
That's what I was asking- I don't think soldering would work.
So, back to my original question: Could I replace the power board (Which I have done before, but only with parts designed for that specific model) with a power board for a higher model that includes an LED light? If so, which model would be compatible? Dell wouldn't answer this question, which is understandable- They are only allowed to do what the warranty allows them to do.

 

[USAFRet]

Can you swap in a different power board? Completely unknown.

Someone would have to research the pinouts in both directions.
Then determine the physical layout. Does it fit?
Then determine what specific chunk of code controls that LED state.