laptop power light comes on, nothing further

 More of my tangled web….

My wife's Dell 5578 has had a whole downhill thing going.  Big problem with the power plug not staying in the jack, not charging the battery….

I replaced the jack.

But before that the computer kind of gave up booting up.

With the power restored, it is still in this state:  power light on the front of the case comes on (and occasionally goes off and comes back on).  Nothing further happens.

On my own Dell there is a tiny *poing* kind of a noise so I know it came on.

On my wife's, I hear no such noise, no beep code, and as far as I can tell, no fan.

Is there anything to try besides taking it to a shop?

Thanks

Hello denno,

My wife's Dell 5578 

Do you have a link to this particular model of notebook so that we check the specs etc.

But before that the computer kind of gave up booting up.

 

Can you explain a bit more about this, not booting up suggests that the notebook would power up but Windows would not load.

Hello Phill

The problem as it stands is that if I press the On button, I get a (slightly intermittent) power light on the front of the computer.  Nothing else at all happens.  If the fan starts, I can't hear it.  Screen stays black, no blips or flashes or partial boot-ups.  No nothin!

The problems with the machine started with deterioration of the power jack, and possibly the converter plug.  Plug got so it would just drop out.  We taped it and so forth, but problems continued.  Stopped charging the battery, so every interruption of the jack resulted in instant shutdown and loss of work.

It also was running like molasses in a cryo-chamber.  Started with WTT diagnostics (which kept finding nothing) but gave it up until I could maybe get the jack fixed.
Last development was the status as described above.
I replaced the jack.  It was improved, but nothing else had changed.

Other oddities inside:  The jack has a tiny plastic nub for screwing it onto the motherboard.  This was broken off.  The battery was held in place by two of four screws.  One motherboard mount was broken, but still able to take a screw; two other mounts seemed to have their tiny brass females stripped or something.  Screws wouldn't start.  (Also possible there are a couple of screws floating around somewhere inside.  Did not find them.)

This is a link to the manual section including specs.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/inspiron-15-5578-2-in-1-laptop/docs

More specifically  https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/inspiron-15-5578-2-in-1-laptop_setup-guide_en-us.pdf

If that is not sufficient, I'll search around.

Thank you!

P.S. I am likely to take it to a shop today or tomorrow.  I would like to hold off until we see if you have any ideas…..  Wife needs some pic files PDQ.  I may have goofed up her backup on Carbonite or iDrive, whichever she's on.  Oy!

Hello denno,

Thanks for the update which as was suspected tells us that the computer will not power up at all.

From what you describe concerning the previous condition of the DC jack port, missing screws, damaged MB fixing points and LED activity LED it is quite possible that something has shorted out, I do have a suggestion, it is a long shot but have seen it work with two different brands of notebook in the past couple of weeks.

Disconnect the AC adaptor.

Remove the base cover and battery.

Press the power on button for twenty seconds to get rid of any residual charge in the compute.

Ground yourself by touching something metallic like a household radiator.

Remove the RAM.

Reseat the RAM securely.

Replace just the base cover (leaving out the battery).

Connect the AC adaptor to the notebook and to the power outlet but do not attempt to power up the notebook at all.

Leave connected so that there has been a small amount of charge going through the MB throughout the night.

At some point tomorrow but preferably not less than twelve hrs cross your fingers and try powering up the notebook.

So….(everyone starts with "So" these days)…I let it go 24 hours, half-inadvertently.  Pushed the button.  Nuttin'.  After 30+ seconds pushed it again.  There was actually a little shutting-down noise.  (Two tones, descending.) 
Tried it again, but, oops, pulled the plug out.

I have it plugged in at the moment.  Did not do the thing with the RAM again.

Anywhere to go other than The Shop?

Suspecting a power problem here, was the sound anything like a click and a cooling fan slowing down by any chance, something like you hear when you have been using a notebook and it suddenly turns off.

I have not detected a fan noise.  I can try that again with that in mind.

There was a tiny middle-pitched whine or tone—not like a fan, just more like an electrical carrying tone—when it was plugged in.  Gone when not.

I'll check it out again.

Not looking promising tbh denno 

Off to the shop, then.  Wish I had more faith in the nearest one….

We wish you luck and please let us know how you get on.

Took it to *shudder* the shop.  Bad motherboard.  ~$290 repair,   We declined.  Gent kindly did not charge for the exam.

Have bought a Dell 5765, factory refurb, from an eBay reseller for $350 (+tax.)  1-yr warranty.

Fellow says I only have to plug the dead Dell's hard drive into a SATA cable on my old desktop to copy out the files.

Thanks for the interest and help.

denno

You can often find replacement notebook MBs for not a lot of cash and it tends to be the labour costs for swapping out the boards that makes it a bad option monetary wise.

You are welcome btw and thanks for the follow up denno