Dell Precision M4400 won't power on

I'm trying to figure out why a Dell Precision M4400 won't power on. It has Windows 10 64-bit, upgraded RAM to 8 GB of Crucial memory, and a 256 GB Corsair SSD.

I push the power button and it lights up blue. Half the time the light stays on a couple seconds then switches off. Nothing is on the screen. The other half of the time the power button lights up blue, the fan starts spinning, then I get a diagnostic light code indicating a possible processor failure, and the power button light switches off. Still nothing on the screen. If I can get it to start then in the BIOS logs I can see ASF2 Force Off. I tried updating the BIOS from A25 to A29 but that may have increased the frequency of it having problems with powering on. Seems to happen a lot more now. If I let the laptop sit plugged in for about 30 minutes then try to switch it on then usually it will boot up Windows. After that it runs OK until the next time I shut it down and try powering it on.

As suggested by the service manual for this laptop, regarding the possible processor failure, I tried reseating the CPU. I also reapplied thermal paste to the graphics chip and CPU. Reseating the CPU didn't help. Any one know what's going on with this laptop? Suggestions?

 

Have you tried (i) reseating the RAM then (ii) some other RAM. If the BIOS can't properly identify / communicate with the RAM then the boot process stops.

John

 

Thank you for replying. I tried two 1 GB ADATA SODIMMS from another working laptop. The Precision M4400 started up OK. I thought maybe that fixed the issue. Just checking for consistency I went back to using the two 4GB Crucial SODIMMS. The laptop wouldn't start with them so again I put in the two 1 GB ADATA SODIMMS expecting the laptop would start but still the laptop wouldn't start. I had the same problems I described in my opening post. Anyway, I think if it were a RAM related issue I'd probably see one of the diagnostic light codes for RAM issues. Just to see if it works I tried starting the laptop with no RAM and saw the diagnostic light code for no memory modules detected.