I have a problem with the startup of my laptop.
When the battery is in place and the AC connected the green battery light is on and flashes off/on every 5/6 seconds or so. No other lights are on. Both of my batteries are almost flat. But they do appear to get charged a bit just sufficient to start the boot process. When I press the power switch (battery in place, AC connected) the laptop powers-up until I get to the “low battery press F1” message (the AC still connected). If the batteries have sufficient power I get to XP but it then fails with an “un mountable boot sector ….something” blue screen of death error (can’t remember exact text of the message). During this start up the battery light is lit but it is orange rather then green. It also starts up like this if I disconnect the AC supply.
When I remove the battery and try to startup on the AC supply the 3 LED lights next to the power button light up and the power light goes green. This is just during the time that I hold my finger on the power button (1 second) and, occasionally, for a few seconds -when even the fans start momentarily. But then the system switches off altogether.
I may mention some other “maybe noteworthy” thing.
I have had some trouble with the power switch since the beginning (a few years). Often when I press it the laptop appears to boot but the screen does not turn on. I then have to hold down the power switch to turn the laptop of and try again. After a few goes the screen turns on and the system boots normally –although I sometimes get the screen to choose how to boot -normally, safe mode etc.
This also happened last week but when I got it to boot I got the BSOD message mentioned above. When I tried to solve that problem with the Dell XP and problem solving CD’s The system suddenly turned of in the middle of things. After this happened a second time I checked the output of the AC supply with a Volt meter and discovered it had no Voltage. I then bought an identical new Dell power supply that does work.
Does anybody know what the problem can be?