I have recently bought some replacment parts to get this laptop up to code again. However whenever I switch the system on the machine powers up, Power light turns on and the Caps lock,Num lock and Scroll Lock lights flash on (normal behaviour) but imeditalty after the Num lock and Scroll lock lights stay on and a few seconds later the system powers down. However you can hear the hard drive power on and spin up.

The PSU is new, the hard drive is new, the ram is new and modular devices are new. So it has to be the board. But there is no visible damage on any part. In the belief that it could be the processor and gpu unit I have purchased a new one. (as thats really the only thing it could be)

I was jsut wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem before and if so was it the Proc/GPU board or something else entirly. Regards Lupin3rd

I would check Dell's support site.

Life's more painless for the brainless.

Why did you replace all those components?

Are you getting any display?

If you aren't that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with your graphics hardware - no video is often merely a symptom.

A common thing that can happen with ram, even ram that worked fine previously, is the ram has, or has developed, a poor connection in it's slot(s).
This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen with new ram, or after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned.

See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...

For a laptop, you must remove both its main battery and AC adapter before you do that.

If you do a ram test, do that AFTER having tried cleaning the contacts and making sure the ram is seated properly - otherwise any errors found may be FALSE.
If the ram is incompatible with the chipset, it will likely FAIL a ram test - that is NOT a true indication of the ram being faulty - there is probably nothing wrong with it, and it will pass the test if installed in a mboard it is compatible with.

......

You may be using the wrong ram.

Have you tried re-installing the original ram?

Ram that works in another mboard , or any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly, or sometimes, not at all - even if it physically fits and is the right overall type (e.g. DDR, DDR2, etc.; PCxxxx, xxx mhz) for your mboard. In the worst cases of incompatibilty your mboard WILL NOT BOOT with it installed, and the mboard may not even beep - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset.

See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
Correction to that:
Mushkin www.mushkin.com

the dell support site has a cd you can boot to that will run diags on everything if youcould keep it up and running long enough

i agree with the video problem and i believe that the video on the dell laptops is a removeable card
and can be easily dammaged
(from my dell tech days)
double check the cpu to make sure that it is sat properly and the fan is doing it job
i always hated the way the fan seems to never turn on on dell laptops
on top of what tubesand wires is suggesting

In response to OtheHill I replaced those parts simply because it didn't have them in the first place. The laptop was the main board and all plastics with keyboard and screen unit and monitor.

The ram is the right type.
Also all tested in another computer by me and is vaild in it's working order.

Yeah my proc and gpu unit came and the system still did the same thing. The screen doesn't turn on however in a laptop it usualy turns on a few seconds after the system powers on.

As I say the system powers on but after a few seconds powers down again. might take a video so you can see what I mean.

I was going to email Dell but they ask for a Service tag which can only be got if you have an ooperating system, now kinda difficult if it doesn't even power on to load one onto it.:p

hmm just to ask does the Dell latitude series fan start at boot up if so I could buy another one that does work and replace it.

I believe I have your exact Dell Latitude model. I've had the problem you've described. It happened when I had a memory stick in Slot A. Moving the same stick to Slot B fixed the problem.

The fan only comes on when it's needed.

Dress modestly

Thought so about the fan with the dell models. Strange thing is tried it with ram in both slots (you know one in in bank a and then b), so it either means the memory board controller is damaged or something else. Anyone know what the jumper label JBoot(think it was that) does on this model as I can find no info anywhere.

In my situation the RAM slot A was bad. Try just one in slot B. If that doesn't work, try the same stick in slot A. If that doesn't work try the other stick. I've never heard of or seen the JBoot jumper so I'm not sure what to tell you. Perhaps I didn't look good enough.

Dress modestly

Well after some extensive looking, I believe the board is just simply dead. A pain but there was always this lingering when I bought the parts, I may try and get another board cheaply if I can, if not guess I have some spares hanging around.

What I did, stripped it down to barest of bare, and examined the board thoroughly, then tested the battery charging. Seems to charge batteries but can't prove that 100%. I booted the system with the JBOOT jumper which started the system. Now unlike just normally pressing the power button and the system shutting down a few seconds later this way stays on indefinitely but the power light flash's with the other's constantly lit. I had the system hooked to an external monitor at the time as well.

Based on my findings of trying many different things that came to mind I have decided to say that it is dead, another error that seems to be unfixable without a lot more work done to it.

As I say I may purchase the board on another stripped down one and use my parts I have and bought to complete that and get it running. Regards Lupin3rd

Wow that's weird. Well thanks for posting back about it!

Dress modestly, it shows people that you care about yourself.

Well now it turns out it's not dead. Typical really, you think something is and say your going leave it to rot in a ditch for all you care and then it works. Seems like the memory controller was fuzzed up, some other ram which I dug up (though I didn't know I had it) worked straight away.

But now have found several other problems one being it's on board monitor and keyboard. Also the hard drive I got no longer works which is vexing, I might be able to dig another one out though for the hard drive so not too much of a problem.

More money into it but damn it I've spent enough to not care about the extra I have to put into it. I want this thing working:P

At least my battery, cd-rw/dvd rom and floppy drive is fine.

Good thing it's not totally dead. You can probably find a hard drive on newegg for a reasonable price. What's wrong with the onboard monitor?

Dress modestly, it shows people that you care about yourself.

Yeah I can get another hd cheap, seems the screen is just blank then illuminates to a bright white which seems to eat the whole screen slowly from the top down, with a white line across it. Have got one lined up to replace it off ebay if I can win it. But I am going to check the inverter and connections later. With the keyboard it might be the cable has become bad, got another one of them lined up as well. Other than that I can actually use it which was the ultimate goal here.

I've seen the white screen on the Latitude I have too, but it was back when I was having so much trouble with it. If you need any help, please let me know and I'll be glad to do what I can.

Dress modestly, it shows people that you care about yourself.

Yeha thanks got some new spares lined up to replace the naff monitor and keyboard. So thansk for the offer but it's working to a point now.

That's good. Thanks for posting your progress with it.

Dress modestly, it shows people that you care about yourself.