Dell D620 Laptop startup problem

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components Dell D620 Laptop startup problem

I have a Dell 620 Laptop that will not start - a sudden problem. The on-light
lights, but the hard drive lights but briefly.

I tried to cold boot by removing the battery and coin battery, which worked a
couple of times with my D610 that had the same problem, but this did not fix the problem.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,

Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

do you still have the HDD from the D610.?
I do not remember but are the compatible, I know that the D620 was a major overhaul from the D610..

re-insert the 'coin' battery but not the operating battery (power supply) and with just the A/C plugged in, exactly what happens.?
does the light on the power supply (green light on adapter that plugs into wall outlet) come on.?

re-insert battery and also A/C (depending on the first answer) and then tell me again what happens and how long the lights come on if they do..
any beeps at all.?

then after the power troubleshooting, we'll move on to the HDD and questions of possible physical damage (liquid, shock, etc.)

Message edited by malmental on 06-10-2011 at 04:56:59 PM

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

To malmental,

Thank you for your response. I finally have an afternoon off where I can address the problem I'm having.

I had the problem with the D620 laptop where it would not boot up; not with my D610. When I start the laptop, my power light goes on, and the hard drive light will light up briefly, but then go out as the computer shuts down. I thought this was a similar problem I had with the D610 - it did not start, so I assumed a boot problem, and removed the removeable battery and the internal battery, then reassembled them. The D610 did restart properly. However, with my D620, this operation of removing batteries and then replacing them did not work, the laptop would still not go on.

I just had ordered a replacement mother board and installed it, with suggestion from others online that the Nvidia card may have destroyed mother board components. The laptop still will not work. The hard drive light will light for an instant, then go out as the computer shuts down. This would leave the hard drive, or perhaps the memory at fault.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you,
Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

To malmental,

Also, I forgot to mention, the D610 and D620 hard drives are not the same. The D620 hard drive will interchange with a D630, but not back to the D610 hard drive.

Thank you,
Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

so you ordered a replacement system board for the D620 and it still wouldn't boot.?
yes, the D620 and D630 are physically the same, they even have the D620 upgrade which is basically a D630 slightly lessened.
are you certain you have the nVidia based gfx unit and not the Intel gfx unit.?
which nVidia gfx do you have in particular.?
I have the - 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache, in mine..

before we mess with the HDD, let's troubleshoot the power supply..

since (and if I read correctly) you replaced the system board to no avail, let's move on to the HDD.
instead of just replacing it with the same HDD, might as well look for possible upgrades;
kill two birds with one stone..

Message edited by malmental on 06-21-2011 at 01:42:10 AM

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

To malmental,

Thank you for your advise. New developments, starting with an error on my part: since the system board came with a CPU heat sink, I didn't look to see if it was with a CPU! I found out it didn't have one, so I put mine in, however, upon start-up the laptop now only the shift lock and scroll lock lights flash for about a minute, then the unit shuts down.

Another blog says this may be a memory problem, where the RAM is not recognized.

I will remove one, and then exchange it with the other.

I'm open to any more expertise also.

Thanks,
Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

I did fiddle with the RAM: I switched the RAM boards, using only one, and the laptop worked. While the laptop initially wanted a f2 bootup, it did accept the second RAM module.

I couldn't get the WLAN to work, so I used my old one, with success!

This troubleshooting process can be exasperating; but rewarding if it works!

Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

exasperating yes but when progress is made, it feels good..

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

To malmental,

Thank you for your help. I do have a question for you: what does generally happen if the hard drive fails in such a laptop? I've worked mostly with PCs.

Thank you,
Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

if the drive fails then it just fails...
you can still boot into BIOS but when attempting to go into Windows it should BSOD or freeze..

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

If keeping this unit, I'm still keeping mine until next year probably..
then if have to replace the HDD, maybe look at a SSD for replacement.
just a thought to throw at you.
the SSD and full set of RAM and that's basically maxing the unit out.

do you eBay.?

Message edited by malmental on 06-22-2011 at 01:33:10 PM

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

Yes, E-bay is how I got the motherboard for the D620.

Thanks for your help!
Walter

Reply to Cal Boy

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