Question Dell Inspiron 7370 won't boot after waking from sleep or restart

[cal2034]

So I’m having issues with my Dell Inspiron 7370 (Windows 10). If you restart it, the screen goes dark with the keys backlit for a period of time, and the power button stays lit indefinitely. This persists even if you leave it for hours. The same thing happens after closing and reopening the lid. If you hold down the power button to shut it off, and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it will usually come back up (this was closer to 30 seconds at the start of troubleshooting, but has obviously gotten longer).

What I've tried:

• Verified it also doesn’t work when connected to an external display
• Wiped disk from BIOS
• Reinstalled Windows twice using 2 different installation media (both USB)
• Disconnected and reconnected SSD
• Replaced battery (it needed to be replaced anyways)
• Replaced CMOS
• Disabled fast startup in Window 10
• Set BIOS fastboot to thorough, previously it was minimal
• Restored BIOS settings to BIOS Defaults
• Updated the BIOS by downloading and running the update from Dell’s website
• Ran Dell Preboot System Assessment Diagnostics, it found no issues
• Ran Full Scan from Dell website, it found no issues
• Updated drivers using Dell SupportAssist

Any ideas?

 

[AlHuneke]

An analogy would be that I tried to start my car but it wouldn't turn over. I rotated the tires, changed the water pump, removed the pan and looked inside, and changed the starter. Now the pan leaks oil. What next? Well, it turned out the problem was the battery all along. Just trying things is a bad approach. Especially when it involves opening up the laptop. It's tough to know what state the machine is in now. I'm not saying this to scold you but to maybe let other readers know that it is good to ask for help early. Getting out the old shotgun often means you hit a lot of stuff you shouldn't have shot at!

I'm not sure I quite understand the problem. Can you restate in more detail what is going on and maybe we can help.

 

[mr_random]

your bios battery could be bad it could be overheating or you could have a component that malfuntions when it gets to a certain temp

 

[cal2034]

An analogy would be that I tried to start my car but it wouldn't turn over. I rotated the tires, changed the water pump, removed the pan and looked inside, and changed the starter. Now the pan leaks oil. What next? Well, it turned out the problem was the battery all along. Just trying things is a bad approach. Especially when it involves opening up the laptop. It's tough to know what state the machine is in now. I'm not saying this to scold you but to maybe let other readers know that it is good to ask for help early. Getting out the old shotgun often means you hit a lot of stuff you shouldn't have shot at!

I'm not sure I quite understand the problem. Can you restate in more detail what is going on and maybe we can help.

Thanks for your response. I'm not sure how I can better rephrase the problem. Regardless of all my troubleshooting attempts, here's the issue. Start with the laptop turned on and logged into Windows:

• If you restart the computer, it doesn't come back up. The screen stays dark, no backlight, can't hear the fan running. The keyboard is backlit, until the light automatically turns off as normal.
• If you close the lid and reopen it, regardless of the amount of time it stays closed, it doesn't come back up. The screen stays dark, no backlight, no fan, backlit keyboard until the light turns off as normal. This still happens with the computer set to "do nothing" rather than sleep when the lid is closed both on battery and when plugged in.
• The only way to boot up the machine after restarting or opening the lid is to fully shut it down and let it sit for a while (from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, I've been getting varied results). Then when you turn it on, it comes up as it should.

I may have written my troubleshooting attempts out of order in the original post, but all I did was try to determine if it was a software issue first (including the nuclear option of fully wiping the disk and reinstalling Windows) and then moving onto hardware, then coming here once I ran out of ideas.

 

[AlHuneke]

A little more clarification please. In the first bullet where you "restart" are you using the power off menu or holding down the power button?

In the last bullet when you say fully shut down, exactly how are you doing that?

The reason I ask is there are several states the system can be in when it is off. HOWEVER, given that you have reinstalled Windows (I trust you did a CLEAN install so everything was replaced, software is pretty much removed from the equation. One thing you can still try is to run the Dell hardware diagnostic software (perhaps that's what you meant when you said Dell system scan. Anyway, make sure you run a Hardware diagnostic. The thing that puzzles me is when you say you need to wait a varying length ot time after shutting down to get it to start again. Could it be thermal? Try putting it in the fridge for 20 minutes and then try a few quick shutdown and restart cycles. Don't let it get really cold as you don;t want condensation to form.