My laptop fails to POST or boot consistently

3

I'm sporting a Dell Inspiron 15 (M5030), the specs for which can be found here.

Over time I've made three upgrades to the laptop. I've installed:

  • An Intel Advanced-N 6235, wifi+bluetooth 4.0 chip to replace the original
  • An OCZ 128gb SSD in place of the primary 320gb HDD listed.
  • A third-party battery (not a cheap one) replaced the original that had gone critical long before.

It is worth noting that the wifi chip does not work properly-- the bluetooth devices on the OS will READ as functional, but will not function and no amount of hacking around has made it work thus far.

The problem I have, among others, is that sometimes my laptop fails to POST sometimes. Or, it fail to get entirely through the BIOS to the boot process. I hit the power button, the screen turns on, and unpredictably, about 1/4th of the time, it stays black. I turn the laptop off and back on, and it will typically boot right in.

I installed the SSD just this weekend in the hopes of killing this problem, because I thought it might be the fault of the old hard drive. However, no such luck, and now I turn to you, the knowledgeable public, for help.

I can't remember if this all happened BEFORE I installed the wifi chip, but I don't even know if that would affect things in this way. I still have the old wifi chip, and I could install it to see if that would be the problem, if someone thinks it could cause such an issue. The failure is inconsistent but appears not to affect anything on the system's upper levels.

What do you think I might be able to do to determine the cause of this issue?

Thank you.

jwarner112

Posted 2013-10-14T12:40:44.333

Reputation: 245

I'd try going back to the old WiFi chip just to test it out and see if the same problem occurs. I have this weird feeling that this sounds like something is plugged in loosely, so I'd also check the connections, particularly with your storage disk. – happy_soil – 2013-10-14T12:49:39.617

@happy_soil The storage disk is in tight-- as far as I know, everything is. If the connections were loose, this problem would be consistently loose. I don't handle my laptop with fragility (one reason I wanted the SSD and suspected HDD failure), so if something were loose it would only have become looser. And I'll check the wifi card for being loose before I do anything else, but I'm almost entirely sure that it's also seated properly. – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T12:52:15.663

Answers

1

One possible cause of random start up failure is power issues. It's possible the system is not maintaining the electrical current or is beginning to fail and it's randomly interfering with the boot process. Power fluctuation would also cause attached devices to randomly fail/work (such as the internal wifi card).

Something else that might be helpful is to attach a POST card to the system and check the output. Here's an example of one you might find useful:

USB POST Card

Colyn1337

Posted 2013-10-14T12:40:44.333

Reputation: 1 191

As stated above, I do treat my laptop a bit rough. My power connector is a bit loose, and the cord will just... fall out sometimes. Could this lead to the power fluctuations you describe? If so, I might try my hand at replacing the onboard connector (it's soldered on, though, so...) – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T13:23:07.253

1If it's loose enough to where it just falls out, yea that could cause an issue if the battery is missing or unable to hold a charge. It's all guesswork and academic until you attach a POST card and see what the exact error is. – Colyn1337 – 2013-10-14T13:25:49.537

Do you recommend a USB POST card or a Mini-PCIe card? I'm looking at both and while the USB one is more universal, I'm questioning whether the USB ports interface closely enough with the mobo to give me relevant results. I've never heard of this kind of diag tool before so I'm a little baffled that it could do what it says it does. Do you use one? Also, my power cord is loose but the battery is fine, as far as I know. I actually had a third-party battery bought to replace the original, which had read "critical" for close to a year beforehand. – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T13:32:19.150

(Edited the original post to include the new battery; I forgot about it originally) – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T13:34:26.583

1I have POST cards that interface directly with the mother board. Last time I needed to buy them, they didn't make USB ones. USB should be ok, so long as it's not the USB controller that's failing. If you can, go for the one that has a direct interface. Also, watch your new battery very closely, as it could be the inverter that's going bad. – Colyn1337 – 2013-10-14T13:42:12.013

Do I have any way to determine this? I feel that if it were the battery causing all of these issues, I'd have a lot more problems than occasional failure to post, wouldn't I? – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T13:57:20.140

1Usually the POST error captured by the system or the OEM can diagnose. – Colyn1337 – 2013-10-14T14:08:57.943

Thanks Colyn, you've pointed me in a great new direction. I'm voting Best Answer right now, and if this leads to my solving the problem it will stay this way permanently. – jwarner112 – 2013-10-14T14:09:55.767

That loose power connector will just get worse & worse until it breaks off completely. It's a common problem with that laptop & a number of other Dell models, and expensive to pay someone to fix (parts cheap, but the laptop has to be almost completely disassembled, new power connector soldered on, then put all back together.) – Debra – 2013-10-15T05:02:18.920

Asked: 2013-10-14T12:40:44.333

Viewed: 259 times

Active: 2013-10-14T13:34:11.003