Dell Latitude E6400 Troubleshooting

If your laptop’s LCD screen does not light up or remains black while it is powered on there are several possible reasons for this.

Occasionally, due to overheating or erratic movement over time, the graphics card in a laptop can become disconnected or damaged. The best solution here is to either reconnect and secure the card or possibly replace it with another compatible piece.

Like the graphics card, time and movement slowly degrade the connections between your pieces of hardware. You should contact the laptop manufacturer before attempting to reconnect a cable. If the actual screen is broken, replacing a screen is not very difficult and there are multiple websites such as ScreenTek that offer LCD screens for almost any laptop.

If your computer boots up but then continues to display a black or blank screen you should check your operating system (OS) for issues. Restart the laptop and if the problem persists try to repair or reinstall your OS using a system installation disk.

If your laptop is functioning at an abnormally high temperature, it can cause a lot of problems such as lagging or data loss.

Usually the problem is that the vents need to be cleaned out. Find the air vents on the bottom of the computer, take the fan out, and blow out the dust with a can of compressed air.

Do you notice that the fan is spinning erratically? It could be that the fan itself is damaged. In this case, it would be best to just replace the fan. Look for the part number in your laptop’s manual and search for it on Amazon, eBay, or any other similar website.

Dying batteries tend to generate heat. Again, the best solution would be to just replace the part. Look for the part number and search for a replacement online. Here is a guide for replacing the battery.

When the laptop doesn’t turn on right away, you probably have a power supply issue.

Check to ensure that the laptop is plugged in with the correct power adapter and check the power brick on the AC cord. Is it the right adapter for your laptop? Other portable devices may have similar-looking adapters, but unless they match the volts and amps for your laptop, the laptop doesn’t work.

Check to ensure that the battery is a good one and it is also properly installed. Try removing the battery to run the laptop from just the AC power. If it works, you may have a defective battery that needs replacing. If you have a second battery, use it instead.

When the laptop’s power lamp is on, it shows that the laptop has some life, which means that the laptop’s hardware is recognizing that it has power. The problem could then lie with the laptop’s hardware, not with the power supply.

Press the Caps Lock key. If you have power, the Caps Lock lamp on the laptop will blink on and off as you press the key. If so, the problem could be the display.

There are few things more frustrating than a computer that won't boot up.

If your computer is powering on but you get a black screen that says something like “no bootable device” or another sort of “disk error” message, your computer can’t seem to boot from the hard drive that Windows was installed on. Enter your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware setup screen and check its boot order setting, ensuring that it’s set to boot from its hard drive. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the list at all, it’s possible your hard drive has failed and can no longer be booted from.

If Windows seems to start booting but fails partway through, you may be facing either a software or hardware problem. If it’s a software problem, you may be able to fix it by performing a startup repair operation. If you can’t do this from the boot menu, insert a Windows installation disc or recovery disk and use the startup repair tool from there. If this doesn’t help at all, you may want to reinstall windows or perform a refresh or reset on your operation system.

Is there a key on your keyboard that is giving you trouble?

Your key keeps getting stuck -- this could be due to something underneath it. Since this is a laptop, it will be easy for you to just pop the key off of the keyboard. Once the key is off and after the laptop is turned off, you can grab a Q-tip and clean the surface with water. If you have a particularly sticky substance underneath the keys, some rubbing alcohol could do the trick. Then, be sure the put the keys back in the right place after the keyboard has dried.

Instead of replacing the entire keyboard or laptop, you can just replace individual keys. You can purchase a key kit online. Make sure you choose the ones that fit the exact model of your laptop. If you would prefer to replace the entire keyboard, here is a guide for doing that.