During the winter break of 2014/15, my Dell XPS 15z laptop suddenly died during use. The power button would not turn the computer on and the battery indicator on the side would not light up.
Checking the power supply, I noticed that the light on the brick was out, even when after unplugging it from the computer. Unplugging the supply from the wall and plugging it back in revived the light, but it would go out instantly when plugged into the computer. Dell power supplies will shut off when their output is shorted and only reset if they’re unplugged from mains power for a few seconds. It became apparent that I had my laptop’s motherboard had shorted itself. I confirmed a dead short across the DC input jack with my multimeter. Great.
