New Motherboard, Same Problem...Help!
 

When in doubt trust the TFP team.

Ok folks, here's the deal. A friend sent me her laptop saying it "doesn't work" so I fumble with it for a little while to no avail. You power it on and the light blinks a few times then it went right back off. So after opening it up its quite evident the she dropped the laptop. Obviously she had a wireless network card in there when it was dropped because where the card is docked was completely torn from the motherboard. By the way this is a Dell Latitude C400 1.2 Ghz, 512 Ram, blah blah blah. So a quick check on dells site shows this motherboard retailing for $1800 bucks refurbished. Whats the point in that? So long story short, she tells me to trash the laptop and she went and bought another one (which was my 1st recommendation to her anyways). Well you know us computer guys, we can't just throw away a computer. So I find a lower chassis refurbished on ebay. So what the heck, I'll give it a shot. I buy the lower chassis which comes with the lower case, motherboard, processor, etc. I get the unit in and it is wrapped and sealed from Dell just like the description said on ebay. I get the unit installed, basically adding the keyboard, hard drive, and screen. Now here comes my problem. It wont power on or do anything. The battery light will come on and charge the battery which is connected through the mother board so i know it connected right but the power button does absolutely nothing when it's pressed. If held down for a few seconds the battery lite will go off then come back on a few seconds later.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :thumbsup:

if it was dropped, its anyones guess.

I hate to say it but is sounds like you got a bad board.

You're sure the battery is okay? Dropping them can be the end.

Have you tried to fire it up without the battery, hd, and anything else you can eliminate from the dropped version?

Yeah I agree with Dilbert. If it was dropped there's no fucking clue what's wrong with it. It could be ANYTHING in that whole laptop causing it.

Thanks you guys, Im not giving up on it just yet... I'll keep you posted on the outcome or post pictures of the board in a million pieces after i get 'done' with it.