Hardware Dell 610 start up problem

[silverdale]

A good friend dropped a Dell Latitude D610 laptop on me to take a look. Basically , I don't think the batteries much good so when I plug the PSU in and boot it up the green power light comes on but a few seconds later the battery light flashes green once then it flashes red about 4 times then back to the green.

Is this a just duff charger ? , I don't wan't to buy a charger then find out its something else

Oh and forgot to mention, if I hold the button in on the battery itself after about 5 seconds all 5 lights flash green once and that's it.

If I remove the battery and just use the PSU it begins to boot then shuts down after about 10 seconds.

 

[silverdale]

I bought a new battery which arrived today. I unplugged the charger and installed the new battery. I then turn in it on and the laptop begins to try and startup, it get's about 10 seconds in and powers off. Then straight after the green light just flashes once about every 4-5 seconds.

The power supply LED green light is lit and the charger feels warm so I'm all abit confused here. If I take the battery off and plug the charger in , it tried to boot ,green lights then just dies, no flashing battery light it just turns off.

Will this mean the chargers knackered ? I can't get it to do anything bar start for a few seconds then power off.

I would be thankful for any help, just so I can find out if it's worth spending any more money on it.

 

[turner brown]

check the charger with meter and make sure your getting voltage to the charging end as could be broken wire from brick to port
also where the charger goes into the laptop make sure there is no movement here as charging port could be faulty

 

[AJT]

unfortunately it is also a tell tale sign of a faulty motherboard.

 

[silverdale]

I'vre decided to take a punt on a new charger for £8, if that fails that's it , it will go into the back of the cupboard.

 

[silverdale]

I decided to multimeter the power supply and chord before ordering. The power cable reads 240 but the charger itself round end reads 19.15. I'm not electrician, does it have to read bang on 19.5 or is 19.15 ok ?.
What's confusing me is, the laptop reacts different on boot with the old and new battery when the chargers plugged in.
Your probably right motherboard might be knackered

 

[silverdale]

I have got a bit further on , seems like its a ram slot problem.

The laptop has two slots , one on the bottom , one on the top (under the keyboard) . If I use any of the original 2 x 512mb of ram that came with the laptop in the top slot only the laptop boots fine. If I use any of the sticks in the slot on the underneath it fails to boot.

Is this a slot or a BIOS setting or something ? I also had a spare stick of 512 at hand and that also worked fine in the top

 

[idrob]

Sounds like you have incompatible memory sticks

Download Crucial System Scanner with the original memory sticks on there and compare the recommended upgrade sticks with the ones you have

See if that helps

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[AJT]

I have got a bit further on , seems like its a ram slot problem.

The laptop has two slots , one on the bottom , one on the top (under the keyboard) . If I use any of the original 2 x 512mb of ram that came with the laptop in the top slot only the laptop boots fine. If I use any of the sticks in the slot on the underneath it fails to boot.

Is this a slot or a BIOS setting or something ? I also had a spare stick of 512 at hand and that also worked fine in the top

No mate it's just one of those things..normally if your using both slots you would always put lowest ram in first but as yours are both 512mb=1gb I would do what has been suggested and boot using the one slot go to crucial and do a scan and get correct extra ram for your unit....
It's not too expensive normally £25-£30 for 1 or 2gb depending on make etc...
If it were me I would buy a single 2gb of ram and use one slot...
But all this is adding up and you can get a good nick used laptop on fleabay with decent spec for £70.

 

[silverdale]

it seems it can take
Min: 256MB DDR2; 400MHz or 533MHz

Max: 2GB DDR2; 533MHz

The 2 sticks I took out are Samsung 512MB PC2-4200S DDR2 Memory M470T6554CZ3-CD5 at Amazon.com

I'm all confused now , does this mean I can only use 2 x 56mb if I use both slots ?
Does it automatically run in "dual channel mode" or do you have to set this in the BIOS ?. I just thought you put 2 identical sticks and and off it goes

How to upgrade memory in Dell Latitude D610 | Inside my laptop

Help !

 

[silverdale]

Probably right ,just seen some 1gb sticks for £5 I'll throw that in and give him it back.
cheers for the help

 

[Okcomputer]

Seems one of the slots is defective, however may be is less expensive to get other Dell 610 unit that buying components, that laptop has like 10 or more years old,pentium M.

 

[silverdale]

It was a faulty ram socket , the underneath one. I put a 2gb single stick in the slot under the keyboard and it's working fine. It took some figuring out