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Just fixed a weird power cycling issue on a Dell laptop with a trick I found online
Had this Dell Latitude 7490 come in last week, kept turning on for 5 seconds then shutting off. I was ready to order a new board. On a forum, someone said to disconnect the battery AND the CMOS battery, then hold the power button down for a full minute. I thought it was nonsense, but I tried it. After reconnecting everything, it booted right up and has been fine for 3 days now. Has anyone else had a weird fix like that actually work on a modern laptop?
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wadea535mo ago
Used to think those kinds of tricks were just old wives' tales for modern hardware. Had a similar thing happen with a Lenovo that wouldn't post. A guy told me to pull the main battery and the little coin cell, then plug in just the AC adapter and try to start it. I laughed, but it worked. Makes you wonder what kind of charge gets stuck in the circuits.
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hayes.tara5mo ago
Right? It's wild how often that works. I've seen it clear weird USB port issues and phantom network adapter failures too. It feels like a lot of modern gear just gets confused if it never fully powers down. That little bit of leftover electricity must hold bad data in the memory. Doing the full power drain forces a real fresh start, like the machine forgets its own bad instructions.
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laurabennett4mo ago
Wow, really? Pulling the coin cell battery for a no-post issue? That's wild. @wadea53 I never would have thought to try that, but it sort of makes sense with all the residual charge hanging around in the circuits.
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