My new-to-me renewed laptop is dead.
I bought from Amazon a renwed Dell laptop about 4 yeears old. It came
on Dec 12. I used it for about an hour and it was fine. the charger charged. I coudl dl and install Firefox. I could use an external mouse.
A few other things worked.
Then I got sick from something the doctor did to me on Dec. 11 and
didn't have the strength to work on it until last tonight. The battery
still had almost all its charge an dit started right up. I plugged in
the ext. mouse and an ext keyboard. Then I wanted to go upstairs for a
hub, to plug in external drive. I slept it, and notice that it woke up
when I opened the lid, then the screen went dark again when I closed the
lid, without touching any keys either time.
Left the charger plugged in for 3 or 4 hours. The light on the included charger was on. There are no lights on the laptop to tell when it's
charging or on, or when caps/num/scroll lock are on. When I came
downstairs and plugged in the hub and tried to start it, it's totally
dead. I unplugged all the usb things and it's still dead.
I can get the model number tomorrow moring, but does what I've said give
any ideas? And are Amazon refurbs guaranteed for 2 months? :-(
The only thing I added to the mix today was the hub and the ext drive.
The ext drive I've used before, including 2 days ago on the other pc.
Could a bad hub do this much damage?
My new-to-me renewed laptop is dead.
I bought from Amazon a renwed Dell laptop about 4 yeears old. It came
on Dec 12. I used it for about an hour and it was fine. the charger charged. I coudl dl and install Firefox. I could use an external mouse.
A few other things worked.
Then I got sick from something the doctor did to me on Dec. 11 and
didn't have the strength to work on it until last tonight. The battery
still had almost all its charge an dit started right up. I plugged in
the ext. mouse and an ext keyboard. Then I wanted to go upstairs for a
hub, to plug in external drive. I slept it, and notice that it woke up
when I opened the lid, then the screen went dark again when I closed the
lid, without touching any keys either time.
Left the charger plugged in for 3 or 4 hours. The light on the included charger was on. There are no lights on the laptop to tell when it's
charging or on, or when caps/num/scroll lock are on. When I came
downstairs and plugged in the hub and tried to start it, it's totally
dead. I unplugged all the usb things and it's still dead.
I can get the model number tomorrow moring, but does what I've said give
any ideas? And are Amazon refurbs guaranteed for 2 months? :-(
The only thing I added to the mix today was the hub and the ext drive.
The ext drive I've used before, including 2 days ago on the other pc.
Could a bad hub do this much damage?
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
My new-to-me renewed laptop is dead.
I bought from Amazon a renwed Dell laptop about 4 yeears old. It came
on Dec 12. I used it for about an hour and it was fine. the charger
charged. I coudl dl and install Firefox. I could use an external mouse.
A few other things worked.
Then I got sick from something the doctor did to me on Dec. 11 and
didn't have the strength to work on it until last tonight. The battery
still had almost all its charge an dit started right up. I plugged in
the ext. mouse and an ext keyboard. Then I wanted to go upstairs for a
hub, to plug in external drive. I slept it, and notice that it woke up
when I opened the lid, then the screen went dark again when I closed the
lid, without touching any keys either time.
Left the charger plugged in for 3 or 4 hours. The light on the included
charger was on. There are no lights on the laptop to tell when it's
charging or on, or when caps/num/scroll lock are on. When I came
downstairs and plugged in the hub and tried to start it, it's totally
dead. I unplugged all the usb things and it's still dead.
Is the charger plug on the laptop side a USB-C plug or a 'old'-style
barrel connector. If the latter, I have yet to see a DC barrel port on a >laptop, which does not have a small LED next to the port.
Same for LEDs on the keyboard. At minimum, there's a LED in/near the
power button and probably several others in, or next to, some keys.
So look for these LEDs, even if they are unlit. Normally they are just
tiny, about 1mm, holes.
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger
itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to
the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
I can get the model number tomorrow moring, but does what I've said give
any ideas? And are Amazon refurbs guaranteed for 2 months? :-(
The only thing I added to the mix today was the hub and the ext drive.
The ext drive I've used before, including 2 days ago on the other pc.
Could a bad hub do this much damage?
On Sun, 1/26/2025 3:59 AM, micky wrote:
My new-to-me renewed laptop is dead.
I bought from Amazon a renwed Dell laptop about 4 yeears old. It came
on Dec 12. I used it for about an hour and it was fine. the charger
charged. I coudl dl and install Firefox. I could use an external mouse.
A few other things worked.
Then I got sick from something the doctor did to me on Dec. 11 and
didn't have the strength to work on it until last tonight. The battery
still had almost all its charge an dit started right up. I plugged in
the ext. mouse and an ext keyboard. Then I wanted to go upstairs for a
hub, to plug in external drive. I slept it, and notice that it woke up
when I opened the lid, then the screen went dark again when I closed the
lid, without touching any keys either time.
Left the charger plugged in for 3 or 4 hours. The light on the included
charger was on. There are no lights on the laptop to tell when it's
charging or on, or when caps/num/scroll lock are on. When I came
downstairs and plugged in the hub and tried to start it, it's totally
dead. I unplugged all the usb things and it's still dead.
I can get the model number tomorrow moring, but does what I've said give
any ideas? And are Amazon refurbs guaranteed for 2 months? :-(
The only thing I added to the mix today was the hub and the ext drive.
The ext drive I've used before, including 2 days ago on the other pc.
Could a bad hub do this much damage?
Does the adapter look like the original adapter ?
I found it strange that opening the lid and doing no more than that lit
up the screen, but that might be a recent feature??
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger
itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to >the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
It's supposed to be 19.5 volts but the highest number I could get from
my VOM was 17v, and that quickly dropped, gradually or as low as 5! Of course it was hard to hold the probe to the center pin, and i'm not
building a jig just for this. I'll see what the vendor says.
BTW, the laptop looks spotless, hard to believe anyone has ever used it.
Is that because the refurbishers are fantastic at cleaning them, or
maybe it was hardly used??
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger >>> itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to >>> the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
It's supposed to be 19.5 volts but the highest number I could get from
my VOM was 17v, and that quickly dropped, gradually or as low as 5! Of
course it was hard to hold the probe to the center pin, and i'm not
building a jig just for this. I'll see what the vendor says.
This is probably one for Paul (my electronics knowledge is limited and slipping), but AFAIK, a laptop adapter will not supply the specified
voltage unless you draw some current from it, which your meter doesn't
do (well, only very little, not enough).
[...]
Have you done the usual holding the on button for 15 seconds thing to
force a complete power down?
I generally totally disable sleep, hibernate and maybe also screen
savers on laptops. If they don't just immediately work perfectly it's
usually a nightmare trying to work out what's wrong with them. Often
laptops that could handle them on, say, Windows 7 completely fail with,
say, Windows 10.
win11 added because this is really a win11 topic after all. And partly
win10. "After one hour of working fine, new to me refurbished laptop is
dead and nothing wakes it up."
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 26 Jan 2025 17:06:03 +0000, Brian
Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
Have you done the usual holding the on button for 15 seconds thing to
force a complete power down?
Well, no, because I thought it *was* off. The lights I had not noticed,
the one on the power key, the one in front that means it's charging, and
the lighted keyboard were all off. No lights were on and the screen was totally dark.
But after trying a few more things this morning (well, really the same things, unplugging and plugging in the charger and pushing Power), I remembered what you said above and by golly, that worked. Maybe I
pressed Power again and the first thing I noticed is the keyboard lit
up. 7 points for you. Heck, 500 points. My next step was to call the renewer!, couldn't call him on the weekend, and now I don't have to do
that.
Where did you learn that this could work in this situation?
AFAICT, it had checked for windows updates and of course there were some becuase I hadn't turned it on for 6 weeks, and it had only been on an
hour 6 weeks ago. Saturday night was the last time it checked for
updates, but this morning was when they were installed. A lot of them.
I haven't figured out yet how to enable Hibernate, and when I tried
Sleep, it blinked and woke up again each time, so I no longer remember
if I just closd the lid or if I tried to turn it off (I think I closed
the lid), but somehow it got stopped in the middle of windows update.
I generally totally disable sleep, hibernate and maybe also screen
savers on laptops. If they don't just immediately work perfectly it's
usually a nightmare trying to work out what's wrong with them. Often
I guess I got a sample of that.
And it seemed to do it again later today, Monday -- had to hold the
power button down until it turned off -- but since then it's behaved
itself.
laptops that could handle them on, say, Windows 7 completely fail with,
say, Windows 10.
I've had no trouble with any of themm and I use them "all the time".
Except that even though I set the mice to not wake the pc up from sleep, sometimes they still do when I accidentally bump one of the mice on my
desk, but that's small potatoes compare to your complaint. This new
win11 is not off to a good start with the confusion it gave me this
weekend, and it will take several days before I can enable Hibernate and
test Sleep, but if I have problems I plan to report back.
You can redeem your points at the M&H Green Stamps Redemption Center in Baltimore. M-F 9 to 5:30 ET. I'll send address later. Unfortunately,
you must redeem them in person, but we have some very nice prizes. Do
you need a FAX machine?
On Mon, 1/27/2025 10:55 PM, micky wrote:
alt.comp.os.windows-11 added, because... micky
win11 added because this is really a win11 topic after all. And partly
win10. "After one hour of working fine, new to me refurbished laptop is
dead and nothing wakes it up."
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 26 Jan 2025 17:06:03 +0000, Brian
Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
Have you done the usual holding the on button for 15 seconds thing to
force a complete power down?
Well, no, because I thought it *was* off. The lights I had not noticed,
the one on the power key, the one in front that means it's charging, and
the lighted keyboard were all off. No lights were on and the screen was
totally dark.
But after trying a few more things this morning (well, really the same
things, unplugging and plugging in the charger and pushing Power), I
remembered what you said above and by golly, that worked. Maybe I
pressed Power again and the first thing I noticed is the keyboard lit
up. 7 points for you. Heck, 500 points. My next step was to call the
renewer!, couldn't call him on the weekend, and now I don't have to do
that.
Where did you learn that this could work in this situation?
AFAICT, it had checked for windows updates and of course there were some
becuase I hadn't turned it on for 6 weeks, and it had only been on an
hour 6 weeks ago. Saturday night was the last time it checked for
updates, but this morning was when they were installed. A lot of them.
I haven't figured out yet how to enable Hibernate, and when I tried
Sleep, it blinked and woke up again each time, so I no longer remember
if I just closd the lid or if I tried to turn it off (I think I closed
the lid), but somehow it got stopped in the middle of windows update.
I generally totally disable sleep, hibernate and maybe also screen
savers on laptops. If they don't just immediately work perfectly it's
usually a nightmare trying to work out what's wrong with them. Often
I guess I got a sample of that.
And it seemed to do it again later today, Monday -- had to hold the
power button down until it turned off -- but since then it's behaved
itself.
laptops that could handle them on, say, Windows 7 completely fail with,
say, Windows 10.
I've had no trouble with any of themm and I use them "all the time".
Except that even though I set the mice to not wake the pc up from sleep,
sometimes they still do when I accidentally bump one of the mice on my
desk, but that's small potatoes compare to your complaint. This new
win11 is not off to a good start with the confusion it gave me this
weekend, and it will take several days before I can enable Hibernate and
test Sleep, but if I have problems I plan to report back.
You can redeem your points at the M&H Green Stamps Redemption Center in
Baltimore. M-F 9 to 5:30 ET. I'll send address later. Unfortunately,
you must redeem them in person, but we have some very nice prizes. Do
you need a FAX machine?
But don't your symptoms point to a lack of ACPI support at the current time ?
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-check-your-computers-supported-power-features-on-windows-11
powercfg /availablesleepstates
On Sun, 1/26/2025 11:25 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:Hmmm. I've heard of that but I don't remember with what device.
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger >>>> itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to >>>> the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
It's supposed to be 19.5 volts but the highest number I could get from
my VOM was 17v, and that quickly dropped, gradually or as low as 5! Of
course it was hard to hold the probe to the center pin, and i'm not
building a jig just for this. I'll see what the vendor says.
This is probably one for Paul (my electronics knowledge is limited and
slipping), but AFAIK, a laptop adapter will not supply the specified
voltage unless you draw some current from it, which your meter doesn't
do (well, only very little, not enough).
[...]
it should be fine, no load. You would get 19.5V.
If you shorted it, it would give 0 and there would
be a spark (capacitor discharge).
The results Micky is getting, suggest the adapter
is not all that happy.
However, there is one other possibility. Some adapters
actually have three electrical contact points, and one
of them is an "enable". If the adapter is that type, then
the contact with the actual power on it, won't be enabled
while the plug is sitting in air.
I don't know the details of this, I was only told
of the possibility of that being present. Perhaps both
the jack and the barrel plug are larger than normal
for those. My laptop is only two contacts, and the
center contact, there is no room for any third option.
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 26 Jan 2025 16:17:33 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 1/26/2025 11:25 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:Hmmm. I've heard of that but I don't remember with what device.
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger
itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to >>>>> the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
It's supposed to be 19.5 volts but the highest number I could get from >>>> my VOM was 17v, and that quickly dropped, gradually or as low as 5! Of >>>> course it was hard to hold the probe to the center pin, and i'm not
building a jig just for this. I'll see what the vendor says.
This is probably one for Paul (my electronics knowledge is limited and >>> slipping), but AFAIK, a laptop adapter will not supply the specified
voltage unless you draw some current from it, which your meter doesn't
do (well, only very little, not enough).
[...]
it should be fine, no load. You would get 19.5V.
If you shorted it, it would give 0 and there would
be a spark (capacitor discharge).
The results Micky is getting, suggest the adapter
is not all that happy.
However, there is one other possibility. Some adapters
actually have three electrical contact points, and one
No, simple barrel plug. A Dell.
I have, but can't find, a universal adapter with 3 prong tips so that
the adapter knows what voltage to put out, but the actual plug on the
end of the tip is 2-contact.
of them is an "enable". If the adapter is that type, then
the contact with the actual power on it, won't be enabled
while the plug is sitting in air.
I don't know the details of this, I was only told
of the possibility of that being present. Perhaps both
the jack and the barrel plug are larger than normal
for those. My laptop is only two contacts, and the
center contact, there is no room for any third option.
My new-to-me renewed laptop is dead.
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]
If there are LEDs, but none of them are lit, and the light of the charger >> >itself is on, I would suspect a bad cable/connection from the charger to
the laptop or indeed a totally dead laptop.
It's supposed to be 19.5 volts but the highest number I could get from
my VOM was 17v, and that quickly dropped, gradually or as low as 5! Of
course it was hard to hold the probe to the center pin, and i'm not
building a jig just for this. I'll see what the vendor says.
This is probably one for Paul (my electronics knowledge is limited and
slipping), but AFAIK, a laptop adapter will not supply the specified
voltage unless you draw some current from it, which your meter doesn't
do (well, only very little, not enough).
[...]
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]
I found it strange that opening the lid and doing no more than that lit
up the screen, but that might be a recent feature??
It's normal for a laptop to wake up and light the screen when the lid
is opened.
If it has a password for login, the screen normally goes blank again
rather quickly, if you don't press a key or move the 'mouse' to get a
login prompt.
BTW, if you still have the adapter for your old laptop and if that has
the same DC voltage, amperage, polarity and barrel connector, you could
try that on the new laptop or vice versa.
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