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I have a Dell D600 laptop. It recently refused to start when I pressed its on button. The button blinked for a few seconds, as did the three symbols to its left, which look like padlocks containing a 9, an A and a ↓, respectively.

A couple of times, I removed the battery, waited a few seconds, then put it back in, and tried again. That strategy worked until yesterday. So I had intended to take it to a shop to get an idea of what's wrong.

I decided to try it once more, on straight battery power, and it turned on with no problems.

I usually turn the computer off every night, but I think I will leave it on all the time, now. What's going wrong here, and what can I do about it?

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Does the problem occur when the charger is plugged in ? – Shakehar Mar 11 '11 at 13:41
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Can you try the following combinations and let us know the results of each:

  1. Battery inserted, charger inserted, mains power on.
  2. Battery inserted, charger inserted, mains power off.
  3. Battery inserted, charger removed.
  4. Battery removed, charger inserted, mains power on.

That should help us to narrow the cause down a little.

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Since this doesn't actually answer the question, but is hunting for further information, it should really have been made as a comment. – DMA57361♦ Mar 11 '11 at 14:11
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You try putting that in a comment in a form that is easilly readable and understandable. As more information comes in the answer will be edited to either get more information, or suggest other things to try, etc. PC fault diagnosis is not a quick one answer thing. It will take time to get to the bottom of it. – Majenko Mar 11 '11 at 14:30
that's a fair comment; the format here doesn't really work very well when frequent back-and-forth communication is required, but it's still best not to subvert it. That said, if it's the sort of diagnosis that requires lots and lots of back-and-forth, then the question should probably end up closed as too localised anyway. – DMA57361♦ Mar 11 '11 at 18:49
I agree, but I am loathed to recommend closing a question if I am able, with a little effort, to help them. – Majenko Mar 11 '11 at 19:46
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Laptops do occasionally build up a latent charge while charging the battery, which results in the unit not powering on, removing the battery causes the laptop to discharge the built up charge. Sometimes you may also have to drain any residual power by holding down the power button for up to 20 seconds with all power sources, including the battery removed.

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