Dell latitude E6440 randomly not starting

Hi All! I have an old Delll E6440, which started acting weird 1 month ago. After any kind of swiching it off (includes shutdown, hibernation, sleep), randomly i can't wake it up (this can happen even on restart), when i press the power button these can happen:

the power LED on, and that's all. Nothing happens, the HDD, or battery charging LED does nothing, the screen is off, i can't turn it off, even if i press the power button for 10 seconds, i can only turn off by removing the battery
power led on, some blinking of hdd led, but then same as above
power led on, hdd led blinking, dell logo comes up on screen, hangs there, others are same as above
starts correctly, and i can use, but its very slow, like if the CPU is running at low frequency, also on linux mint (main os) this time the battery indicator is missing, like if it would be a desktop pc, the system not even detects the battery, or charging, even if it runs from battery only. After a half hour, the cooler revs up, the system gets faster, like normally, and the battery/charging indicator appears
starts correctly, everything is normal, and stable

So a usually turn on, is like this: fail, take out battery and back, fail, battery out-in, fail, battery..., starts correctly. But for example today i had to to the battery cycle 8 times until it started.

I've checked the cmos battery, its fine with voltage a little bit above the nominal, and never was UEFI settings loss. I've tried without the HDD(SSD) too, nothing changed.

I've tried to start without battery, on charger, but no any reaction on power button, not even the LED. The charger supplies the normal voltage, also tried with other charger for same type, but nothing changed. If the laptop starts correctly, also charges the battery as normal.

Do anyone have some hints, why is this happening? I've done longer RAM tests too, no error.

5 comments

I'll be blunt, that is a decade old computer, a good computer, but still a decade old computer.

This computer is a proffesional laptop, and as such, you have a huge advantage, Dell has an excellent service manual for this computer, it is also decently easy to work on (though the Exx30 latitudes will forever be my favourite laptop to work on):

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/latitude-e6440-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

Now, with this said, I will advice you to replace the machine if possible, this to avoid accidental writes to the drive that could cause corruption and data loss.

Depending on your situation, this may or may not be an issue, but as an IT technician my priority lie with irreplacable if lost.
This sounds like some power IC has a loose connection or cold solder joint and jostling and heating recreates a connection. To be certain, you could try booting with the laptop back panel open, if it fails, use a heat gun to gently apply heat to the motherboard and see if only doing that (without jostling) allows it to wake.
I have to agree with the other commenters. A laptop generally does not last a decade or longer, so you're probably better off just replacing it and are fortunate it has done well for so long. If for some reason you want to work on it, it sounds like this is a motherboard problem, such as the IC. I've never replaced a motherboard or its components on a laptop, but it should theoretically be possible.
Remove the battery and power cable and hold down the power button for 15 seconds to clear any voltage bouncing around in there, that can cause startup issues.

After that, If you have the same problems, I would throw a clean minimal OS on there after a backup.
Locking as this post violates rule 5.