M15x suddenly stopped turning on, need help repairing

So recently my m15x died, i think its the motherboard but wanted to get more opinions. I can confirm the cpu, memory, and hard drive is all good. The issue is it doesn't turn on at all. The charger lights up, so I think thats good. I tested the processor, memory, and hard drive in another system and those all work. I couldn't test the video card. The battery has 2 dots of power when i press the small button on it to see how charged the battery was. The battery doesn't charge at all when I plug in the AC adapter. What do you guys think the issue is? Is it the motherboard like I suspect? It's an aging system and I don't know if i want to invest too much money to fix this system.
System specs:
i7 720qm
4gb ddr3 1333
500gb 7200rpm sata
gtx 260m 1gb

I contacted dell to see what the problem could be. Unfortunately my system is out of warranty and if i ordered anything through dell it would cost an arm and a leg and not a 100% solution. Last thing I would want happen is to spend a crap load of money on a new motherboard or video card and find out that it isn't the problem.

 

It could be your graphics card. Anyway you could find another MXM-compatible graphics card to test? Any gtx 560m or 660m or AMD 6970,6990,7970 will work!

 

I haven't tested the card yet because i dont have access to one

 

I doubt the gpu. If gpu is faulty then battery would charge normally.

Dead gpu shouln't stop posting, laptop will just give error/beeps with dead gpu, although it is remotely possible that gpu is dead and short circuiting whole motherboard, hence preventing post.

Can you try turning on the laptop without GPU ? this way atleast it will show if laptop is trying to post ?

 

just tried this, and it still doesn't power on but i found a couple things different. With the video card out, the alienhead would light on for a couple seconds, then turn off but still doesn't power up. With the video card in i see no lights at all. Does this make a difference of what the problem could be? Feels like it could be the video card now, or a combination of both the video card and mother board.

I take that back, even with or without the video card in, if i press and hold the alienhead after power draining it, it would light up for about 2-3 seconds then turn off. still no power. i need help guys please, this is my main laptop and all my work is on there.

 

I would suggest remove everything, except power button and LCD, trying turning it on and see what it does. Then if it turns on, add ram and then gpu and then other parts one by one,

 

I tested the cpu, memory, and hard drive in another system and they all work fine. couldn't test the video card because it doesn't fit.

 

bump, anyone with any idea what i should replace first? does dell do any kind of system diagnostic for the customers?

 

When you tried to run the system without gpu, did you had express card, odd, wireless card, Bluetooth card, keyboard and io board plugged in ?

If yes remove them as we'll, for example in m11x, faulty io card will give same error as faulty CPU.

 

i will try that and come back with the results

 

I would suggest to replace the motherboard 1st, but it would be easier to get that card on a different PC.

 

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send me your email we will make some online chat because it seems That I had same problem as you have But I solw it It is bit technical so I have to speak with you or I will send you some sound file because It is not possible send it trought forum so I will send you this in e mail with some pictures

Bye!

 

I have the same problem with my 3 year old alienware m15x. yesterday, while playing tf2 it shut itself down and i couldnt turn it back on. I tried power drain trick which didnt make any good. When I plug it, alienhead glows for 1-2 seconds then its gone.
when I searched this forum and internet about this problem, most of the victims say blue light at the power cord goes off when they plug it to computer but for my case it is still on after connecting to computer.
any help would be appericiated, thanks in advance.