HELP w/ dell latitude d620

The D620 gets pretty hot. My fan runs more often than not, even when the thing's just idling. If your fan isn't running regularly, something's probably wrong with it and the machine is probably overheating. Have you taken a look at the temps through HWMonitor or a similar monitoring program?

 

no i havent.. i cant get it to stay on long enough to install any programs like this

 

If you can get to the desktop, you can run HWMonitor. You don't need to install it. Just get it on a USB and run it from there. Also, if it truly is a heating problem, you can try to let it sit for a while and come to equilibrium with the room temperature, then turn it back on again. You should be able to get at least ten to fifteen minutes of run time before the heat rises to a critical level.

 

i cant get it to stay on for that long anymore.. if i can get it to the desktop it will last only about a minute before the screen will go black. i think it started as a heating problem but has escalated since, i can let it sit for 24 hours and try to power it up and it may not work

 

You can plug in the "service tag" code located on the bottom of the laptop into dell.com/support and view the system configuration page.

 

Yes, that's probably the problem. The issue you're describing is consistent wit failed system memory. Remove one of the two memory modules, and run the diagnostics again. If it doesn't fail, you're good. If it does, take that module out and put the other back in, and re-run the diagnostic.

Here is the D620 service manaual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd620/en/SM/index.htm

Here is the outline on memory modules:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd620/en/SM/memory.htm#wp1084976

 

i pulled both memory chips out and reseated them.. still wouldnt power up.

this is frustrating.

 

is there anyway i can look at the motherboard and tell if there is damage?

 

Hep posted the service manual a few posts up. Follow it, and you can ultimately take out the motherboard. Whether or not you can actually see heat damage is a different question; most likely, unless the damage is extreme everything will look normal.

Take some good pictures I suppose?

 

You can't have both chips pulled at once, pull one at a time but always have a chip in (so try DIMM A in slot A, then in slot B, then DIMM B in slot A, then in slot B). If both don't work in both slots, it's very unlikely the memory.