Can bad power supply make notebook computer seem dead?

G

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Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

My son's Dell Inspiron 1100 showed the following symptoms:
1) Totally dead. Wouldn't show signs of life on AC or battery.
2) At my instruction, he reseated the memory and checked
connections. Same problem.

He sent me the laptop and now
1) It started okay on battery power.
2) The ac power supply kept getting deader and deaderer. First,
the green light would come on for a while, then go off (before boot
finished). Now it doesn't come on at all.
3) The power cord isn't the problem - tested against another
power supply.
4) The notebook has been rebooting happily through about half a
dozen tests.

Dell is sending a replacement power supply (barely under warranty).

My question: Would a bad power supply (definitely the case) cause the
symptom of not being able to boot on battery along (battery not dead).
Is there some capacitor or something that caused the machine to refuse
to turn on with battery but then would work later?
Or perhaps there are two problems: bad power supply and something
loose that reconnected during shipping.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Dave
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Yes, it's possible that a bad power supply could do this. It's not
certain that this is what IS doing it, but it's possible.


tossit@optonline.net wrote:

> My son's Dell Inspiron 1100 showed the following symptoms:
> 1) Totally dead. Wouldn't show signs of life on AC or battery.
> 2) At my instruction, he reseated the memory and checked
> connections. Same problem.
>
> He sent me the laptop and now
> 1) It started okay on battery power.
> 2) The ac power supply kept getting deader and deaderer. First,
> the green light would come on for a while, then go off (before boot
> finished). Now it doesn't come on at all.
> 3) The power cord isn't the problem - tested against another
> power supply.
> 4) The notebook has been rebooting happily through about half a
> dozen tests.
>
> Dell is sending a replacement power supply (barely under warranty).
>
> My question: Would a bad power supply (definitely the case) cause the
> symptom of not being able to boot on battery along (battery not dead).
> Is there some capacitor or something that caused the machine to refuse
> to turn on with battery but then would work later?
> Or perhaps there are two problems: bad power supply and something
> loose that reconnected during shipping.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dave