Dell D610 I purchased used in October suddenly won't boot The
screen stays black the Num lock, cap lock , hard drive, power
lights illuminate momentarialy,the hard drive starts spinning
and stops and all the lights go off.

Quick google search leads me to believe it's the motherboard.

Hoping someone maybe familiar with this and can help, I need
this laptop working again without spending mucho $$.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
MG

it could be a couple of things stopping it from booting..
1st take the battery out and try to boot again
2nd take out any pcmcia cards that you have in there if any
3rd if you have 2 sticks of memory take one out
if still having issues take the 2nd one out and put the 1st one back in
4th try disconnecting the wifi card and bluetooth from the mini pci.
5th check the real time clock (CMOS) Battery voltage (a low RTC will sometimes stop a system from booting)

oh and if the board is toast check local computer shops for an 2.5 USB external enclouser for the HDD. should only cost $20-40..
you can then get the data off atleast.. also as an added bonus you then you have a fairly cheap external HDD for the new laptop

Did you buy it new or used? If you bought it new, it has a 1year warranty right from dell! If it was bought used, bummer!

The Laptop came out around the summer of 2005.. unless it was purchased in early 06 with a 3 yr warranty it is off warranty

MG
you could always goto the dell website and check the warranty status.. you could get lucky

It sounds to me like it will end up being a motherboard issue. Looks like with it trying to power up and then shutting down like that that something on the MB is causing the power supply to possibly crowbar. But as mentioned it won't hurt to eliminate everything you can from the equation. This should also include removing the internal HD as well.... But in the end I'm pretty sure that it will be the MB...

MG you didn't happen to spill a drink on it did you..

I should have said earlier that I suspect its a mobo as well..

The reason I said spilling a drink on a system.. I was working on a one or two week old laptop (a pretty nice Thinkpad with ddr3 memory) today where the system wouldn't boot so I started checking on a few things.. I pulled the DVD out and found signs of sticky drink residue on the top and bottom all the way back to the end of the drive.. did that suck having to call the guy and tell him his warranty was voided

Ugh, I really hate when people try to prove something thats not there. I still stand by my question, Did you buy it new or used?

Just because a computer was released in what ever year, doesn't mean it still cant be purchased new. ALSO, some places sell NEW REFURBISHED. They come with a 1 year warranty, usually from the manufacture.

So, I guess to make this easier for those that cant think beyond a one line question.

Did you buy the laptop from a friend or a store? If you bought it from a store, was it sold as used or new, or refurb?

Sorry for tardy reply.

Purchased used with 30 day warranty.

Aftter dong some diagnostics I determined that if I remove
the wifi card it boots fine, the card in question is an Intel
Dell P/N 0C9063.

So is this a bad wifi card or could it still be the motherboard?
I'd hate to buy a replacement card only to find out it's the
motherboard.

Oh and no I didn't spill anything on it!

Thanks
MG

I would find a buddy who has a good wifi card and plug it in and see what happens.

It could be a bad card, or it could be bent pins inside the slot shorting out when a card is inserted. It could also be the power supply circuit leading to the socket could be shorting out.

Did this particular unit not come with built in wifi? Or are you using like sprint/some other carrier wifi?

This is an internal mini-pci card built into the laptop.
The card resides under the keyboard in a mini-pci socket
on the moboard.

I inspected the socket and surrounding area and didn't
see any obvious damage. Prior to this it worked fine.
I let teh laptop sit about a week after the problem arose
and over this weekend when I tried it, it powered on fine
for ~ 2 hours until it started acting up again.

That's when I began my diagnostics and discovered if I removed
the wifi card the problem went away.


Thanks
MG

Swapped a known good card in from another laptop and it
wouldn't boot up.

Removed the wifi card and it boots fine.

Looks like something is wrong with the mini-pci socket.

When I have time I'm going to disassemble the laptop further
to see if there is any obvious damage to the socket.

Any thoughts other than use a PCI wifi card?

Thanks
MG

glad you found the culprit.. after changing to another model wireless card some boards make you reflash the bios - so I've heard.. never had to yet..

here is a service manual for the d610

http://www.geneseo.edu/~stratton/D610_ServManual/index.htm

looks like there are a couple of cards that are dell spares though.. http://www.geneseo.edu/~stratton/D610_ServManual/azedamib.htm

as far as pci alternatives you might be able to find a pcmcia or usb..

as a side note.. some wireless routers (mainly older ones)have either pcmcia or mini-pci cards that aren't soldered in

I would just get a pcmcia or a usb one and be done with it.

The usb ones are a bit bulky but have killer range because there also an antennae.

Oh forgot to mention the PCMCIA socket doesn't work either, cause
I did try using a PCMCIA card I have. I belive the PCMCIA and Mini-PCI sockets are part of the same "circuit".

Current plan is to use a USB one, pondering embedding it in
the laptop where the min-pci and PCMCIA ones are and hard
wiring the usb cable to the motherboard.

Anyone ever mess with shit like that?

My father is an electronics tech with mad soldering iron
skills, but I'll have to find some info on the pinout of
the usb port/cables.

Thanks
MG

Never done it but I am sure it can be done. USB input/output diagrams should be all over the internet.

Disassembled the Dell latitude D610 laptop, I can't see
any obvious signs of damage to the socket or motherboard.

Neither the internal mini-pci socket or the pcmcia
socket work. The internal one seems to work intermittently,
if I reinstall the wifi card in the mini-pci socket sometimes
it will succesfully boot and establish a connection with
my router. But then it will usually lock the computer up.

It appears that there is enough space where the mini-pci
card would normally go to install a usb wifi dongle. I'm going
to do more research on this laptop and see if there is any
easy way to pick up the USB port, I would think I could simply
solder the 4 wires (in the right order) to a point on the
motherboard...just need to find where the USB traces are.

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

as far as the usb on the systemboard.. if you can get to the pins on a usb ports to solder a usb extension cable and route the cable to the minipci area

What if a new mainboard could be purchased for $118?

Could be a driver issue. Go into hardware manager and delete the drivers. On reboot it should "Find" the card and re install the driver.

tried it, no the pci socket and the internal mini pci socket
are both hosed. Currently using a usb wifi dongle which I plan
to direct wire inside the laptop to the USB port.