D610 dead except when in docking station

My daughter's D610 slowly died during a 10 week car holiday trip in Northen Australia. From the description of how it gradually happened I assumed it could be bad power connection and eventually the battery failed.

Completely dismantled very carefully and tested the power connector, whilst not perfect I believe the solder joints were acceptable.

When power supplies PA10 or PA12 plugged in directly to the laptop no lights of any kind, with or without battery. Checked with other battery too, same result. The power supplies do deliver right voltage and good under load.

Have a docking station and partly to my surprise with the 95W or PA10 power supply the D610 works fine. With the PA12 or 65W power supply the docking station refuses to work telling you to shut down and replace the power supply.

Ran into a problem when I tried to test with the car power converter, which delievered enough power but was not recognised so docking station again refused. The second D610 I later had to hand allowed the car power to be used but under "protest", warning that performance might be poor. Eventually I got the PA10 which was accepted.

I have a second D610 which works fine on all 3 power supplies. Now having option for swopping parts, I would like to know what I can try to figure out what is causing the power interruption?

The D610 is new to me so I am a bit cautious at this stage about dismantling and applying power flying lead wise but I am prepared to do this to make sure that power does get past the connector on the motherboard. I did however check very thoroughly with ohm meter and resoldered joints.

Unfortunately I am leaning towards the same conclusion as you. Just hoping there still are a few options to pursue.

Just found that I can obtain a D600 motherboard for a few cents plus transport any chance that is close enough to replace a D610 mobo.

I just think it is pity for good 'resources' going to the dump so I will push the reppair a bit, is not overly important (retired)

I am starting to look for schematic diagram for the D610, found this crowd:

http://www.laptopschematic.com/dell-...matic-diagram/

Has anybody dealt with them.

If so, is the material good quality?

Very reluctantly I have purchased the schematic. It is very detailed and I have not yet had a chance to compare with the actual pc's yet. There are no component layouts, schematic only.

For the tech type this is great. The pdf format can be zoomed and the clarity is very very acceptable.

My initial scan through the 50 pages has familiarised me with the designations. In this case one has to be real careful as for example DC_IN+ is not the same as +DC_IN, well they look like supplying different sections etc.

Have not worked out why the difference in power up yet.

Well took some time after I started reading the schmeatic. What I have found is on the motherboard there is as power supply bar called PWR_SRC (10-20V main power source) on the diagram. Near the docking connector, there is a simple solid state switch arrangement, provided the proper signal arrives at this switch the power from the docking station is let through to the PWR_SRC bar and from here feeds to a multitude of points. In my case when the PWR_SRC bar has the correct voltage range the pc works.

Using the plug pack power supply directly to the C610 laptop I think I have counted at least 6 stages of solid state switches that must receive the correct signals to activate PWR_SRC. This area is logically complicated and further difficult because of the small real estate of the pcb involved.

I only have the schematic, not test procedure, obviously this is a stage where in real life the motherboard would just be replaced, only curious minds would perservere. I would like to find a skilled technician that deals with component level repairs to get some guidance on the next step.

There are some indication on the diagrams I have that certain points are test points but there were no further information in the schematic information I purchased.

I am looking to see if any non working C610 come on the market and I would buy one of those, there is a local a person who deals with faulty ones when available.

MrEvil A pity I am not in the states, by the time transport to Australia added buying a second hand pc complete looks attractive I assume.