Dell L702X won't boot unless heated.

data89

Honorable
Jul 12, 2012
7
0
10,510
I have a Dell XPS about 3 years old. Twice a year it would shut down and not boot for 3-7 days, then would work again for several months. I have gone through all of the procedures suggested in the forums. Now it will not boot unless I do this: I figured humidity must have something to do with the problem, so, I opened up the bottom, removed the ram, opened the cd drawer, removed the battery, and put a heat lamp (make sure it doesn't get too hot) and fan blowing on the upside down laptop. I have to do that for about 3 or 4 hours. Then, it will work just fine for about 5 or 6 hours, till it shuts off in the middle of your tediously composed work (of course the work has not been saved for awhile). If I only cook it for an hour or so, it will shut down after about an hour, but the longer I cook it, the longer it works.

Can anyone tell me what's happening here?
 
Solution
Sounds like a battery problem but it could be cold solder joints. If you have lose solder connection on your mother board they may work as your board heats up and expands. This could also be true if you have a cracked mother board. At any point did this laptop take a fall?

JimF_35

Distinguished
Dec 27, 2010
22
0
18,590
Sounds like a battery problem but it could be cold solder joints. If you have lose solder connection on your mother board they may work as your board heats up and expands. This could also be true if you have a cracked mother board. At any point did this laptop take a fall?
 
Solution

data89

Honorable
Jul 12, 2012
7
0
10,510
I think you are right about a solder connection or mother board circuit. The laptop has never been dropped or mishandled, and always transported in bubblewrap and foam, so I would suspect a manufacturing problem with the motherboard that just took a couple of years to show up. We do live in the tropics, and the humidity probably does not help it.
 

JimF_35

Distinguished
Dec 27, 2010
22
0
18,590


Funny. I live is the desert and we say the opposite. Infract we put humidifiers in our server rooms.

 

data89

Honorable
Jul 12, 2012
7
0
10,510
Well, you're probably bringing your humidity up from 10% to 30% and I'm bringing it down from 90% to 50%. We always ran AC in our equipment facilities to try and achieve 30% or less. The higher the humidity the more problems we had. Part of your reason for humidifying may be to reduce static electrical problems.
 

JimF_35

Distinguished
Dec 27, 2010
22
0
18,590


Yes we have a real problem with static here and dust from the dust storms. We are constantly cleaning the filters on our CRAC units.

 

JimF_35

Distinguished
Dec 27, 2010
22
0
18,590
Back on topic though. Does your computer still have a warrantee? If so I would call Dell techsupport and see if they can either repair it by replacing the main board or if they can RMA it.