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help, won't boot up - Page 3

post #41 of 62
7/9/04 at 4:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by remmeh
pck831: i have had no problems so far with my replacement.
thats slightly more reassuring knowing that at least someone has a working 8600, how long have u had it for?
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post #42 of 62
7/9/04 at 9:21am
i got my replacement june 29, 2004.
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post #43 of 62
7/9/04 at 10:18am
Thread Starter 
oh thats not that long. do tell us if u run into any problem. i have yet to see anyone with a 8600c free of these problems

anyway, dell sending the parts to technician, so i will get it fixed this monday. however my laptop is booting ok now, strange.

anyway i wanna see something replaced(ie motherboard or something major) otherwise i will request for a whole system replacement
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post #44 of 62
7/9/04 at 10:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pck831
however my laptop is booting ok now, strange.
Like I said - this seems to be an intermittent thing - which makes it even harder to diagnose, and harder to know whether you've *really* got rid of it or not. For example, mine also has booted fine for the past two days...maybe it's something to do with the phase of the moon?
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post #45 of 62
7/9/04 at 10:49am
Dell really needs to look at this problem. After the first day when I had this problem multiple times and could not get the laptop to work for 2 hours, I have had this problem only once today and then it booted on a subsequent try. I did not remove ram or battery etc..I do not think removing those parts and putting them back is a solution, it may only be chance that made it work after doing that.
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post #46 of 62
7/9/04 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by krjx
Dell really needs to look at this problem. After the first day when I had this problem multiple times and could not get the laptop to work for 2 hours, I have had this problem only once today and then it booted on a subsequent try. I did not remove ram or battery etc..I do not think removing those parts and putting them back is a solution, it may only be chance that made it work after doing that.
and you not gonna call dell to try fix it?
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post #47 of 62
7/9/04 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pck831
and you not gonna call dell to try fix it?
I already have. They have issued me an exchange but what I am worried about is that if this is a problem with the 8600 system, then the exchange computer will also have the same problem, if not at first then eventually.
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post #48 of 62
7/9/04 at 1:00pm
Thread Starter 
yes, me too, thats my worst fear at the moment-a problem with 8600 rather than the individual notebook.

i really hope it is just a problem for a few 8600 laptops and not all, just like the overheating issue with some 8600 owners previously when the ati 9600 was out.
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post #49 of 62
7/9/04 at 1:50pm
perhaps we should start a poll to see who's encountered this problem and who hasn't...
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post #50 of 62
7/9/04 at 2:51pm
The odd thing is that even though a number of people seem to be facing this problem, DELL does not seem to be aware of it. I have called them about it multiple times and they seem to have no knowledge about the existense of this issue. I am sure that if so many people on this forum itself are facing the problem, DELL has to have encoutered it in their testing.
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post #51 of 62
7/10/04 at 12:25am
Thread Starter 
maybe the poll should be more specific to dothan processors only?
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post #52 of 62
7/10/04 at 6:47am
Thread Starter 
from both polls u guys made, it seems that we may just be unlucky ppl with stubborn laptops

i found this in one of the threads in the dell forum:
schmieg: It's apparently a problem with some of the 8600 motherboards. My brand new one did just what you describe. I called Tech Support and we determined there was a problem with the B memory slot. They sent a tech to my office who replaced the motherboard which solved all problems. As an added benefit, I received one of the older style motherboards with the legacy ports on it and it still works properly with my Dothan 755 chip.


hmm those legacy ports would be nice
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post #53 of 62
7/14/04 at 12:29pm

Similar problems (cross-posted)

I have exactly the same symptoms.

Frequently, the machine will not boot, on battery or AC power, whether docked or undocked. This is a failure before the system POSTs, before any display on screen occurs. This fails before the Dell diagnostics can be run. My BIOS is A08. On touching the power button, the power light lights, and then the three keyboard LEDs may or may not light. If they light, they remain on for about 10sec, then all LEDs switch off. If the keyboard lights do not light, then the power LED switches off after about 10sec.

No tones or sounds are emitted by the system, the hard drive does not spin up, and no fans start.

This behavior occrus with the modular bay empty and the primary battery removed. This behaviour also occurs with the memory modules reseated, and also completely removed. It is not a hard drive failure, as this occurs before power is supplied to the hard drive. In short, this occurs when all CRUs are missing. This does not appear to be an isolated incident: the following threads on the Dell Community Support forum all back my (our) problems.

http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M160494
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M157121
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...0+start#M25850
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M158154
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...0+start#M26496
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M158405
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M160120
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M158905
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...+start#M153204
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...0+start#M26297

These all deal with the same symptoms, and in each case, a Dell technician has isolated a motherboard fault.

If anyone has any more information, or can summarise the root cause of the problem (rather than just 'bad motherboard'), I would be very interested.

One solution (although this may be just wishful thinking, as I have not compiled any statistics on this problem) is to lift up the blue cover above the keyboard with a screwdriver before pressing the power button. It seems to me that this can sometimes help, however as the problem is an intermittent failure, I'd need to do some statistical tests, and I don't have the time.

This proble also occurs when using the power button on the d-port, so isn't a problem with the power button itself.

One explanation (however, I've no real evidence for this) is that the blue strip places pressure, or shorts, or otherwise interferes with a bit of the mainboard below it, causing the POST to fail.

I'd be interested to hear from any Dell techs, or anyone who has done more research into this issue.

best reards,

Mark Jones

--
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Mark A G Jones
Nanomaterials for Quantum Information Processing
Department of Materials, University of Oxford,
Group Website: http://www.nanotech.org
Department Website: http://www.materials.ox.ac.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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post #54 of 62
7/15/04 at 5:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesp
One explanation (however, I've no real evidence for this) is that the blue strip places pressure, or shorts, or otherwise interferes with a bit of the mainboard below it, causing the POST to fail.
Just to update on mine - for the past week my 8600 has booted perfectly every time except once. I haven't been doing anything differently, except applying pressure to the blue cover and buttons surrounding the power button before switching on. I thought I was just being superstitious, but perhaps this supports the theory of some sort of short being caused, as it seems to help my problem?
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post #55 of 62
7/18/04 at 1:14pm
Thread Starter 
hello, just to also to update on my status, i got dell to agree for a full system replacement. i hope everything will work fine this time.

Anyway, after reading several threads, the mobo is probably the source of all this problems.

To think that there are a number of defective inspiron 8600 motherboards being distributed to customers is pretty disturbing, and probably also to those who are about to purchase an 8600.
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post #56 of 62
7/18/04 at 2:58pm
i was on the verge of purchasing my i8600 until i read this thread.

does not sound good!

usually with these things it's a vocal minority though; in other words, there are probably a lot of i8600 owners who don't have this problem and thus don't feel the need to come on a forum like this (hopefully).

i8600 owners without this problem - please post!
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post #57 of 62
7/18/04 at 4:22pm
I wouldn't let this put you off - I'm more than happy with my 8600, which is perfect apart from this minor annoyance...which seems to be gradually getting better
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post #58 of 62
7/18/04 at 5:53pm
I have the a similar problem. It happens sometimes when coming out of standby. Has anyone else noticed this?

It happens once or twice a week, but my i am happy with my laptop and i guess i will contact dell when it bugs me enough.

Don't let this influence your choice, as dell is usually pretty good resolviing things once you contact them.
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post #59 of 62
7/19/04 at 1:41am
so what happens when the system doesn't boot? how do you get it to finally boot? i don't want to be in a situation where i can't get the cpu to turn on for a few hours. what if a paper is due the next day or something (this is for college)?
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post #60 of 62
7/19/04 at 2:29am
I just hold the power button down for a couple of seconds, till the machine shuts down, then start it up again. SO far no loss in data, I feel this has something to do with powering up after standby, just my guess
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