legacy.not404.com

Lalee's Notes on Rebuilding an Alienware 7700

Motherboard Diagnostic Codes

"3 Flashing Lights" (Scroll Lock, Caps Lock, Num Lock)
Upon startup, the scroll lock, caps lock, and num lock keep flashing for a few seconds, and then the laptop shuts off.  The computer does manage to complete a POST. 

According to a post on NotebookReview.com, this happens because the GPU (Video Card) is not properly seated.

Symptoms and Possible Solutions
System won't start.  Blue "Power LED" is on, "HD Activity" LED is on, CD-ROM clicks a few times.  The Screen Backlight does not illuminate.  The machine does not manage to complete a POST.  Pressing Fn+F2 (for newer BIOSes) does not activate the fans.

Remove and reinstall the RAM.  By installing one stick at a time, powering up the machine to see if it POSTs, and then adding additional sticks of RAM one at a time, you will reseat the connections and hopefully that's all you need.  At the worst case, you should be able to identify a bad stick of RAM.

Other things to watch for:  Whether or not the front panel ("Audio DJ") clock illuminates.  I always set my D900T motherboards to illuminate the clock.

More notes to come . . . feel free to add to the list.

Also of interest:  There is a 10-pin "Debug" port to the lower right end of the D900T Keyboard connector.  I doubt that's simply for POST diagnostics cards, and I suspect it's a JTAG connector.

Other Ideas
I've recently been seeing a crapload of broken "Revision 6.x" motherboards. Half are dead ("Non Starting") like the "Revision 5.x" motherboards I've seen. The ones that do POST almost always have problems with the RAID controller recognizing hard drives.

There is at least one MiniPCI SATA/IDE Controller commercially available. Out of desperation and convenience, it may be possible to use something like that to route a ribbon cable from the upper motherboard (where the MiniPCI slots are) down to where the HD caddy is. Of course, you'd need to ditch the stock D900T HD cable.

You could also probably rig something with a PCMCIA SATA/IDE controller; or find something to take up the spare Optical Slot to accept a 2.5" hard drive.