Dead 640m(E1405)

Hi,

I have an Inspiron 640m (I believe the same model was sold in the US as the E1405). It was my mom's - it broke once when she had it, after about 2 years. Dell tech support figured out that it wouldn't boot with RAM in one of the slots anymore; take out the RAM from that slot, it booted, so they replaced the motherboard and that was the end of it.

Then she got a new computer and so I took it over, as a replacement for a badly badly badly abused D610. Upgraded the RAM to 4 gigs, replaced the HD, upgraded an 802.11n Intel 5100 card. IMO, even with the very low-end T2050, it's been a perfectly acceptable casual Win7 system.

Then today, it just... died. Went off while I was using it, and that's it. I push the power button, and NOTHING happens - no fans spinning, light blinking, no anything. Also of note, I'm noticing that my power adapter's LED doesn't seem to be on... (so could a failing power adapter have taken out the motherboard?) Battery, amazingly for an almost 5 year old system, was in excellent condition last I checked, maybe because my mom had never used it on battery.

Any thoughts? I suspect a fried motherboard personally, and given this would now have been the second to die in this thing, I'm a little hesitant to buy a cheap used one on eBay if it might only have days/weeks to live, and a new motherboard is quite expensive...

 

Just had an E1405 that did the exact same thing, actually. And yeah it's a dead board. You can try like re-seating RAM or connectors, but I'd pretty much guarantee that that's not going to do anything.

I doubt the adapter caused it though - if you disconnect the adapter from the laptop and outlet, wait a minute, and reconnect it to the outlet, does the light come on?

The boards are indeed relatively expensive (considering a decent spec E1405 is about $200)... I'd say part it out and put the money towards a newer machine. There's actually a lot of still-under-warranty E6400s going for $300 to $400 on eBay.

 

I tried the RAM thing already, given it DID work when my mom was told to do so by Dell tech support on the previous board. (BTW, to this day, I am amazed that Dell's tech support talked my parents through taking off the keyboard to play with the RAM there)

I'm hesitant to do anything beyond that. I could take the whole thing apart, and cosmetically look over the motherboard, but what good is that going to do?

I believe so, yes, then it goes off.

... from sellers who ship to Canada?

I've thought of getting a D630 many times, at least if I could find one with the high res screen (god, I loved the 1400x1050 on my D610 and my Inspiron 4000 before that, and the 1280x800, while great for my mom, was the thing that bothered me the most about this thing), but they looked expensive.

Could look at the newer Latitudes, that's true, hadn't thought of that. Or maybe it's an opportunity to get an XPS 15 or a Lenovo T420/T520...

 

I would try;

1) Using a multimeter to test your AC adapter
2) A known good Dell 90 watt AC adapter
3) Removing AC adapter and battery and hold down the power button 30 seconds 2-3 times

After that sounds like your motherboard has power circuitry issues. Though the older Dells I really like, for 400 you can get a decent E6400 or T400 ThinkPad.

If you look to get a D630 or anything for that matter from Santa Rosa time period, make sure you avoid Nvidia completely.

 

I tried another adapter, no luck. And it should be able to use the surprisingly-healthy-for-five-years-old battery, anyways, which is fully charged...

At this point, I took out my upgraded RAM, my upgraded HD, my upgraded wifi card. I guess it's time to list it on eBay as dead...

Such a shame, too. That laptop is in seriously good condition cosmetically. But a pretty exterior can hide a dead motherboard...