Question Dell Inspiron 5515 completely dead

[Brianw2022]

My Dell Inspiron 5515 is less than a year old and I've barely used it. One day, I simply could not turn it on and there was no charging light either. I bought a new charger and still nothing. I unscrewed the back, disconnected the battery, and drained the flea power, and then it came to life. I ran a diagnostic and it said everything was fine. Later that night it became completely unresponsive again.

Since it's still under warranty, I called support and they told me they would send someone out to take a look, which took a couple of weeks. About an hour before he arrived, I plugged it in, but then when he showed up, it turned right on. He replaced the motherboard and power cycled it a few times to make sure it was all good.

I used the computer for about an hour after he left, but the battery was starting to get low (he had unplugged it), so I plugged it in and closed the lid. When I came back later that night it was the same deal... no lights, couldn't turn on, nothing.

I texted the tech, but I got no response. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

If you were able to get life into your laptop after disassembling/discharging your laptop's residual power, then it's highly likely that you have a grounding issue from your wall outlet or that your rams need some cleaning, i.e, using an eraser to wipe the gold contacts on the stick(s) of ram, dust of debris and then reseat the ram on the ram slot.

The next time the laptop comes back to life, see what your BIOS version is, using CPU-Z, then use your laptop's SKU/serial number on HP's support page to see if your laptop has any BIOS versions pending update.

 

[Brianw2022]

Thank you for your response. I cleaned the ram with an eraser, and updated the BIOS. Then I installed every update my OS (Ubuntu) recommended, but the same thing is happening. The laptop works just fine in every way until I close the lid, then it just completely dies until I drain the residual power. I haven't tested the outlet ground yet, but my apartment building is very new, so I would be surprised if it were faulty.

 

[Brianw2022]

I just purchased an outlet tester, and the outlet is grounded.

So to summarize, laptop works fine until lid is shut, and then it's essentially a paperweight. Draining the residual power is the only thing that brings it back to life.

Bios and all drivers are up to date. Ram sticks are clean. Outlet is grounded. Motherboard has been replaced. Any other ideas?

 

[Brianw2022]

Anybody? I spent $900 on this piece of trash. Dell support is useless.

 

[hang-the-9]

Anybody? I spent $900 on this piece of trash. Dell support is useless.

When you say it dies when you close the lid, do you mean when it's on and you just close the lid? Or is it shut off, you close the lid and it does not work, but if you leave the lid up it turns on OK? Set the power management to "do nothing" when the lid is closed. You may be having an issue with your sleep/hybernate modes. Short of replacing the thing you probably would need to just deal with Dell support on this unless you find the issue is with sleep mode.