Alienware 17 2013 Truned off whilst playing youtube and now won't turn back on

[Boots27]

So my friend was just watching youtube on his alienware laptop when it sudenly turned off and now won't turn back on. Now I know you guys are going to suggest taking the battery out and holding down the power button. But before I do this for him, I'm a little curious to the charger doing the a strange thing. When the charger is just plugged into the wall the light on the end turn on as you would expect. But when it is plugged into the Laptop the light on the charger turns off and no lights come on the laptop. What could this mean? Is the charger preventing something or is this laptop sounding fucked? I would also like to mention that he was playing Overwatch for about an hour before with the CPU reaching 96 degree's and the GPU reaching 90's as well.

 

[jkhoward]

Either you battery or charging cable is defective. The only way to troubleshoot the issue is to remove the battery, plug in the charger and see if the laptop boots. If it boots, it is your battery. If it doesn't boot, it could be the charger or something else hardware related to the device. Please post what happens when you test the above.

Laptops run hot, that isn't out of the ordinary for temps. It doesn't hurt to clean out the laptop from time to time and ensure that you're using it on a hard surface, not your lap, when gaming or it WILL overheat and throttle performance.

 

[Boots27]

Either you battery or charging cable is defective. The only way to troubleshoot the issue is to remove the battery, plug in the charger and see if the laptop boots. If it boots, it is your battery. If it doesn't boot, it could be the charger or something else hardware related to the device. Please post what happens when you test the above.

Laptops run hot, that isn't out of the ordinary for temps. It doesn't hurt to clean out the laptop from time to time and ensure that you're using it on a hard surface, not your lap, when gaming or it WILL overheat and throttle performance.

So we've tried 2 charging cables form the same laptops and the same result. So the best guess is that it's the battery.

 

[jkhoward]

What is the result? Does it boot without issue when the battery is removed?

 

[Boots27]

What is the result? Does it boot without issue when the battery is removed?

Unfortunately I will have to see tomorrow as it is getting late over here in the UK. But I will be sure to tell you what I find.

 

[jkhoward]

Sounds great, have a great evening!

 

[Boots27]

So after removing the battery and discharging any static. I'm still seeing the same results.

 

[jkhoward]

So, with the battery removed and the charger in, the system is not booting then?

 

[Boots27]

So, with the battery removed and the charger in, the system is not booting then?

With or without the charger it did not boot. I also tried starting it without the battery and i had the same result.

 

[jkhoward]

It sounds like something else is going on with the system. If you look inside of the charging port, is there any obvious damage or missing pins? There is normally a pin inside of the pin. Could it of been damaged and prevents the system from charging?

 

[Boots27]

It sounds like something else is going on with the system. If you look inside of the charging port, is there any obvious damage or missing pins? There is normally a pin inside of the pin. Could it of been damaged and prevents the system from charging?

I did check that and it looked fine. I also couldn't see any saved to any other components when I opened it up. From what I've read and heard, it could be the GPU or motherboard being the culprit but it also could be the power supply.

 

[jkhoward]

Well the power supply is built into the charger, the brick thing. So yeah, it could be that. If it is the motherboard or graphics card, you're kind of out of luck.

 

[Boots27]

Well the power supply is built into the charger, the brick thing. So yeah, it could be that. If it is the motherboard or graphics card, you're kind of out of luck.

So we've identified the problem as the motherboard. Lucky that the laptop is under manufactures guarantee.

 

[jkhoward]

Great! What did you do to figure that out. Don't forget to select best answer!

 

[Boots27]

Great! What did you do to figure that out. Don't forget to select best answer!

We took it to a few repair shops to see if they could have any luck and each one said that a component was fried on the motherboard. After ringing dell, it's of to Germany as we speak for repair.