What's wrong with my Dell G3 3590 laptop? Keeps flashing an error code

[milesuy]

The power/charge indicator flashes 2 amber and 8 white color LED. The Caps Lock is also stuck on, I can't turn it off, even on an external keyboard, but using a keyboard tester shows that it knows that the Caps Lock key was pressed. This happens on the next power on, either from a shut down or a restart.

 

After some Googling, I found that the flashing LEDs / error code means a LCD Power Rail Failure, but my LCD works fine, so what gives?

Reference: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000127927/a-reference-guide-for-latitude-notebook-and-tablet-diagnostic-indicators#:~:text=LCD Power Rail Failure

I know that the reference is for a Latitude laptop, but I can't find a resource for my laptop.

Update: I finally found that the flashing LEDs means System board error, but everything works, even playing/running games (GTA V, Back 4 Blood, Dying Light, GTFO, etc.) and benchmark programs (Cinebench, Furmark, 3DMark) runs fine, so what gives?

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/g-series-15-3590-laptop/dell-g3-3590-service-manual/system-diagnostic-lights?guid=guid-215fecab-328d-40f9-8731-750be6594708&lang=en-us#:~:text=2%2C8-,System board error,-3%2C1

 

I tried restarting, and also removing the CMOS Battery, but the issue persists. For now, I have tried disconnecting the battery for a few hours and the error code is gone, but the issue is recurring at the next power on/restart.

 

I also noticed that one of the cell of the battery is swelling and the battery drains when not used for more than a week, but it still runs for a few hours from a full charge, so I'm hesitant to replace it. I'm not sure if this is related, but I added this just in case.

 

I am currently suspecting a bug from WIndows 11 or a program (ThrottleStop) that's messing with the laptop. I am planning to troubeshoot this by temporarily taking out the current M.2 drive and installing another M.2 drive to install WIndows 10 or Ubuntu, but I'm not sure if I could screw up the Windows 11 drive, since W11 has the TPM thing and device encryption enabled by default. What are your thoughts for this troubleshooting method?

 

Please share your some troubleshooting steps or solution for this issue.

PS: Its really annoying to keep dismantling the laptop and disconnect the battery.

[jaslion]

41 minutes ago, milesuy said:

I also noticed that one of the cell of the battery is swelling and the battery drains when not used for more than a week, but it still runs for a few hours from a full charge, so I'm hesitant to replace it. I'm not sure if this is related, but I added this just in case.

Remove battery and dispose of it immediatly as this is is a genuine real fire hazard and risk to your health. Basically it is screaming "I will violently combust" to you

 

If with no battery the issue is ok then well yeah dispose of the battery and replace

[milesuy]

20 hours ago, jaslion said:

If with no battery the issue is ok then well yeah dispose of the battery and replace

I tried removing the battery, so its running from the AC adapter (charger), and so far the flashing LED stopped, I guess it was the battery. I'll write an update when I get a new battery.

I also did disable ThrottleStop from running at boot, so I'm not sure which one fixed it.

 

While writing this, it happend again, even with the battery disconnected / running from the AC adapter. Looks like I can rule out battery, but it does need to be replaced since its bloated.

I do want this issue fixed before I replace the battery.

 

21 hours ago, milesuy said:

I am currently suspecting a bug from WIndows 11 or a program (ThrottleStop) that's messing with the laptop. I am planning to troubeshoot this by temporarily taking out the current M.2 drive and installing another M.2 drive to install WIndows 10 or Ubuntu, but I'm not sure if I could screw up the Windows 11 drive, since W11 has the TPM thing and device encryption enabled by default. What are your thoughts for this troubleshooting method?

If I disable device encryption, am I safe to temporarily install another drive and run another operating system? I don't want to get locked out or worse, screw up the Windows 11 drive (from TPM) since I still have data / programs that I need.

[jaslion]

27 minutes ago, milesuy said:

I tried removing the battery, so its running from the AC adapter (charger), and so far the flashing LED stopped, I guess it was the battery. I'll write an update when I get a new battery.

I also did disable ThrottleStop from running at boot, so I'm not sure which one fixed it.

 

While writing this, it happend again, even with the battery disconnected / running from the AC adapter. Looks like I can rule out battery, but it does need to be replaced since its bloated.

I do want this issue fixed before I replace the battery.

 

If I disable device encryption, am I safe to temporarily install another drive and run another operating system? I don't want to get locked out or worse, screw up the Windows 11 drive (from TPM) since I still have data / programs that I need.

Disable bitlocker and you're good to go

 

However besides it blinking does it work fine?

[milesuy]

On 2/3/2024 at 11:05 PM, jaslion said:

However besides it blinking does it work fine?

Aside from the blinking, Caps Lock LED is stuck on, but if there is no blinking Caps Lock works normally.

[milesuy]

Update: I had disabled fast boot, and the laptop does not flash its LEDs anymore. I'll continue to monitor if it stays that way.

Update 2: It went back

[milesuy]

 

On 2/3/2024 at 10:37 PM, milesuy said:

I tried removing the battery, so its running from the AC adapter (charger), and so far the flashing LED stopped, I guess it was the battery. I'll write an update when I get a new battery.

 

While writing this, it happend again, even with the battery disconnected / running from the AC adapter. Looks like I can rule out battery, but it does need to be replaced since its bloated.

I only had the battery disconneted at that time, so I'll try completely removing the battery this time. I'm suspecting the bloated battery is flexing the chassis, which might trigger the diagnostic LED.

 

So far, the diagnostic LED hasn't lit up, hopefully it would always stay that way.