I have an Inspiron 15 (7547) that does get a power indicator but when the power button is pressed, it makes a whir sound and then shuts down within about 3 seconds.
I removed the RAM and it beeps like crazy. I replaced RAM 1 stick at a time to no avail. I replaced the HDD, and even took out the HDD. No change. I removed the battery, pressed the power, removed the coin cell, pressed power again, replaced all and still the behavior is the same (power button lights up, power indicator lights up, whir/swish sound & seconds later power down). Using a power adapter does not change the behavior either.
Hello Mr.Gadget. You wrote this some time ago but this is EXACTLY the issue I’m having. The only dif is mine is the 7548. It started out of nowhere this past Wednesday night. Did you happen to figure out what was wrong? I’ve found all sorts of oddities in my testing. It will start if I have one RAM slot filled with a 4 gig card. That same slot with an 8 gig card will not start. When it does start (only with that 4 gig card) I seem to have to have the cover off and,I swear this is true, it seems to need to be upside down. ?? Weird right?? I discovered this because I was testing every possible card scenario and got tired of putting the cover back on and had the battery unscrewed- a total fluke. Anyway, since I managed to get it running with the small RAM card, while holding it like a pizza, I’ve run the dell diagnostics about 10 times, updated BIOS etc.. I saw an error earlier In the tool about the battery life span running out ( though is windows diagnostics it says the battery is doing fine) but tonight, for the 1st time, I got beeps and an error telling me the video fan didn’t respond properly. I’m wondering if, when the startup precheck runs and the video fan says it’s not working, if the machine simply won’t boot as a safety measure. And I imagine the machine definitely needs work No fans if it’s running more RAM and perhaps that’s why the larger cards won’t work at all. So I’m very hopeful the entire issue is a dying fan causing a massive hiccup.
I have a lot of theories. Any chance you can lead me in the right direction? (Anyone else run into this?) i’d love to avoid having to buy a new laptop. Grrr..
Thanks in advance!