Dell Latitude trouble

[Chris1992]

I'm having trouble with the Dell laptop listed in my sig. Sometimes it refuses to turn on, instead giving me the power and HD lights and the Caps and Scroll Lock lights and then turn off after 10 seconds. Then, when it actually turns on, it freezes up after about 10 minutes in Win2000. I think it's a hardware problem. Input? I've called somebody and he says it's most likely the RAM, power, or heat. TIA

[willawake]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

internet search revealed ram problem with that model. one post even suggested bad solder joints on the board.
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread25744.html

boot problem suggests to me a post issue hardware related. if you hadnt mentioned the boot problem i would have said software issue/ram/hdd/heat. so we can basically eliminate software problem. i am guessing an age related hardware problem. was there any stability issue before the boot problems?

- if you have 2 sticks of ram then try booting with only one
- check the psu is supplying good voltage with a multimeter
- get hold of the dissasembly instructions to take a look inside (it is always best to proceed with them and carefully making sure you can put it all back together.
- once inside see if there is anything obvious
- clean out the vents and fan while you are in there

if it is the bad solder joints then you probably wont be able to see it

any more ideas guys?

[AK0R]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

Does it do the same thing whether you're starting up on the battery or the AC adapter? One more part to confirm or eliminate as a potential source of the problem.

[Chris1992]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

Freeze happens both on the battery and AC, startup prob happens only on AC. I only have 1 stick of RAM -- Samsung 128MB 8-chip PC100. Prob. will uprade as this stick seems poss. flaky.

[Chris1992]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

@Will: read your link but the MB seems to refuse start only within an hour or so of being turned off.

[arneson]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

Your bios can exhibit this problem if some settings are whack, like the latency or other speed settings.
I've seen bios settings cause those symptoms.

[Chris1992]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

no memory latency/speed settings anywhere in bios. finally got around to running memtest, froze after 23secs.

[arneson]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

Chris, I worked on a Latitude like yours, the owner had been rough on the USB port.
Kept pushing it up against the wall. After dissasembly he told me he had gold key agreement. The next day special delivery, Dell delivered a new motherboard.Sorry this isn't helpfull but you may examine all connections very closely.

[Chris1992]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

Ah. Where can I find disassembly instructions for my Latitude?

[willawake]

Re: Dell Latitude trouble

search on the net or pm some of the dell techs who visited here.

if you do disassemble, make sure you have a nice working place so you dont lose the little screws. i usually make a diagram on a piece of paper and place the screws on it so i dont mess up the reassembly.