[SOLVED] Dell XPS 13 9300 CPU Failure

[Appletax]

Solution: Dell is going to fix it.


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Dell XPS 13 9300 (Service Tag: 5X36453)

Issues:

1. Front LED strip sometimes shows blinking lights - 2 orange, 1 white = CPU Failure.
2. Never shows anything besides the Dell logo.
3. Sometimes starts up and shows Dell logo with screen backlight on, sometimes with screen backlight off (can barely see it).
4. Cannot get it to turn on and off normally (pressing power button for a while doesn't turn it off).
5. Cannot press F12 to perform built-in diagnostics.
6. Only has USB-C ports - no HDMI - so, probably needs USB-C/DisplayPort cable to output to external monitor. Probably won't be able to do anything with it anyways, but I need to get one of these cables for the future.

Tried RTC reset.

Probably needs a new motherboard, yes? Here's what's available on eBay.

Soldered RAM. Can't even test it.

Interesting: the warranty can be extended, but Dell support told me that any current issues are not covered. How would they even know unless they remoted into it after buying the extended warranty and checking it out digitally?





Edit: customer says, "I use it in my shop that has lasers so more than likely charred wood from my hands because I laser and cut wood."

 

[Appletax]

Only logical solution is to put a replacement board in.

Unless there's someone that can just repair it instead.

@gadgetfixup ?

 

[Appletax]

Dell says they can replace it for $209 part, $9 shipping, diagnostic fee of $59 or $39 depending on how fast she wants it done.

She is going this route. Much cheaper and better than having me do it.

The part will be refurbished and have a 90-day warranty.

 

[gadgetfixup]

I'm surprised Dell will repair it so cheaply. In my experience, a bad CPU will not show anything on the screen and those flash codes are rarely correct. It could be a bad on-board ram or corrupt BIOS. If it's getting the Dell logo, it's starting POST and for whatever reason, it's hanging on POST. Corrupt BIOS and SIOs are becoming more and more common. We've invested in equipment to reprogram both on practically every brand of laptop / computer.