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    Dell 8600 Won't turn on

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by funincluded, Dec 9, 2008.

  1. funincluded

    funincluded Newbie

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    No lights come on- nothing. The previous night, I took out the keyboard just to clean out the fan etc. The screwdrivers weren't magnetized or anything. I took the battery out before hand too... just like I do every couple of months to clean it out.

    Afterwards it powered on fine, and was left on all night. I turned it off (sleep/hibernate- I can't remember) in the morning, brought it to class. At class, it worked fine. At the end of the class, I put it into hibernation, and it won't come back on.
    No lights, nothing of any sort.

    The adapter works, the battery seems to be ok. The adapter's light comes on. I used it on other laptops, and it charges them. I tried using other adapters on the broken laptop, and nothing happens.
    I also tried powering it on without the battery in.

    HELP!
     
    funincluded, Dec 9, 2008
    #1
  2. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    First off, does the battery have any charge? If not, you may have a broken power jack on the laptop. Check if the spot where the adapter plugs in is loose.

    If not that... it's a dead motherboard, and based on the age of the laptop, it's also almost definitely not worth fixing.
     
    Hep!, Dec 9, 2008
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  3. atbnet

    atbnet Notebook Prophet

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    Unfortunately the 8600 has had a slew of motherboard issues. Have you tried FN while pressing the power button?
     
    atbnet, Dec 10, 2008
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  4. jason1214

    jason1214 Notebook Evangelist

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    Assuming you would wish to do so, if you have to change the board out, keep in mind that the D800 and the Precision M60 might have the same board.

    There were 2 versions of the 8600 motherboard. If you have a 8600c, you will have to get an 8600c board. You determine this by looking at the original configuration page here, selecting the original configuration tab: http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/details?c=us&l=en&s=gen

    The basic difference is that the c variant only has a VGA port where the others have a VGA, parallel and serial port.

    If not a 8600c, you can use the D800 or M60 board. You then just have to force flash the BIOS to the correct unit. You might be able to find one of them cheaper.

    Link shows a 600m, but the procedure is the same. http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/4784045.aspx
     
    jason1214, Dec 11, 2008
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  5. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

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    i miss my 8600....after almost 5 years it just had so many problems, hdd failure, gfx card malfunctioning, speakers malfunctioning.....cracked casing.....was gonna replace it before it died completely but i spilt a pint of beer on it and that was the end of it...

    took it to school every day for 2 years, and its been on practically 24/7 for 5 years....not bad....

    replaced it with an M4400
     
    afhstingray, Dec 11, 2008
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