My Dell D600 shows no lights at all. When power adapter is turned on, it's green light comes on normally but as soon as I plug it into the D600, that light then starts to flash. No lights at all appear on laptop & it certainly won't start at all. No amount of pushing or prodding nor reseating on RAM makes any difference. Seems totally dead unless some small thing? Says he in hopes.

davidvh2, December 2010

If the AC adapter is overloaded it appears from reading the text below that the Green light will go out...

Text found at
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/17837320/17967881.aspx

OK, I'll give this a try. You need to isolate this to: (A) bad AC adapter, (B) bad battery, or (C) bad laptop. I assume you don't have 2nd battery or AC adapter to try. There are "protection" circuits built into these items to prevent thermal/current overloads which may be shutting things down.

Step 1: Disconnect everything from everything, including AC adapter from wall plug and wait a few minutes.

Step 2: Connect just the AC adapter to the wall plug (do not connect to laptop). Verify that the green light in the AC adapter is on.

Step 3: Remove battery from laptop. Plug AC adapter into laptop. Does the laptop boot and run?? If NOT, is the green light still lit on the A/C adapter?? If laptop boots and runs, this implies that laptop and adapter are OK (almost). If laptop doesn't boot and AC adapters green lit is off, then it could be either item. The laptop may be overloading the AC adapter (which shuts off) or the AC adapter may be bad, BUT since the laptop runs on battery alone, try another AC adapter first.

Step 4: Remove AC adapter from laptop and install your battery, Does laptop boot and run?? Does power meter recognize battery and give charge level?? If NOT, suspect battery first and laptop 2nd, especially if Step 3 was successful.... If laptop works with battery, power laptop off.

Step 5: Disconnect AC adapter from wall and connect to laptop, but keep laptop powered off. Plug AC adapter into wall and verify still have green light on AC adapter. If green light is off, AC adapter has shut down due to excessive load from battery/laptop or maybe adapter is going bad and is unable to supply sufficient current. If Step 3 was successful (i.e. you can run laptop on AC adapter without battery installed, suspect a bad battery pack). Remember, just because a battery supplies power to a laptop doesn't mean its cells aren't going bad and overloading the AC adapter.

Step 6: With AC/Battery/Laptop all connected, BUT laptop turned off, verify that charging light on laptop is on. It may flash as the battery reaches a full charge. Once fully charged (hours), the light should go off. Does the battery fully charge???

Step 7: If battery fully charges, try turning on the laptop and see if it boots... If so, I suspect that your AC adpater is unable to simultaneously charge the battery and power the laptop without a thermal/over-current shutdown (AC adapter shuts down and green light on adapter is OFF).

Hope this helps and good luck....

Edit: Not sure about Dell, but batteries are good for 300 to 500 charge cycles... How old is your battery?? If you do a lot of off AC Adpater work, followed by recharge, etc. you may have reached end-of-life on battery. If you have to shot-gun, try battery first (if you're wrong, you have a useful spare battery), AC adapter second (spare AC adapter is sometimes handy), and laptop last (spare motherboard is $$$$).

Peccavi, December 2010

In your situation - I'm not sure - I assume you have the right voltage at the free connector and that the internal fixed connector is secure and has not been knocked.

I will ask a friend who is aware of Dell product recall issues and report back... I am vaguely aware of some laptop battery issues.

http://ftp1.us.dell.com/diags/R66243.htm

As an afterthought - if the adapter was good - and it failed - the machine would slowly drain the battery and tell you about it - if this has happened and you noticed it then it would be reasonable to suspect a bad adapter - if it didn't happen this way - and the machine spontaneously failed to power up with or without the adapter (assumes a charged battery) then you can discount the PSU and just suspect the machine itself.

I doubt very much that rearranging the RAM will change the symptoms.

Continuing good luck...

Peccavi, December 2010

Substitution is a wonderful thing IF you've either got or have access to the pieces. I'm trying locally (in Spain) but so far not had any luck. As the adapter's output voltage can be checked (it's 19.5v) I'm doubting it is a faulty adapter (which is new BTW) & why I was searching to find anyone with the same experience. Seems plenty of troubles (mostly shorts) with the Dell D600's so this sounds a likely possibility to me. Any further ideas?

davidvh2, December 2010

They are - to all intents and purposes - unrepairable.

Buy, beg or borrow a new one - there may be a problem with the laptop itself so before spending money a test would be a sensible thing - either use another adapter on your laptop or take your adapter to another machine - then you'll know.

Amazon have them for about £20.

Peccavi, December 2010