This one's a weird one, and still unsolved despite it having gone back to Dell once.
Specs
i7-8750H, GTX 1060 Max Q, 500GB SSD & Seagate 7mm 1TB HDD. 17.3 IPS screen. This has the fingerprint reader in the power button.
Backstory
I bought this from eBay, from a wallpapering shop. £650 in 2020 which was a good price considering it's a gaming laptop. Physically it's in perfect shape, apart from the hinge mounts on the palmrest failing in the time I've had it (I have a new palmrest for it). The usual thin plastic crap modern build quality!
Issue 1
Anyhow, the issue is it power cycles three times on a cold start, before it finally starts and runs perfect as long as you want it to. It has done this since Day 1. It doesn't seem normal. I even transferred the remainder of the warranty from the old owner, with Dell, and sent it back to them. They sent it back as No Fault Found, even though my 30 years of IT experience tell me something isn't right.
Once it's running, it runs perfect. I've always used it on a cooling pad, and even undervolted the CPU as these are known to hit 100c under load, the cooling system is inadequate. Changed thermal pads and paste when I got it as I do this with every used system.
Issue 2
Over time it developed another issue where it won't shut down or restart, the screen goes off as it should just after the "Shutting down" or "Restarting" windows screen.
The HDD parks itself normally too, but then it just sits there, still powered. Keyboard lights up, mouse is still powered. You have to hold the power button to turn it off. It then does the power cycling thing again the next time it is turned on.
I thought it might have been a Windows corruption issue, but a full wipe and reinstall didn't fix it. It still won't shutdown/restart without help.
Several BIOS updates have done nothing, either. Dell's forums were absolutely useless. The warranty has now expired. I want rid of it so wanna try fixing it as well as rebuilding it with a new palm rest so the hinges are supported as the screw bosses have failed, the plastic round the metal thread bosses has collapsed. Something I've seen hundreds of times in my career.
I notice the spacebar seems squishy like something has been spilt, but there's no intrusion onto the board, no evidence of ingress even under the keyboard. Voltages I can see are all present. I have a hunch it might be the power board as it has a chip between it (on the CMOS battery PCB) and the mainboard but this is a guess until I study the schematic. It's like the Power Good signal is being asserted and pulled!
I've had Dells throughout my life and they are solid. These modern ultra thin ones are garbage though, not just Dell, either. They're all copying Apple's crap "thin light and overpowerful" designs. Like car manufacturers are pushing small turbo engines too hard.
Before I get into a deep dive, has anyone encountered this with these?
Specs
i7-8750H, GTX 1060 Max Q, 500GB SSD & Seagate 7mm 1TB HDD. 17.3 IPS screen. This has the fingerprint reader in the power button.
Backstory
I bought this from eBay, from a wallpapering shop. £650 in 2020 which was a good price considering it's a gaming laptop. Physically it's in perfect shape, apart from the hinge mounts on the palmrest failing in the time I've had it (I have a new palmrest for it). The usual thin plastic crap modern build quality!
Issue 1
Anyhow, the issue is it power cycles three times on a cold start, before it finally starts and runs perfect as long as you want it to. It has done this since Day 1. It doesn't seem normal. I even transferred the remainder of the warranty from the old owner, with Dell, and sent it back to them. They sent it back as No Fault Found, even though my 30 years of IT experience tell me something isn't right.
Once it's running, it runs perfect. I've always used it on a cooling pad, and even undervolted the CPU as these are known to hit 100c under load, the cooling system is inadequate. Changed thermal pads and paste when I got it as I do this with every used system.
Issue 2
Over time it developed another issue where it won't shut down or restart, the screen goes off as it should just after the "Shutting down" or "Restarting" windows screen.
The HDD parks itself normally too, but then it just sits there, still powered. Keyboard lights up, mouse is still powered. You have to hold the power button to turn it off. It then does the power cycling thing again the next time it is turned on.
I thought it might have been a Windows corruption issue, but a full wipe and reinstall didn't fix it. It still won't shutdown/restart without help.
Several BIOS updates have done nothing, either. Dell's forums were absolutely useless. The warranty has now expired. I want rid of it so wanna try fixing it as well as rebuilding it with a new palm rest so the hinges are supported as the screw bosses have failed, the plastic round the metal thread bosses has collapsed. Something I've seen hundreds of times in my career.
I notice the spacebar seems squishy like something has been spilt, but there's no intrusion onto the board, no evidence of ingress even under the keyboard. Voltages I can see are all present. I have a hunch it might be the power board as it has a chip between it (on the CMOS battery PCB) and the mainboard but this is a guess until I study the schematic. It's like the Power Good signal is being asserted and pulled!
I've had Dells throughout my life and they are solid. These modern ultra thin ones are garbage though, not just Dell, either. They're all copying Apple's crap "thin light and overpowerful" designs. Like car manufacturers are pushing small turbo engines too hard.
Before I get into a deep dive, has anyone encountered this with these?
