Dell Inspiron 15 5577 stuck at Dell Logo with spinning dots(Windows) or Black Screen after boot options(Ubuntu)

[emperorniko]

So long story.

Got a Dell Inspiron 15 5577 from Amazon a few months back. All was fine until it updated in the middle of the night and never booted again.

When i boot it normally it passes the initial Dell logo with the options to go to Boot Menu or BIOS and then it goes to another Dell logo with some spinning white dots. Now the issue here is that the dots stop spinning after about a second and the entire computer is just stuck like that forever until i hold down the power button to shut down. If it happens enough it will try to enter the Automatic Windows Restore but the same thing happens to that too.

Here begins the long process of trying to boot a Windows USB with the same results, removing the M.2 SSD and testing, removing the HDD and testing, swapping the RAM into different slots and with each stick alone in either slot. Nothing would boot and the only things that work are the BIOS, BOOT and Hardware Diagnostic menu(Forgot the actual name but it scans all the hardware and said it's all fine)

Got in contact with Dell who ran through a bunch of BIOS settings and when nothing worked the tech just said it was likely the MoBo and sent a new Laptop.

Now the funny thing is they let us keep the non-working Laptop.

Basically stopped caring about it for about a month but today decided to make another attempt at doing some troubleshooting and tried checking if i could load Ubuntu from a USB while no HDD or SSD was plugged in since it can be run from the USB alone. This let me open the Ubuntu Boot Menu where i can choose to boot from the USB, Install to a drive, OEM install, and check disk. All of these result in a black screen and the laptop locking up forever.

https/www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFGF7SN/ref=psdc_13896615011_t1_B06XVQF486
This being the Laptop in question.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hang-the-9]

So you had what is likely was a bad motherboard before, and now you seem to be having the same issue a month later.

 

[emperorniko]

So dumb me noticed that the fans were not spinning when i was booting the laptop. the fans do work as they spun rapidly during a BIOS update but for some reason they dont spin otherwise.

I luckily had a stand with fans that i could set the laptop on and it's gotten past the dots and is now running a clean reboot of the system. hoping that will also make the fans work during normal operation again too.

 

[hang-the-9]

So dumb me noticed that the fans were not spinning when i was booting the laptop. the fans do work as they spun rapidly during a BIOS update but for some reason they dont spin otherwise.

I luckily had a stand with fans that i could set the laptop on and it's gotten past the dots and is now running a clean reboot of the system. hoping that will also make the fans work during normal operation again too.

It may be that the fans won't work till they sense the temperature high enough. So you could do a BIOS update? Seems you said the system went to a black screen and was dead when you tried anything.

 

[emperorniko]

It may be that the fans won't work till they sense the temperature high enough. So you could do a BIOS update? Seems you said the system went to a black screen and was dead when you tried anything.

So it turns out to not really be the fans not running that was causing the issue (they do in fact turn on by temp trigger). What had allowed me past the initial issue turned out to be the combination of turning off Intel Speed Step in the BIOS and unplugging the AC adapter.

So i can boot into windows and it's just fine on the battery now. However, the moment i plug in the AC adapter it freezes the laptop until i hard shutdown. I tested this on others of the same adapter with the same result. So long as the AC Adapter in plugged in the PC cannot function. Oddly it charges fine so long as it's not on.

 

[hang-the-9]

It may be that the fans won't work till they sense the temperature high enough. So you could do a BIOS update? Seems you said the system went to a black screen and was dead when you tried anything.

So it turns out to not really be the fans not running that was causing the issue (they do in fact turn on by temp trigger). What had allowed me past the initial issue turned out to be the combination of turning off Intel Speed Step in the BIOS and unplugging the AC adapter.

So i can boot into windows and it's just fine on the battery now. However, the moment i plug in the AC adapter it freezes the laptop until i hard shutdown. I tested this on others of the same adapter with the same result. So long as the AC Adapter in plugged in the PC cannot function. Oddly it charges fine so long as it's not on.

This leads to overheating or maybe a CPU issue if it can't run with SpeedStep or on power cord.

If you just got it, contact Dell for support.

 

[emperorniko]

I mentioned above that this is the original that was already replaced with a fully working one. They just never asked for it back after they sent the replacement. So i cant really get service for it anymore.

So after messing around it surely is SpeedStep and the Charger doing the lock up. On battery with Speedstep Disabled is the only way the laptop runs.

Speedstep enabled = Freeze during spinning dots on DELL Splash Screen.
Charger plugged in = Freeze during spinning dots on DELL Splash Screen.
Charger plugged in while running = Immediate freeze.

At least it charges fine so i can get a few hours out of it at a time. Guess that's all i can ask for since it's basically free since it was "Replaced"

EDIT: I actually got it to let me plug it in while running. I uninstalled the Dell-given Intel GPU drivers for and got them from Intel instead, reinstalled the Nividia drivers, uninstalled the AC adapter from the device manager, changed the TDP in the Power Options to 35.0W on Battery and full 45.0W on the charger. I also installed CPU-Z so i could see stats. Then i had just slowly inserted the charger and it gave an alert about being plugged in but not charging but didnt freeze. It did however lower the clock speed to 800-MHz and then unplugging it again a few minutes later made it freeze.

 

[nwhite.pdx]

So dumb me noticed that the fans were not spinning when i was booting the laptop. the fans do work as they spun rapidly during a BIOS update but for some reason they dont spin otherwise.

I luckily had a stand with fans that i could set the laptop on and it's gotten past the dots and is now running a clean reboot of the system. hoping that will also make the fans work during normal operation again too.

Sounds like you blew a capacitor/resistor in your motherboard -- not what I'd call a "user replaceable" part. If you still have the broken laptop I'd be interested in buying it for parts {that is, if you don't need it.}

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