It's a Gen 1 94 S10 Blazer 4 door 4x4 with the analogue dash and the 4.3 Vortec/ A4. It's sitting in a parking lot currently.


Drove the truck around all day (city driving), very rainy, no problems at all, acted normal. Towards the end of the night I went to get back in and start it, and this is what happened.
Unlocked it with the remote,
interior lights turned on when I got in,
put the key in and the dash lit up,
turned the key to start and every light in the truck died.
Turned the key again and nothing happens.
Pull the key out and then the rearview mirror light shines very dimly,
I figure maybe it's a dead/dying battery.
I open the door to get out and then the overhead console light turns on like nothing is wrong,
not a dead battery apparently.
Shut the door and the lights immediately go very dim and then fade to off.
Put the key in the ignition and turn to on and the dash lights up like normal.
Turn the key to start and every light goes out like the battery is suddenly dead
Leave the key in the on position and the dash slowly lights up to normal,
I try the overhead console lights and they work like normal
Turn the key to on and everything goes black.
I did variations on this several times, it always resulted in dim lights that would randomly light up like nothing was wrong even if I just sat there for a bit and didn't touch anything. Everytime the key went to start everything went completely black, like you unhooked the battery.

I'm guessing it's the battery cables going to the starter and alt. I'm going to test the battery before I buy new cables though just to be 100% sure it's fine. I've never seen anything like this though so any suggestions for other things I can look at would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading this through.

It could be your Batt so just jump start it and see. If it is than have your ALT checked. Than check the cables, starter, Ign switch.....

It's a P.I.T.A

A nearly dead battery can light up the interior lights and dash, but when you hit the starter, it takes the battery on down to nothing. After a bit, the battery will come back enough to light those things up again.

Try the headlights and see if that knocks everything down too.
If so, then it's the battery/alternator/connections.

How old is the battery?

I've only had the truck for about 2 months so I'm not sure on the history on alot of the parts. Going to go check it out now. The only thing that had me question it being a dead battery is the lights coming on at full strength intermittently. Sometimes lights would gradually come back on, or stay dim, sometimes they would all of a sudden come on like normal, and then they would just go dead sometimes. I've never seen a battery cause something like that. The other thing that threw me for a loop was that there was no gradual onset of the problem, it was fine all day, then it all of the sudden wasn't. Thanks for the suggestions.

As it turns out, it was the battery after all. I can add that to the list of strange symptoms of a dying battery.

Glad you got it figured out and fixed!

As soon as I read 94 Blazer in the first line, I thought we were going to be talking about fuel injection problems. Oh well, I guess that will be for another day.

A few months before I got it the entire system was replaced, lines, rails, injectors, pump, etc. Apparently they have issues with deteriorating.

Thanks for the suggestions though, it was good to have some more thoughts on the issue.