Fix Your Stuff Community Store

2 Questions View all

Options

Won't power on, light blinking 3 amber, 1 white, bad coin cell battery

I've got an Inspiron 3593. It won't power on, the power light is blinking in a 3 amber, 1 white pattern, which per the service manual indicates a bad coin cell battery. I removed the battery, and confirmed it was indeed dead. I've tried two different new batteries, both confirmed good, and it still won't power on with the same 3 amber, 1 white blinking pattern. I've reseated the RAM and also removed the lithium ion battery to reset it, still won't power on. Any suggestions for further troubleshooting?

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Most Helpful Answer

Options

Hi @henson79010

Try resetting the BIOS by performing a full power refresh.

Disconnect the main battery from the motherboard, remove the coin cell RTC battery from the motherboard, press and hold the laptop's power button for a full 30 seconds and then release it.

Reinsert the coin cell battery (+ve side up), reconnect the main battery to the motherboard, reassemble the laptop, connect the charger and then check if it starts OK.

Update (12/29/23)

Hi @henson79010

If the motherboard is a Compal LA-J108P/J109P here's the schematic.

The Power button is on p.77 top left of page.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1

3 Comments:

I tried that, no go. I borrowed a power adapter from a friend just in case mine was wiggy. When I plugged that one in, the white light came on solid, no amber blinking, but it still wouldn't turn on. I let it sit a bit and out of the blue it turned on the next time I tried. It went into the bios setup and I updated the settings. The bios setup showed my friend's adapter as working fine, so I plugged in the original one and it showed it as fine too? I exited bios setup, it rebooted and started reflashing the bios/firmware. I assume this was a recovery flash as I don't think there were any pending updates. After the flash completed, it rebooted, and turned off. Then didn't want to turn back on again, even though the power light was solid white still. Let it sit a bit, got it to turn on, went to check for dell updates, and it downloaded a bios update and wanted to install it. Let it, rebooted, it flashed, and then came back up ok. Now I'm letting it sit powered on until the battery is full before I do anything.

by

@henson79010

More for elimination purposes than anything else, check the condition of the battery and create a battery report

When you have the report compare the Design Capacity value versus the Full Charge Capacity value as shown by the report. For a good battery the values are very close.

Use the formula full charge capacity value x 100 ÷ design capacity value to see what percentage the battery is when fully charged.

by

36982/41998 = 88%

Not perfect, but the laptop is like 3 years old. Well, I installed all the latest updates, left it on until it was fully charged, and then powered it down. Now it won't turn back on again <sigh>. If I unplug and plug back in the power adapter, the white light comes on for a sec then turns off, which I think is expected when fully charged.

I wonder if the power button is busted? Hmm. Interesting. I was just staring at it angrily and it turned itself on. Now it won't stay off 8-/. Every time I shut it down, it turns itself back on within about 30 seconds. While it's on pressing the power button doesn't do anything, I'd expect it to sleep or ask to shut down.

Aaaaand now it's back to not turning on. Guess I'll take it apart again and try to test the power button.

Thanks everybody...

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

henson will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 8

Past 7 Days: 77

Past 30 Days: 253

All Time: 572