Just recently my laptop stopped booting up all together
I have a Voodoo M515 laptop, about 1 year old. Just recently, it stopped booting up all together. I turn the power on, the fans engage and a few indicator lights come on. It is not even attempting to boot up. I have tried an external monitor. I called their tech support and they suggested it may have been the motherboard going bad. I replaced the motherboard and nothing was resolved, so I sent that board back. What is strange is that even when the power is ‘on,’ I am unable to even open the DVD/CD drive. I tried taking out one of the RAM bars because I was told that it would beep if that was the problem. It is apparently not, because nothing different happened. Could it be the processor or the video card? Maybe a power issue? I know that my battery isn’t holding a charge, it must be plugged in to function. The cost for me to send it back to Voodoo far supersedes the value of the laptop at this point. My only hope is to pinpoint the problem and do it myself, which would require a hearty nudge in the right direction. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.
Here’s what you can try.
Make sure that the AC adapter outputs correct voltage. It’s possible that the adapter is bad and doesn’t provide enough power to boot up the laptop. Find a multimeter and test it. Try starting the laptop from the AC power without the battery installed. On most laptops the battery connects directly to the motherboard and if the battery fails badly, it might cause the entire system to stop booting.
Also it could be just a failed memory module. Who said that the laptop will beep if there is no memory? I’ve seen hundreds laptop and only few of them give you a beep error if the memory is missing. In most cases the laptop without memory module just will not boot up. I would recommend testing the laptop with a known good memory module. It can fix the problem. If you have two memory slots, move the memory module from the slot A into the slot B and test again.
Could it be the processor? Yes, it could be but from my experience laptop processors fail very rarely. I’ve been working with laptops for almost two years and repaired hundreds on them, but so far I’ve seen not more then 7-8 failed CPUs. May be I’m just lucky.
Could it be the video card? I don’t think so. You still should see some signs of life even with a failed video card. Not sure 100%.
When I have a laptop with a problem like yours and nothing help I usually take it apart completely and assemble it outside the laptop base. For this test I minimize the system as much as possible. Only three major parts are needed: the system board, the CPU (with cooling module) and the memory. After everything is connected, I hook up an external monitor, plug the AC adapter and turn it on. If I can boot the system with video output on the external screen then nothing is wrong with my major parts and I assemble the laptop back, testing after each step. If I cannot get any video and the system is still “dead”, then one of three major parts is damaged and here you just have to use test parts to find with one is failing. If you don’t have any spare parts, you’ll have to guess.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:31 am
Hi,
I have a Compaq Presario 2100, and for some unknown reason it has stopped booting up.
I have recently purchased a new battery (a HP battery specific to the model) and it was working fine when I put the battery in on Saturday (sorry if this is too much detail but it helps to organise the events in my head). I happily used the laptop all day Saturday with the battery in and the AC power too (the AC power lead on this model is abysmally designed and keeps falling out, hence the need for a new battery). Any way on the Sunday I took a long bus ride and when I arrived back home the laptop had started to play up. It wasn’t dropped at any point and I was carrying it in a padded case so I have no idea what could have happened in the interim.
The actual specifics of the problem are, when the power button is pressed the laptop comes to life and you can hear the fan go and hard drive whir. Then the boot up process is halted and a DOS like screen comes up and gives me a few options and says that boot up failed because of new hardware or software. Options are to start in Safe Mode, Start from a point when laptop was last working properly, and finally Start Windows normally. I have tried all three with and without the battery and on all occassions the laptop will load for a bit, get to the Windows XP loading screen and then flash a blue screen with some writing on it (flashes only for a second so can’t read what it says) and switches itself off, promptly restarting and going through the whole process again.
Like I said, I have tried it with and without the battery. It was working perfectly fine before and yet confusingly it won’t now. I do not want to re-install windows as A. I don’t have a installation disk because I bought the laptop off ebay (I’ve had it for 3 years and this is the first problem) B. I don’t want to risk losing all the things on my hard drive.
Can you help???????
Much obliged of London.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Abid,
Listen for the hard drive on startup. Does it sound strange, making some repetitive clicking or grinding noise? If it does, probably it’s your problem.
Firs of all I would try to reseat the memory modules and the hard drive and try to start the laptop again. It’s possible that the memory contacts got oxidized or the RAM and hard drive is not seated properly. Not likely, but possible. So reseat them first.
The next step would be testing the hard drive and RAM. From my experience, if a laptop just fails to boot without any reason and you get BSOD (blue screen) error, in most cases it happens because of a failed RAM or failed hard drive.
You can test RAM with Memtest 86+ utility. Download an .iso image, burn it on a CD and start the laptop from the CD. You also can run the same utility from a floppy drive if you have any. If the RAM fails the test, replace the failed module. BTW, if you have 2 memory modules installed remove them one by one and try starting the laptop just with one module. It’s not likely that both modules fail at the same time.
For the hard drive test, download Hitachi Drive Fitness Test utility, you can run if from a CD or from a floppy disk. If the HDD fails the test, you’ll have to replace it. In some cases you still should be able to transfer all data from the failed HDD if you connect it to a working computer via an external USB enclosure. You can buy this enclosure in any local computer store for $15-20.
November 7th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Thank you ever so kindly for getting back to me so quickly and with such a thorough diagnosis. I must confess though I haven’t the foggiest as to much of what you have written actually means. My computer knowledge is barely beyond average. However, I will take your suggestions to a technofile friend and see if he can charm my computer mistress back to life.
Once again, thank you very much. Your site is excellent and I have bookmarked it and sent the link to others. In fact I fixed one or two other problems with my Sony Vaio just by looking at some of threads.
Kindest regards
Abid
November 11th, 2006 at 6:54 am
hi,
firstly this is a very imformative & interesting site indeed.
i have a qosmio f10 which is 14 months old & my problem is similar; laptop was working one day & the next it was not.
when turned on laptop qosmio logo appears (with vertical lines on logo etc.)with sound, i then get a blank screen, have noticed that there is no hdd indicator blinking, cannot boot from cd-rom or external floppy. cannot get into bios either.
i firstly thought of hard drive failure bought a new one & guess what? no difference.
removed both my memorys sticks then turned on with alternate ones inserted; no difference.
have read the instructions on dismantling and have just finished, so am about to re-assemble & hopefully by some miracle it will now work??!
any comments of guidence will be kindly received.
martin
November 11th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
I HAVE AN ASUS LAPTOP WITH MODEL A3500N. THE LAPTOP WILL POWER UP AT FIRST BUT AFTER SHUTTING IT DOWN, IT WON’T POWER UP ANYMORE. YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE THE LAPTOP WILL POWER UP.
I HAVE TEST THE MEMORY, THE BATTERY, AC ADAPTER. THEY ARE ALL FINE.
PLEASE HELP!
November 13th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Martin,
That’s not a good sign and sounds like a hardware issue. Start the laptop with an external monitor attached and if you see the same lines through the logo on the external video, then most likely you have a problem with the video card.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Marvzky,
Very strange problem. Have you tried to start the laptop without the battery installed, just from the AC adapter power?
November 15th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
I have tried starting the laptop without the battery and with only the AC adapter but won’t power up. the power led is orange or amber?
after several days, it will power up again but after shutting down. it won’t power up anymore.
i also tried resetting by the pressing the small button at the back (with or without power).
i also disassembled and reassembled the laptop several times but to no avail.
please help guys!
November 15th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Marvzky,
Then it must be an issue with the motherboard. Usually AC adapter and battery plugs directly into the motherboard, and if they are fine the it’s the motherboard fault. Sorry man, cannot give you a better advice.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
i had checked with another monitor but that was just a blank screen, though the monitor indicator light was green.
since i have rebuilt the laptop the logo does not come on now. the HDD indicator still does not come on either.
November 16th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Martin,
It’s hard to say what’s wrong with your laptop. Most likely it’s just a failed video card (not sure if it’s integrated into the system board on your model).
At the next troubleshooting step I would probably minimize it as much as possible. Remove all extra cards and devices like hard drive, DVD drive, wireless card, etc… disconnect the video cable form the motherboard/video card and start the laptop with an external monitor. If the system board/video card is fine, the laptop should detect the external monitor and you should see video on it. If you still get the same lines across the logo, then you have a bad video card.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
hi laptop freak,
i have admitted defeat on this and took the easy option & made a claim on my house insurance. quite suprisingly they collected the laptop & within a few days got back stating it was beyond repair. (very poor for a 14 month old toshiba qosmio) but they have posted me a replacement; a brand spanking NEW Sony VGN-AR21M and also sent a cheque to cover the cost of replacing my spare toshiba battery.
so what started to be a disaster as come up trumps. i feel very lucky guy indeed. but still miffled about the qosmio, after a lot of searching found that this type of problem is common with these models. so readers beware!!
thank you for your time & great site.
martin
November 20th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Martin,
Congratulations!
I think they fond a bad system board inside and decided not to repair the laptop because it’s very expensive.
November 21st, 2006 at 6:52 am
I have a employer issued compaq nx5000 I use for work. Since I am a traveler and telecommuter and using wireless connection most of the time, you can imagine that ALL my docs are on this laptops hard drive. So please help if you an.
Laptop was working fine, though it’s wireless connection was slower than normal. The grinding noises at startup would sometime make me wonder if the hard drive was failing. But all was ok.
I was working without power source. Left for awhile and came back… didnt power up. I figured it hibernated and the battery was completely down so no problem. This morning I plug it in and nothing. The power button indiator light is flashing green (it normally stays on during use). Pushing the power up button does absolutely nothing. What ould it be??/
November 21st, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Staley,
Did you try removing the battery and start the laptop from the AC adapter, without the battery installed? Does the battery charge LED light is on when the laptop is off and connected to the AC adapter?
If you need an immediate access to your documents, you can remove the hard drive and installed into an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. After that you connect the enclosure to a working computer via a USB cable and transfer all needed data.
November 24th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Freak,
For starters, I am using a hand-me-down laptop (a Dell Latitude CPx). It worked fine for a short period of time other than the occasional, random power down.
Recently, I have abandoned using it altogether since I can not get it to power on. It is hooked up to an external power source, and I’ve alternated that source several times. It seems to be the previous problem on a larger scale. It will not boot up or recognize an external source. The times it does, though, the light for power comes on and I’ll hit the power button. It will boot normally, but then shut back off within seconds and again fail to recognize electricity. Help?
Thanks for your time,
Jack
November 25th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Jack,
It sounds like you might have a problem with the system board or the AC adapter. If I understand right, you already replaced the adapter but still experience the same issue. So, probably it’s a board issue.
November 26th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Ok… I have a Toshiba Satellite A25-S670. I was at work playing a video game (heh) and the computer froze up on me. I then held down the power button to force it to shut off. When I went to start it back up I heard 3 beeps. The first beep was a long one and then 2 short ones. The computer powers up, solid light on the power button, the HDD light flashes on and off for a few then stops, and the fans work, but nothing comes up on the LCD or on the external monitor (when plugged in).
I read somewhere that the 3 beep thing on my computer was memory so I tried pulling both out and got a different 3 beep series that went 2 times and then beeped again (a total of like 7 beeps — all short beeps). Tried putting just 1 memory card in at a time and it went back to the 3 beep thing.
I tried pulling out the modem, hard drive, battery, dvd drive… no change.
I found the disassembly instructions for my computer type and disassembled the whole thing. I started it up with just the case, the keyboard (have to use this because the power on button runs through it), the motherboard, the memory and the CPU (with heat sinks and fans) using an external monitor. Same thing. When I use the speakers, the same noises as before are produced.
My computer lays in pieces right now… I’m hoping renter’s insurance will cover it… we’ll see… It’s been fun learning how to take this thing apart, but I really do hope that I can get it working or get some cash back for it!
November 28th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Hi Laptop guy,
Hoping you can help. I have a crappy Compaq R3000 w/AMD. Powers on, can get into BIOS fine, but thats about it. I was loading windows and it got through copying all the files and it restarted. Wont go any farther with that or boot from HDD. Now I can still boot from CD ROM, but once it gets to the windows is inspecting your hardware screen it restarts and does the whole thing over again. I did the quick and long HDD diagnosics and it is coming back with an A-OK. I traded and replaced RAM, and tried it with/without battery. HELP!!!!! Thank you so much in advance.
November 28th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Tanya,
Not sure if I would be able to give you a lot of help, you’ve done all basic troubleshooting already. Minimize the system as much as possible, remove the wireless card and the modem (if you can easily access them) and try to install Windows again. I know that a faulty Wi-Fi card can cause a lot of problems.
If you can access both memory slots, try moving the memory module from one slot to another. May be the problem is somehow related to overheating? The laptop overheats and shuts down. Can you hear the cooling fan running?
Is there any available BIOS updates for your model? If you can find any, update the BIOS and try again.
November 28th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
just an update. my renters insurance will not cover it unless i lie. or it was an electrical surge, which i’m 99% sure it was not. so argh. looking for a motherboard i guess…
do you know what the long beep, then 2 short beeps error code means at boot up on that toshiba satellite (i posted a couple times ago…)
November 28th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
I just had the same problem with my satelite. Everywhere says it is Video Adapter problem, but mine was RAM, I took them out, switched them around and all was good. Hope it helps
November 29th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Well, i really wish and hope that is the problem, BUT, i tried swapping both of my RAM sticks, and even only using 1 RAM at a time in both slots… and nothing. So, unless the RAM sticks both went bad… I’m thinking it has to be the motherboard… and I’m really wishing I had a “known good” motherboard to swap it out with. Gonna have to see how much a replacement motherboard will cost. I might just try to sell the parts and try to recover some of my losses on this thing. Argh.
Thanks for the advice though… I’ll see if I can’t find a good RAM stick to put in there and test it out.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I am trying to watch a movie from my laptop..on my tv.I have connected the s-video and have tried to change the settings by pressing FN and F8 and I am not getting anything but a blank page.How do I swith my output signal?
Can anyone help?
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:58 pm
ok, ive looked through all of the posts and i cant find a solution to my ever changing problem. so here goes. I’m trying to fix a friends Dell Inspiron 2650 notebook, she was having trouble getting it to boot to win xp and i said i would give it a shot. Not extremely good with computers, but maybe a bit better than her. Ive tried evry bloody thing i can find online ans i still can’t get anywhere. Ive used killdisk to wipe the hard drive, ive mem tested to see if was the ram, ive run the dell diagnostic to see if the hard drive is ok. I bought system mechanic to boot from it and check hard drive. everything tests out ok. I even replaced the hard drive and still xp won’t load. I have the recovery cd, i boot through cd tray and the 1rst time i try every day i can get as far as the recovery console. doesn’t matter what i do from there, repair or reinstall it ends the same. Reinstall it will check hard drive, start loading programs and then at 1 or 2 % screen will start telling me it couldn’t find file hit enter to retry or escape to skip. i skip or retry can get it to about 10% and then i get the blue screen. after that every time i try to get back to the repair console i get errors while windows setuo is loading. usualy its dmboot.sys is corrupted but it changes sometimes and seems to happen earlier the longer i try to get it to work. Help. please……. by the way, i found a web site that suggested it may be my recovery cd, i went to command prompt tried c: D*.* nul: and it said 1 file copied succesfuly. site said that meant my cd was ok. sorry this is so long, but alot going on. thanks in advance for any advice, except back up and punt.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:57 am
I have an IBM ThinkPad A21m running windows 98se that went completely dead during the installation of a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. Now it will not reboot. When the power button is pressed you hear a short click at the same time the hard drive light flashes once. That’s all it does. So far I tried all the simple stuff, removing the pcmcia card, hard drive, dvd drive, RAM, battery, BIOS battery, all with the exact same results. Any HELP would be greatly appreciated.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Help!!! My Toshiba wont boot up!! It comes up with a message on a blue screen saying UNBOOTABLE_MOUNT_VOLUME or something along those lines!! It wont start in safe mode or anything!! Please….any advice email me!!!!
December 5th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Otto,
) but you can also try this. Download and burn a free version of Linux (SuSE Linux for example) and try installing it on the laptop. It might take time because you have to download a few CDs or you can buy it very cheap on here. You don’t need any Linux knowledge for the basic installation, just follow the wizard. If it installs fine, then probably nothing is wrong with the hardware and you have a bad Windows CD.
I think the problem might be related to a bad memory module. You said that the RAM passed the test. With one did you use? Have you tried Memtest 86+? If you have 2 memory modules installed in the laptop, remove them one by one and try installing windows only with one module. If you have only one RAM module, move it to the other slot and run install again, just in case if the memory slot is failing. In short, play with memory and try different combinations.
It also could be a damaged CD disk. I’m not sure what exactly c: D*.* nul: is doing (may be I’m a bad tech
Try cleaning the Windows CD with a soft cloth.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Rachel,
First of all download and run Hitachi’s DFT utility (link on the right side) to test the hard drive. If it fails, probably you have a bad drive.
If you have Windows XP CD, insert in into the CD drive and restart the laptop. As soon as Toshiba logo appears, press F12 to get a menu of boot devices. Boot from Windows XP CD to the Recovery console. Type chkdsk /r (for repair) and wait for a long time. After the repair process is completed restart the laptop and see if the problem is fixed.
If you don’t have Windwos XP CD but have a recovery DVD/CD (factory image) you can reimage the hard drive. Insert the recovery DVD/CD into the laptop, restart the laptop and boot it from the DVD/CD. It will load original factory software including OS, applications, etc… in other words it will reimage the hard drive back to factory defaults. This process will erase all personal data from the hard drive.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Dell Inspiron 5150.
Does not POST, got a new power supply, nothing. Followed Dell’s troubleshooting wizard and nothing. Here is a hint: when battery is out and I plug in the power supply then the three front leds blink every 5 seconds or so continuosly. If battery is in and no power, nothing happens. When Battery is in and power supply plugged in, only battery led blinks once everytime I hit on power-on button, then nothing.
Anybody has any ideas?
December 8th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Hi There !!!
I have an old Dell latitude cp m233st laptop and its working just fine.I removed its cdrom drive and replaced it to the busted drive of my NEC lavie laptop.It worked well with the NEC for a short period of time then it too got busted.Windows can’t detect it.So I removed it and placed it back again to my Dell latitude laptop too see if it really is busted.When I turned it on using AC power,there is no display,the power indicator lights and the battery indicator blinks green (20-25 seconds interval )and the numlock,capslock and the scrollock lights up at the same time, then the power turns off.When I opened it up, I saw the reserved battery ( 7.2v 40mAh Ni-MH )with traces of dried leakage(but i don’t think it leaked onto the boards),when I tested it, its only 1.8v.Does this causes the trouble or something else.Please help.
Thanks and More Power !!!!
December 11th, 2006 at 5:32 am
I’m a dope, but ive tried evrything to burn the memtest86 cd but i just cant make it bootable. failing that i do have another laptop. i took a ram stick out of my working laptop, put it in the dell (only has a slot for i stick) and the result is the same. The c: D*.* nul thing was something i found on another site. its was supposed to be able to tell me if my recovery cd needed replacing. i think it was worthless, but there you go. any other stuff i could try, i’m just about ready to wave the white flag. Thanks in advance. otto
December 11th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Hi, i`m having big problems with my IBM ThinkPad R50e.
At first it started shutting down every now and then and has gradually got to the point of no boot at all.
Symtoms are…..all indicator lights come on at switch on then Caps lock and Num lock switch off and i`m left with power on, drive in use and battery charge light. No boot, no POST, no beep errors and a blank screen. Also, i can not open the cd/dvd drive although the power light on the tray is lit.
I did manage to to get it to boot ONCE after completely dismantling and re-assembling everything and have swapped the memory module to both slots, checked all connectors and wiring ect. Fan works normally. Power supply checks out ok. I`m hoping that it may just be a faulty memory module and not the system board itself. Are there any other checks that i should make?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
December 11th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
David T,
Minimize the system as much as you can. Remove everything except the system board, CPU and memory and see if you can get any video. If it doesn’t help then I would go with memory replacement. You have a good chance to fix the laptop.
December 13th, 2006 at 5:59 am
Hi There
I Have a similar Problem with my Toshiba Qosmio F10.
The other day it was being used, when the screen froze.
I shut it down by holding the power button down, waited a little while then restarted it.
Ever since that point I get a black screen, the blue light on the power button is on. The green light for mains and the one for Battery is on, the fan works as does the CD/Dvd drive.
The HD light shows no HD access, there is minimal power sound from the Laptop(you get a sound if you pull the Power).
Action Taken
Switched slots on the RAM chip.
Removed HD and tried to start it in the BIOS and with a system disc.
Removed the Battery and power, then reconnect and restart.
If you or anybody can Help I would be most Grateful, as I am mystified.
Andrew
December 13th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Hello,
I have Sony VAIO laptop. Recently it is creating a lot of problems for me. Every time I try to play music on it, it does not play it properly. It sometime just plays the music with weird sounds. Sometimes it just works fine. What could be the reason for that. It was not like this earlier. I am just having problems recently. I will be thankful if you can help me solve this promlem.
December 13th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Hello .. I’ve looked through everything but I can’t find anyone having a problem like mine.
I’m using a 4 year old Compaq Presario 3015US. The first problems started when the computer would just randomly restart. It would boot up just fine, but then it would restart usually 5-10 min after boot. Now it doesn’t boot at all. I have removed the battery, 1 of the 2 memory modules, the optical drive, and have tried with & without HDD.
After tinkering, I’ve been able to make it do 2 different things now (I’ve tried both procedures with each stick of memory one at a time, with the same result – so I don’t think it’s a memory problem):
A) With the memory in one of the slots (I can’t tell them apart) when I *plug in* the outlet power (not even turning it on) the fan starts spinning. No HDD. No screen. Nothing. The power button doesn’t respond at all. The power light (charge/outlet power) is ON, and that is the only light on in the entire system.
B) With the memory in the other slot, when I *plug in* the outlet power (still not turning it on) the fan does not spin, however I can *faintly* hear some activity going on with the HDD. Stil no screen, same power light situation, power button still doesn’t respond, etc.
I’m stuck and I can’t find anything about this in a repair manual or on the web. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions.
Thanks
December 14th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Andrew C,
Test the laptop with a known good memory module. If still nothing, then it’s possible that you have an issue with the motherboard.
December 14th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Tanuj Virani,
It’s hard to say if the problem is software or hardware related. Test the laptop sound with headphones. If the headphones work fine and weird sounds coming only from the external speakers, then probably you have bad speakers.
If you can hear weird sound with headphones and through the external speakers, then it could be corrupted software. Download and reinstall the sound driver, I guess you can find it on the manufacturer’s website. If it doesn’t help, backup the hard drive and reload original Sony software. If you still experience the same problem then I would assume you have a hardware related issue, probably a faulty sound card.
December 14th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Brandon,
I don’t think it’s a memory problem either. It sounds like a bad motherboard, I cannot think of anything else.
December 19th, 2006 at 4:17 am
Hi Owner of Toshiba Satallite P30, which will not BOOT up.
Have power lights but no boot. With or without battery.
Hard Drive removed and tested, this is fine.
Any ideas of memory or mother board tests or fixes
Thanks for Help
December 20th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Well, here i am again with the same old problem with my IBM ThinkPad R50e. Following your advice, i have replaced the memory module and have tried both slots but still with the same results. No POST, no beeps, blank screen and CD/DVD will not open (light on tray stays lit constantly).
I have competely minimised the system down to the motherboard, cpu with cooling module and memory and have connected an external monitor but with the same results.
At switch on i have noticed that the battery light (with the battery installed) turns amber then green and flickers about once every 3 seconds indicating that the battery is being charged, but without the mains lead plugged in the laptop will not switch on using the battery alone!
The only sound i hear from the machine is the fan spinning and i can hear nothing from the hard drive.
I have also noticed that the machine will sometimes not switch on and i have to remove the power lead and re-insert it after a few seconds and only then will it switch on. Never had that problem before!
Have checked all connectors are tight and the power socket on the board does not seem to have any problems.
Sorry if this seems a bit long winded but it`s driving me mad.
Any help would be a big bonus.
Thanks for a great site. Keep up the good work!
December 20th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Haresh,
Your laptop will not boot up into Windows or you have no video at all? Find a test memory module and test the laptop with it. It’s hard to say what is wrong just basing on your description. It could be something simple as a failed memory module or serious like a dead CPU or motherboard. If you have a second laptop that uses the same type of memory as Satellite P30, remove it from the Satellite and install into the second laptop. See if you can boot the second laptop. By the way, for testing memory I use Memtest 86+ utility.
December 20th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
David,
Find a multimeter and test the AC adapter, make sure that the output voltage is correct. I don’t think that the adapter is bad because according to the flashing LED the battery is getting charged, but I would do it just in case. Who knows?
The memory is good, so it must be either a bad motherboard or fried CPU. Nothing else left. Unfortunately, there is no way to find out which one is bad until you replace it. From my experience, laptop motherboards fail much more often the processors and if I would have to chose, I would go with the motherboard. But, there is no guaranty. Sorry man, that’s a tough choice.
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:09 am
my computer was working well, when i started the system the following day, it asked me to insert the boot-disk and press any key.
i have not backed-up my files(i don´t know how) but why would it ask me for that! when the day before it was running well? i try to see if fdisk would help! but it tells me that there is none!!!! How could that happen!
what do you think is wrong?
thanks rose
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:53 am
I have a ACER TravelMate 4600 notebook.The other day when my girlfriend was using the machine a message appeared regarding Standby/sleep having a problem, but she replied ok and then forgot to mention the problem and processed to close to lid without shutting the system down. Now the machine wont reboot. The power on light is on and after a couple of seconds everything stops without booting up at all, it would appear to have dropped into standby mode but wont come out. I have tried removing the battery and powering uo but to no avail. Please help.
Ian
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Rose,
Do you get this message on start up: “No bootable device — insert boot disk and press any key”?
If you have a floppy drive, make sure that there is no floppy disk inside it. Remove the floppy and try booting again. It’s also possible you have a failed hard drive and the computer cannot see and boot from it. You can test the hard drive with Hitachi’s drive fitness test utility. I cannot say exactly why you are getting this message, there could be many different reasons and it’s impossible to troubleshoot it over the Internet.
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Ian,
You said the laptop will not boot, so you will not get any video on startup? Can you access and remove the laptop hard drive? Can you boot the laptop when the hard drive is removed?
December 26th, 2006 at 5:24 am
my computer doesn´t say “no bootable device” it only ask for: insert boot disk and press any key! i also noticed that it doesn´t have a fat or fat32, everything was working well! i don´t understand why it is doing this!!!! let me know something please!!! my computer is a AIRIS (from spain) thanks rose
December 27th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Hi,
My laptop no longer boots. I just get power but no display and no post.
What should I try?
Thank You
December 27th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Sorry Rose,
I just cannot say what exactly is wrong. You mentioned that you cannot see the file system, so it’s possible that the file system got corrupted and you’ll have to reinstall Windows. It happened to me before too. I had a hard drive full of stuff and one morning all data just disappeared. I tried to access the hard drive but it asked me “The hard drive is not formatted. Do you want to format it?” I scanned the hard drive with 5 different data recovery utilities and didn’t find anything!
After that I just reformatted the hard drive and I’m still using it without any problem. It happened about 3 years ago.
December 27th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Drake,
There is no simple answer to your question. In order to successfully boot any computer with video you need four main parts: system board, video card (most likely integrated into the system board), processor and memory. If one of these components fails, you’ll get no video on startup. Check the memory module first.
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:24 am
Laptop Freak,
Thanks alot, I checked that and found out one of the two modules was gone.
Cheers,
happy new year (i know it late)
Drake
January 6th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Hi. I got the same problem with my IBM Thinkpad R50e. The last thing I remember doing that could have possibly be the cause was running the Software Update program provided by IBM/Lenovo. It updated the BIOS. After several days, I noticed that the laptop just suddenly loses video display while I am using it, the battery led as well as the “Z” led are on but there is no display. I try rebooting it by pressing the power button for 5 seconds or more, then it just turns itself off and on but only with the cpu fan running, leds lighting on but no boot up at all nor any display. This is the same even when I remove the battery or just used plain AC power. This problem seen intermittent sometimes. On some occasion, the laptop works fine for hours but if you move it, it looses display and the problem occurs. I tried putting pressure on the keyboard part by tapping it hard, then I try turning the laptop on and suddenly it works. Yesterday, I was able to boot up, then I immediately inserted a Windows XP CD and reformatted/reinstalled everything. Without having to install drivers and just plain Windows XP and Office 2003, the system seem okay. I tried moving it, tapping it, moving the LCD, etc and the display is still okay. Then I installed the Ethernet Driver, then the problem appeared. I tried booting up for several times then after getting access, I tried running Software Update again. After all drivers were installed, my laptop’s problem of no boot-up and no display re-occured. I am wondering if this is due to a bad driver or peripheral that causes trouble upon activation or whether this has something to do with motherboard, memory or processor? I do not know if Lenovo has a fix with this but this problem seem to be rampant with R50e. I just hope that any of you guys out there can help. Thanks.
January 8th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
My Acer Aspire 3003WLCi, also won’t boot, i’ve tried the turning on with just mainboard, memory, and processor and the same happens (tries to turn on just as i plug it, power led keeps flashing in a orange color) if i remove the memory, same happens, but if i remove the processor, it will just try to power on, and led will flash once and it will turn off by itself, is it safe to assume the Processor is the faulty one (memory is known working)
January 8th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Ryan,
Connect an external monitor and set the laptop to output video on both screens – internal LCD and external monitor. When the LCD goes off the external monitor goes off too?
I think it could be memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module/modules. Move the module from one slot to the other. Test memory with Memtest 86+.
January 9th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Joan,
From my experience, laptop motherboards fail much more often than processors. I think you might have a faulty motherboard. A flashing orange power LED usually indicates a problem with the motherboard. I cannot say that I’m 100% correct, but that’s what I think.
I believe when you have a bad CPU, the power LED will not flash orange if you turn on the laptop. With a bad CPU the power LED lights up normally, but the laptop fails to boot.
January 18th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Dear Laptop Freak:
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149. For the last two days, when starting up from hibernation or plain old “off”, the device is having problems booting up. For instance, if I start from off and hit the power button, the fan starts, the blue power light around the on button lights up, all other LEDs related to power turn on. However, the HDD and its associated LED do not turn on. I have tried it with and with out the battery pack. I am using an externally powered chill pad, so heat should not be an issue, especially on cold starts.
I did try and just leave power on instead of immediately turning the device off and back on again. I noted that the laptop begins booting after about 30-60 seconds after initially hitting the power button.
I have had the laptop for 2 years and 1 month. The motherboard has been replaced while under the 1-year warranty, and overheating problems were also repaired under warranty. I was notified about the class action suit, but because I have a “red” dot on my model #/ serial # label, I am not eligible for the suit (meaning Toshiba fixed the error one of the two times it was in for repair; the first time didn’t fix anything but erase my files. I had to tell Toshiba it was actually overheating and what to fix a few days later for the second repair.)
Is there anything that could be causing this? Could the internal fan or heatsink be clogged? Please tell me this isn’t the motherboard, as I don’t have the $$$ for repairs let alone a new laptop (which might be a Mac with both OS X and Windows).
Thank you,
Brian
January 19th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have an HP Pavilion ZD8000. Yesterday, I had the laptop plugged in and was surfing the net. I went to go get the mail and when I returned the laptop turned off. The adapter was plugged in (trippled checked that), but there was no LED light. The battery should have been at 100%, so I tried to turn it on without the adapter, no luck. Help!!! What’s wrong?
January 20th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Hi, I have a laptop HP Pavilion zv5000, I turned it off one day and I can’t even turn it on at all, no matter what. It’s getting power, I know that because when I plug in the AC adapter to it, it shows that it’s getting power. It’s not the battery, I know that. I tried almost everything to try and boot up this computer. When I press the power button, NOTHING HAPPENS. I tried to turn it on with just AC power, STILL NOTHING. I tried with just battery, STILL NOTHING. I tried with battery and AC power, STILL NOTHING. It’s really starting to tick me off.
Please help me out,
Thank you.
January 21st, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Brian,
I think you still can get a free repair from Toshiba. Check out comment 8 in this post. Just take the laptop to an authorized repair center and most likely they will fix it at no charge. Let me know how it goes, any information will be very useful. You can post your experience here. I think a lot of people even don’t know about this class action suit.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Im not exactley sure of all the specs on the computer but heres whats been going on. As far as i can see the computer is totally stock. When i boot it only gets as far as past the first Toshiba splash screen before it wont go any further. It just sits there with the cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner. When i put in the windows disc to Re-install it boots the disc and then says checking system hardware and then it just sits there at a blank screen. I went into the Bios and made sure it detected the HDD. I cant seem to figure out whats wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
January 21st, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Mickey,
I think you might have a bad power adapter. Check out this post. Vivian had exactly the same problem with his laptop and fixed it by replacing the power adapter (comment 2). Before you buy a new adapter, test the old one with a voltmeter, just to make sure it’s “dead”. If the adapter is not bad and outputs correct voltage, then most likely you have a “dead” motherboard.
January 23rd, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Jordan,
I think you might have a bad hard drive. Test it with Hitachi’s drive fitness test and see if it passes. The following method also can help you to narrow down the problem. Remove the hard drive from the laptop and boot the laptop from a live Linux CD (I usually use Knoppix). If the laptop boots fine with the Linux CD and works without any problem with Linux, probably there is nothing wrong with the laptop hardware except the hard drive. It’s not necessary to know Linux in order to use the CD, it will boot the laptop into Windows-like environment.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Hi,I have Toshiba sattelite laptop, when i restart it or turn it on, most of the times it goes to bios screen and produce continues beep untill i hit any key,then i always check for any changes in the bios and make sure it boot fist from HDD, but when i save changes it still will go back there or not depends on how it feels , sometimes it doesn’t go there. I have flashed the bios and put latest vision the problem still there,also there is no any problem in windows xp once it boots up. please help me with any idea here, thanks in advance.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Luk,
I think you might have a stuck key and have to replace the keyboard. You can also try this. Disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard and start the laptop. If it boots to Windows without any problem when the keyboard is disconnected, most likely you have a bad keyboard.
January 28th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Hai … you’ve got great website here.
I have a problem with my Toshiba Tecra 8100, It won’t boot up and showing BIOS screen after I bring it around.
The power led was lid and showing power was connected, I have to pressed somewhere near lcd screen and upper left of the body some times it will boot up normally. It is annoying having a laptop but I can’t bring it everywhere. I know there is something loose…
May be from your experience you might give me a hint wich part should tighten or replace.
One more… sometimes the lcd backlight is dimmed perhaps is it something wrong with my F/L inverter board ?
January 28th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Denyu,
There is no simple answer to your question. Usually when I have to troubleshoot a laptop like yours, I take it apart until I have a bare bone system which includes motherboard, processor and memory. I test the bare bone system with an external monitor and if it works fine, I start assembling the laptop back together piece by piece and test it after each plugged device or connector.
If the backlight works intermittently and you still can make out an image on the screen when the backlight goes off, then probably you have a faulty FL inverter board.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Thanks so much for your site. I have a Compaq R3000 that has been sitting idle for a while. It was having pop-up issues previously. I went to turn it on today to do some clean-up and it showed a screen that asked for a power-up password. We have never had one before and I am stumped. I did try unplugging and removing battery and then restarting with AC only. One search I found said to remove real time clock battery….where the heck is that? Thanks in advance!!
January 31st, 2007 at 11:50 am
No answer to my comment? I’ve been struggling with this laptop and it’s really getting on my nerves.
February 1st, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Mike,
At this point it’s almost impossible to guess what is wrong with your notebook. To narrow down the problem it will be necessary to disassemble the notebook. Start removing devices one by one (battery, hard dive, DVD drive, wireless card, keyboard, etc…) and test the laptop after each step. See if you can get any signs of live.
To boot any laptop with video you need only three main parts: motherboard, processor and memory. If you turn on the laptop and nothing happens, most likely something is wrong with one of the main parts. I really cannot guess witch part is causing the problem without testing the laptop.
February 3rd, 2007 at 2:16 am
I have an IBM Thinkpad T40. When I turn it on it flashes on the LEDs indicating power, but it does not boot. Sometimes it does and will work just fine. Sometimes it just freezes until I force shutdown by pressing the power button. It used to give me a message saying Windows has shutdown due to a device driver, ATI2DVAG. I downloaded the latest driver but this doesnt help. When starting, the fans whirm indicating they are at high speed. What could be the cause of this, please help.
February 3rd, 2007 at 5:27 am
Hey there,
I recently purchased my friend’s HP ZV5000. He works beside me so i know he always took good care of it.
Yesterday when i turned it on in the morning the HDD and power lights would light up normally, the backlight came up but the HP logo wouldnt come up. After removing the battery, unplugging the AC, plugging it back in and putting the battery back in, it’d boot up normally after repeating this process a few times. When it booted the whole system was working perfectly. Then, when i rebooted only to make sure the problem was solved, the same problem came up. Then i got it booting again… in the next boot the backlight wasn’t lighting up anymore even though the lights were.
I changed both memory modules for working and tested ones.
Any idea what could be wrong? I tried booting every way possible (battery/AC, no battery/AC, battery/no AC). Since it worked fine a couple of times since i noticed that problem i am guessing it could be some internal contact problem.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Andre Arruda,
Try booting the notebook with an external monitor. If the external monitor works fine even though the internal screen doesn’t, you might have a loose video cable. In this case you’ll have to try reseating the video cable connector on the system board.
February 4th, 2007 at 6:32 am
The BIOS stops the boot if the LCD is not properly connected? The normal HDD reads during the system startup are not done, only a couple of reads when i turn on the notebook, meaning it’s not starting up the O.S..
If the note hangs when neither the LCD or an external monitor are connected, then it might be a good guess.
Oh, one thing that i have forgotten, sometimes it gives 3 short beeps (or a long one and 3 shorts, can’t remember).
I will be checking the cables tomorrow, the note is not here right now.
Thanks!
February 4th, 2007 at 11:24 am
André Arruda,
Memory error?
You mentioned that you changed both memory modules for a working and tested ones but may be you have a faulty memory slot on the motherboard?
Try this. Test the laptop with both memory slots installed into the slot 1 first and then do the same with the slot 2. If the laptop works fine with both memory modules installed into one slot and fails with both modules installed into another, the second memory slot is faulty.
February 5th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hello Freak,
I have a Toshiba 1415-S173. My problem is that It will not boot up completely. at first it don’t start to boot when the power is turned on, I shut it down then power it back on, the screen comes up asking if I want to start in safe mode, safe mode with cd support, or start normally, If I press safe mode it starts going thru the file then stops, If I press normal it does nothing. I tested the harddrive by installing it in Another computer and it worked perfectlly. The OS was loaded on the hard drive from a separate computer then I installed it into the laptop could this cause the problem. Help Please. Thanks, Jack
February 6th, 2007 at 4:13 am
dear sir
when i am pressing power on button power led blink green but display comes nothing some times display comes and system boot normally and work
pls tell me the exact solution
regards
prdeep shukla
mvc delhi
February 6th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
hi my compaq laptop wont boot up, it says:
windows could not start because the following file is missing or currupt:
/system32/hal.d11
please re-install a copy of the above file.
so i ran the windows xp cd and it loads up then asks to set up windows xp now,press enter. when i press enter the following message appeared:
setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
its only about 2 months old, and there cant be nothing rong with the harddrive.
this all happened when i ran system restore, however while it was restoring the battery of the laptop ran out so it switched off.
i rely appreciate it thanks
February 6th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
It turns out the DC converter was screwed… cost me some good money but it’s fixed now.
Thanks.
February 6th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Hi have a Toshiba M35X-S149 Laptop. When I go to start it up the light for the power comes on and it is blue. The fan runs for 6 sec. Then stops the light of the hard drive comes on of a sec. then goes off. There is nothing on the screen. The cd drive dose not run at all. It would start up after 1/2 Hour but now it takes about 15-30 hours is start up. I think that it is the Memory module but I only have one of them. I would like to kown what other people think of it. and if so the Memory Module way would it startup after his long?
Thank You
February 7th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Jack,
Run a memory test, you can use Memtest86+ utility.
it definitely can cause the problem. I’ve done it myself many times before and in some cases it might work. Windows goes through the device detection procedure and after rebooting the laptop it works fine. But in most cases if you trying boot a laptop with a hard drive from another laptop you’ll get some kind of error. You’ll get a BSOD error, it will reboot, lockup, etc…
February 7th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Pradeep,
but I would definitely run test on the laptop memory and hard drive. For memory test you can use Memtest86+ utility and for the hard drive use Hitachi’s drive fitness test. See if one of them comes up with errors.
I don’t know the exact solution
February 7th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Hi. I’m having the worst problem. Without a clue as why, my Dell Inspirion 8100 won’t boot up. It gets the blue ‘Dell’ picture (always present at start of boot) and then screen goes black with a ‘unsupported memory module in Socket 1 was detected’ it says to remove the memory module and reboot. I tried. It does the same either way. I recently started using a VZ Access card from Verizon Wireless for Broadband access to the internet. It worked great for 2 weeks. I’m assuming where I push that pc card in is the socket 1? Can you tell me what to do? All the help online says to download ‘this test’ or ‘that test’ and go from there. But I can’t boot up the system, so I can’t download a dang thing!
This question and a possible solution has been published here.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Dave,
Why do you think so? I’ve seen dead hard drives right out of the box. One of my customers replaced the hard drive three times in one month.
Yes, it could be a bad drive. Download and run Hitachi drive fitness test, make sure run an advanced test. If it fails, you’ll have to replace the hard drive.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Hello Again,
My main problem is that the computer will not start up the FDD or Cd first. The only way to get to DOS is to remove the HDD. I tried to get into the Bios but it asks for a passwod that I never put into bios. I am the only owner of this computer. I took it to the Toshiba repair center, they looked at the computer for about 5 minutes then said my mother board was fried and the function key don’t work. I put in a Knoppix CD without the HDD installed the computer ran fine plus it detected the memory was work fine. I just can’t get the HDD to boot. The HDD light comes on for a few seconds then goes out. I know the HDD is ok because I ran it in my desktop with an adapter. Could Knoppix run on a computer with a fried motherboard? Thanks again for your quick response and sage advice.
Jack
February 7th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Jay,
I think you are right, it could be a memory problem. It also might be a faulty motherboard, I’ve replaced hundreds of them. You purchased your Satellite M35X notebook in the United States, right? It’s not under warranty anymore, right? Check out this post, it’ll help you with your problem.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
JACK,
Here’s a solution for this problem, it should work for your laptop.
If you can run Knoppix and it works fine, probably there is nothing wrong with the motherboard, at least main circuits are functioning properly.
Get rid of the password and should be able boot from the floppy or CD. Install the operating system.
February 10th, 2007 at 2:48 am
Problem #2:
I got the DC converter fixed so the laptop is working now. But another problem has came out two days after i got it back from assistance.
It works great for a couple of hours, using heavy memory/cpu programs (i work with Adobe Flex and Java). Then the screen gets all pixelated even though you can see the mouse moving and programs working in the background. The computer goes slow when that happens until it freezes, sometimes it gets back to normal for no reason.
I found this screenshot that pretty much looks like what i get: http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/screen0032fh.jpg
The site i got that image from describes this as an AGP problem when running games, but i am using 2D most of the time.
I have tried using different nvidia drivers, no success. I tested the memory modules with memtest86 and no errors where found. This happens on windows and linux, so i guess this is a hardware problem.
The weird thing is that sometimes i work all day without this problem, and sometimes it happens constantly. Yesterday i had to reboot about 10 times, while today (a cold day) this didn’t happen at all. The CPU temperature doesn’t go above 50C.
I think i need a priest.
February 10th, 2007 at 2:51 am
One more thing, the memtest86 reports the ram type as 159mhz DDR318. It’s supposed to be DDR333, is it some voltage related problem?
February 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
André Arruda,
maybe it’s a heat related problem? Check out if the fan is spinning, maybe the repair guy forgot to plug it in. Can you hear the fan spinning?
February 11th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Checked on that, the fans are working and the cpu temperature doesn’t go above 50C. One of the fans is right above the chipset, so i don’t get why the video is giving those errors and freezing.
I guess this is some voltage related problem, maybe the overall system power is not constantly stable due to some DC converter problems still. Is that possible?
February 12th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Hi, I have a Compaq Evo N1050v and it won’t boot as well, it starts up and the power light goes on but the HDD light doesn’t and there’s absolutely no display, just a dark screen with no backlight. I can open the DVD ROM tray and I can hear the fans working when it boots but then it just seems too stop. There are no beeping noises or warnings. I was busy using it when it just seemed to restart by itself but then stopped at a black screen. Can anyone please help me?
February 13th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Not sure if this is where I should post my question but anyway here goes.
I have a problem with two laptops. The first, a NEC Versa P8100, will not power up. It has been in use for about a year and I left it on yesterday and was out for about four hours, I came back and it just wouldn’t start up. The green rocessor light comes on for about 1sec then goes on. It still refuses to power up. I have been advised not to open it up, what do you think?
The second laptop, a NEC Versa M540, has lost some of its keys so I would like to replace the keyboard. How do I go about that? I can’t seem to find any site that gives a description on opening and replacing a NEC keyboard, a website or detailed instruction will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Su,
NEC Versa P8100. Unplug the power cord, remove the battery, press and hold down the power button for about 30 seconds. Plug the power cord and try turning it on.
NEC Versa M540. Check out my Toshiba laptop disassembly guides, maybe replacing the keyboard on you laptop will be similar. I don’t work with NECs and cannot give you step-by-step instructions.
February 14th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I have a HP pavillion ze4325 that will not turn on. The AC adapter has been checked out as good and the AC power light comes on but the computer will not turn on with AC or battery. No sound, no power on light, nothing. Any ideas as to what might be wrong?
February 15th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
gary,
I think you have either a bad switchboard or motherboard problem. I’ve published your question here.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:40 am
I have an Asus Z71V and I consider myself VERY good with computers. I took apart a Toshiba Satellite M35 to upgrade the video chip with a new Geforce go 420 /W extra memory soldered on. So imagine how baffled I was when, after applying new thermal grease to the video card and CPU heatsinks, My Asus simply refused to boot. The power comes on, but NOTHING comes up on the display. This scares me because a while back my bud (whom we’ll just call Ray) Ray touched his screwdriver to an inductor (4R7 I believe) and a small spark occured. His Vaio exhibited IDENTICAL symptoms and I fear that maybe since some SMD’s retain an electrical charge even after the AC adapter and battery have been removed, I may have had a small spark and not noticed it. In any event, I hope you can help me, GREAT SITE. One last thing… I put the laptop back together sans myriad screws, as I usually do… could this have anything to do with it? Maybe some of the screws acted as grounding devices and caused a malscrewup? Just a thought.
February 19th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I have a Toshiba TE2000 It will not boot. When I press the power button the CD rom led flashes then goes off. I have swapped memory, CD drive and battery.
On a rare occassion it will boot if i pull the powere in and out a few times.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Hi,I have a problem with my Packerd Bell,it starts to load windows and the fan and hd start to slow down then windows stops loading.I restart the laptop again each time i do this it loads a bit further until it reaches starting windows then again the fan starts to slow down and stops.any help would be great
February 19th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Hi I have a Gateway MX3560 laptop and everything’s working but the CD/DVD Player/DVD Burner will not open. I went in and tried to burn a CD and it said that no CD Burner or Burner software can be found. The same thing happened with the DVD. The little light that on the CD drive that’s usually green is off but there’s a orange light that’s glowing from underneath the CD drive. It was working last night and I don’t know what happened.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:56 am
Sorry but can’t find my prob in any posts–my sony vaio vgn-fj160p is stuck on windows xp screen on boot up–the green dots just keep going across in that elongated, sideways oval thing mid screen. This will go on for minutes, till lap top shuts down. This happens in all safe mode options, also. How can I get past this window to trouble shoot problem?
March 5th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Terri 13th,
Test the laptop with an external screen. If the same green dots appear on the external monitor, you have a problem with the motherboard/video card.
March 13th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Hello, I have an IBM Thinkpad R40 (2682-NU2) that recently shut down abruptly while playing a DVD and hasn’t turned on since. I’ve tried turning it on with/without battery and AC adapter. I’ve tried switching the memory modules. I took it for a diagnostic test at a laptop repair shop and was told that the integrated video on the motherboard was broken, and that the entire motherboard would have to be replaced. The laptop isn’t worth a new motherboard and so I’d like to try to fix the video chip myself. I would really appreciate any suggestions or resources! Thanks in advance!
March 20th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Similiar problem but laptop, Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200 series,Upon start boots up properly and after 2 mins will rteboot it self again and keep on doing this. Sometimes it will boot up and work until a extra firm touch is placed anywhere the unit or the key board. Have not opened it up yet but would like some ideas before I do.
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:04 am
I have a Dell latitude D610 that stopped working. When you power on, the green LED lights up along with the HDD light. Thats it. The lights will go off in about three seconds.
I have tried powering on with the adaptor alone, with battery removed, but no use.
I have changed the DIMM from slot A to B, but in vain.
funny thing is the laptop started again a week back(i keep trying to power on every day)the screen lit upm windows XP started up but in between the laptop shut down again.
since then it is continuing its hibernation.
Please advice.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Hi LaptopF,
I have a Toshiba Tecra A4 around 20 months old, when i first purchased it i also bought an extra 1gig ram also. The laptop has always had problems with overheating but i was able to increase air flow underneath the laptop to stop it just shutting down but it still got very hot at times.
Anyway, a week ago i came to turn on my Laptop, it would get past the POST screen – then go blank before it could get onto the XP loading screen. I tried removing and interchanging the RAM – but that didnt solve anything. I suspected it may be the HDD, but i was able to reformat via the recovery CD and dl HD tuner which gave results suggesting my HDD was ok. Anyway, after a one prolonged session on windows i shut it down. Next day – same problem, except this time it gets past the POST screen and gives me the options for safe mode, start normally etc – no matter what option the screen would go black again and nothing would happen before it could reach the XP loading screen. I stick in the recovery CD again, once again able to reformat and get on windows again. I dl/d the BIOS update from Toshiba’s site – it automatically wants to reboot (which my PC will never do because it needs to be cool to boot up). I wait an hour or so, but now it gets to the POST screen and gets no further – does not respond – cant get the CD drive via C, cant get onto BIOS. I’m very lost at the moment and any help would be much appreciated!!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
I have a japanese toshiba dynabook px-410dl. Recently, it just dead and stop booting up. The power and charger led are on only when I press the power button. It light for around 5 seconds then nothing happens at all. It just not powering up and booting up. I have try to swap the memory as well as putting new memory, putting new hard drive, tested the ac adapter etc. Do you have solution for it?
July 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Ivan,
Minimize the laptop as much as you can. Remove all devices you can access such as battery, DVD drive, hard drive, wireless card, modem, etc… Plug the AC adapter and try turning it on. If the laptop still fails to start, you might have a problem with the motherboard (more likely) or the processor (less likely). You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Hello all, I hope somebody out there can help me with this. I have a toshiba satellite M35X laptop that I got in ‘04 as a christmas present. Already my dad and I have soldered the power jack (about a year ago when the problem got out of hand) and I have noticed overheating when using the laptop. However my question is this: recently, I get a black screen when I turn the power on. The AC cord is plugged in and it doesn’t matter whether or not the battery is in, I still get a black screen. Additionally, the CD/DVD slot won’t open. I have noticed a green light (which usually lights up when the computer boots up) doesn’t go on or kick in like it usually does when I boot the laptop up. Aside from dusting out the air intake, are there any other possible causes/solutions to this problem??
Any help at all is appreciated.
PS. This is a great website. I never knew so many people were the same kinds of problems that I’ve been having with mine.
August 18th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Hi all-
I have a T40 runnig WIN XP PRO x32. I have intermittent problems on boot. The only signs of life are, the spinning fans, the HDD making sounds, the ‘power on light’, and the ‘battery light’. I’ve only had this problem restarting the computer. If its a fresh powerup after a doy of being off, it boots fine. Any suggestions to what this might be?
Thanks,
John Mark
September 6th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Hey, I recently got a Toshiba Satellite A105-S2201, not sure how old it is, but it was used. When I booted it up the first time, it loaded up just fine and everything. It has XP Home on it. But after like 5-10 mins while I was looking through some settings, it shut itself off. Now every time I go to boot it up, it will only stay on for 10-15 seconds, and shuts itself off again. I’ve tried booting into Safe Mode..get the same result, same with pulling up utilities and boot menu…it even does it when I just let it sit on the password screen. Any idea what it could be? I’ve checked my battery too, and its working fine, so. ANy help you could give would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris
September 28th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Hi,
I have a HP Pavillion zv5000 (AMD) which I had bought from swiss..The battery was over so I was using it direct ..suddenly it has stopped booting , only the LEDs glow. I showed to a small vendor as HP was too far off and he said he needs to change the mother board and is asking arnd 15k. Please suggest and help on this. If any body has clue what the exact problem is and in case the mother board needs to be replaced then what wud be the estimated cost. Attaching an external monitor dint show any results..
I’ll be highly obliged if you cud mail me the response.
September 29th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Deepti,
If you have installed an extra memory module into this laptop, remove the module and test the laptop again. It could be related to a faulty memory module.
I cannot tell you how much motherboard replacement will cost you because the price will be different for different repair shops. I would say you are looking at least at USD500.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I have a HP laptop which when I boot the color on the screen turns red instant of black and I’ve tried everything but could resolve the problem.
If there is a way can you help or tell me.
Kind regards
Kevin
November 8th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Kevin,
Does it look like the Dell screen on this example?
If it does, probably the screen has a faulty backlight lamp.
November 13th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Hello I have a Toshiba Satellite A105-S2201 I got for my sun who is in the war it powered it self off and then when he started it back up It had a “BIOS PASSWORD” on it. Toshiba said they would fix it for free but he would have to mail it, then I would have to take it to them. that will take forever. So does anyone know a way around the password? it has an eeprom to back up the cmos Toshiba said they have a divce to by pass it so maybe someone knows a way to make one??
November 13th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Tom,
You can take the laptop to the local authorized repair center, it’s not necessary to mail it to Toshiba. Removing the BIOS password from a Satellite A105 doesn’t take a lot of time.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Hello, I’m a soldier currently deployed in Mosul, Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. I bought a Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 laptop from the px back in may. I hate toshiba’s but that is all the px sells. Last night I was on using it and everything was working fine. Keep in mind I keep it maintained very well. I shut it down properly and went to chow. I come back and when I hit the power button the screen remains black, does not flicker, the power indicator blue light comes on and stays on, for a second the rom light will flicker but stop, I can hear the cd drive try to read a disk and the cooling fan start but nothing happens. The screen is black, the power light stays on and the fan runs. NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. The cd tray will eject and if I close it again it will try and read anything I insert. If I plug in the AC adapter the external power indicator light will come on as well. What do I do? Sending this laptop somewhere to get fixed and not knowing what needs to be replaced or what will be a tradegy due to the amount of mailing and shipping. Any ideas. This is a huge deal being in a combat zone with little to no comfort and having my laptop die. Please help me. You can email me at john.w.dawson@us.army.mil or reply here. I’ll try and check up as quickly as possible. Thanks for you’re time
November 14th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Laptop Freak thanks for the info but the laptop is still in Iraq. So shipping is not what we want to do and if he is going to ship it, it would be best for him to ship it to Toshiba, Then to ship it to me and have me take it to the Toshiba dealer. Is there any way to make somethig like what the pro’s use that he could make and just clear it? I mean Someone has to know what to do to clear it
November 14th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Dawson,
First, unplug the laptop from the AC adapter and remove the battery. Wait for 1 minute, then plug the AC adapter and try turning it on.
Second, check the memory. Try reconnecting the memory module, remove if from the memory slot and install back. If you have two memory modules in your laptop, try removing them one by one. Try installing different memory modules into different slots. It’s possible that one of the modules is bad, or it’s not making a good contact with the slot.
Third, remove the hard drove and try starting the laptop without it. If the laptop starts with video when the hard drive is removed but has no video when the hdd is installed, most likely you have a bad hard drive.
If nothing helps, it’s possible that you have a problem with the motherboard and have to ship your laptop in for service.
Here’s a disassembly guide for Satellite P205, it will help you to find the hard drive with memory.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Thanks guys for getting back to me so quickly. I’ll try and do what you said tonight and if it doesn’t work out I go home for R&R leave in a month for two weeks. I guess I can figure something out when I get home if I can’t get it fixed here. I’ll try and get back on here as soon as possible and let you know whats going on. Thank you so much for your help. You’ll hear from me soon.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Hi Laptop Freak ,
Thanks for ur reply and m sorry for responding so late. The memory module removal thing dint work. I showed it to soemone and he said some IC for video gets heated up when the lappy is switched on..and so it needs a motherboard replacement…Can u suggest something more.
Thanks in advance..
P.S: do u have a yahoo chat id or something so that I can discuss this with u and explore all possible options..At present my lappy is lying almost dead,,
November 16th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Ok so I tried removing the battery and turned it on with just AC power. Same result. It will power on but nothing will boot. The cd tray will open and try to read cds and everything but windows vista will not boot. I took the hardrive out and tried and still same result. It didnt boot. I tried switching the memory up into different slots and still some result…SHOCKING! So basically I got the same result from all the things you told me to do. And you said if nothing works then its my motherboard and I have to get it serviced. Please just tell me that means I won’t loose any of my files. Quick question. My room mate told me that we had a couple power failures while I was on a mission the other day. Is it possible maybe when power was returned it was too much for the computer to handle? Is it possible the laptop is not getting enough power to boot up but just enough to power the cd tray and to light up the power indicator light? What do I press in order to get my laptop to run DOS. Just let me know ANYTHING you would do before I ship it to Toshiba. I need to know every possible scenario. Thank you so much for your help. Hope to hear back from you soon. Thanks again.
November 17th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Dawson,
Replacing the motherboard will not erase any files on the hard drive. BUT when you sending your laptop to Toshiba you have to mention that your data is IMPORTANT and they cannot reimage the hard drive. Make it clear, maybe even put a sticky note with instructions NOT TO ERASE the hard drive.
Yes it’s possible but I think it would kill the AC adapter fist, not the motherboard.
I don’t think so. If the battery is still charged, it should provide enough power even when the AC adapter is unplugged. Just in case, you can find a voltmeter and test the AC adapter. If the adapter outputs correct voltage, most likely there is nothing wrong with the adapter.
Your laptop will not start at all, right? You even cannot see the initial Toshiba logo on startup, right? That’s mean you cannot boot it in DOS. There is no secret key to do that.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
For the guy talking about his Qosmio F10 having issues… Qosmio had a recall on their original Mobo, and replaced the systemboard for free, plus gives it an upgrade. You might want to contact them.
- John
December 6th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Is this really MOBO issue ?
Toshiba Tecra A3 – S611 win XP Pro. ( No warranty anymore ).Freezes when built-in wireless card swith turns on. Do not boot when shut down or re-start. Used to boot back to windows from Standby mode, now stop doing it. All LED’s are on, fan spins, cd spins, hard drive lights comes on, but screen remains blank. NO BIOS, NO TOSHIBA logo. Changed RAM from one slot to other nothing happens. If shut down, turn power on/off several times till luck comes with u and it boots. Any comments or repair advice ?
February 13th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Hi,
I have a Toshiba M52 laptop and the screen flickers when the PCMCIA card is inserted. My PCMCIA Card is a Toshiba TypeII HDD. It recently began after I removed and then re-inserted the PCMCIA. Its now chronic.
Any comments?
Thanks
t—
February 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite A65-s1065 and it stops booting when it reaches the point of loading the display drivers. It is ATI graphics based. Ive tried to boot normally and in safe mode and each time it fails to load the ATI graphics drivers. Tried to re-install Windows XP and same porblem. XP instalation fails.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am
TOSHIBA QOSIMO WILL NO LONGER BOOT AFTER FITTING NEW HDD
Recently my Toshiba Qosmio G10 hard disk died. As a result I trundled off to my local computer shop who expalined that all I would need is a new HDD and then just recover the OS with the Toshiba Recovery Media.
So I went ahead and bought the new HDD and after installing and running through the recovery process the PC looked ok however when it tried to boot it very quickly flashes up a blue screen which is so quick I cant even read and then the laptop keeps rebooting in this fashion. Please Help ????
I have tried a number of different things
1) tried booting in HDD slot 2 and still no sucess
2) nothing in the BIOS indicates any problem
3) tried to modify the sysprep.ini looked up something in the MS tech site which says something about SYSPREP MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER
If anyone can help I would be so so grateful!!
Regards
S
March 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Seems a few people have problems like mine. I have an HP Pavillion DV6000 laptop that I purchased just about a year ago. It has bee nworking great this entire time untilo today. While I was filling a form out on a website it locked up hard. I tried doing a hard reboot only to have it unable to boot up again. It would go into a cycle of starting up, try to read the DVD drive and then try to read the hard drive. At that point it would shut down and restart the cycle. I tried putting an OS disk into the DVD ROM to see if it would boot from that but had no luck with that either. Any help would be appreciated.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I have a HP ZD8000.. When i hit the power button, nothing happends. The blue lights are on when plugged in, just doesnt do anything at all.. I think I “MAY” know what happend. It started after we had a bad storm, but the power was connected to surge protector – however the network cable was not protected. Any ideas if this is power supply, network card or most likely motherboard?
Thanks,
Jim
March 31st, 2008 at 10:22 am
I have a sony Vaio that will not boot all the way. With the battery in or out it looks as if it is starting windows, then the screen goes blank except for cursor. I can move the cursor but can not do anything else at all.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite A135-S2266. I will not start up. when i push the power button the little light above it comes on. the CD/DVD drive will run and the fan will to. But nothing will come up on the screen. I have used a external screen and nothing has happened. I have swiched the ram with good ones and nothing. I have taken the batery out and tried AC power and nothing. I do not have a hard drive in it. but t thought it should boot to the bio. but it dose not. Do you need a hard drive for it to boot? I have had one other Toshiba that had a bad Mother bored in it but i got lucky and got it fixed for free. Can you help Me?
April 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hello laptopfreak,
I have compaq presario v3000 laptop. Some times it is not booting. I checked the RAM – removed and replaced, run memtest86 , checked the HDD – hitachi tester , removed and refixed the HDD-
removed the battary and tried to boot in direct powersupply . but some times the laptop is not booting
I am not even getting the intitial boot screen – POST screen .
SOme times if I goto BIOS the HDD inforations are not here .
apparently some times the laptop boots up and work without any probles
I’ve XP loaded in the laptop and checked the HDD from XP also – no problems
it has a AMD dula core 64 bit processor
the fan is also working
can you help ?
Thnaks
Najeeb
April 18th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I have a satellite p15 s409, and as a result of a virus, everytime I turn it on, it asks me for a bios password which I don’t have. Is there anything I could do to fix it myself? I’m in the interior of Brazil where appropriate service ia scarce. Thanks a lot.
Rob
April 20th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Justin,
I think you have a problem with the motherboard. I posted your question here.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
najeeb,
If memory and hard drive pass test without any problem, apparently your problem is related to the motherboard. There is not much I can do without looking at the laptop.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:04 am
I have toshiba tecra A3-S611. Same problem, does not boot when I start after shut down or does not re-start when window asks to re-start after I install some new software. Even on Standby mode or Hibernate mode, does not goes to window at all. All I do is to keep laptop in logoff mode once I login it goes back to windows with no problem. Bought new adapter from Toshiba and new RAM but nothing helped. If motherboard is bad then why it goes back to windows during login/logoff mode ? Somtimes I have noticed if I shut down and re-start if I shake laptop slowly up and down it powers up to windows. Sometimes it trys to power up and Toshiba logo comes up in slow motion mode starts with dim light and slowly slowly shines with normal light but freezes right after it.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Lal,
Did you try moving the memory module from one slot to another? It’s possible that the memory slot you are using right now is defective.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hiya,
I’m having a problem with an HP Pavilion dv6000. The thing is barely over a year old, and never had any problem(other than coming with Vista, meh!). Yesterday, I went to turn it on, to no avail. If you hold down the power button, the lights will come on. The fan starts up after a short bit, and stays on for maybe two seconds before going off. The lights will stay on for a bit, then blink off and usually come back on. Sometimes the fan will run for a couple seconds again, sometimes not. The hard drive never spins. I’ve tried running off just battery, or just AC. Tried removing the hard drive. It does the exact same thing with no drive in. Swapped RAM around, removed optical drive and stripped down to one RAM chip. Nothing. I’m not sure where to go from here. Considering unplugging from the LCD and going straight into an external, just to see. Any ideas? Thanks a bunch.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am
i have a toshiba A200 it is completey effed =/ it only come up with the starting screen saying windows xp n then freezes, it will not go beyond that =/ i have tried safe mode and have done the system restore but it does not work. the VAG mode does not work also, please help
June 18th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 6400. First I’ll let you know what happened. While my wife was watching a video (using Media Direct) she paused for approx 5 mins. Screen was then locked w/o curser and I couldn’t figure out how to unfreeze (obviously I tried everything I could think of btw she was on battery power and had been for approx 20 mins). So I held off button till it turned off. Never ran again. The computer w/not boot. When pressing the off/on (to boot computer) the green light lights but never does the amber or charge light. Also when I plugged in the transformer (the one supplied w/the unit from Dell) green charge light sometimes flashes briefly…then nothing. It doesn’t matter whether I am using battery power or AC..nothing happens. I have tried the things I’ve seen on the net (re-seat the memory, wiggle connector, hold power on for a while…btw at one point this did act like it was charging the battery as it was flashing amber,amber,amber then green, but neve r did the battery appear to be charged. This computer not abused, rarely used on battery power and is mostly stock from Dell w/o any upgrades (done by me) except for a wire mouse addition. Any help available of further suggestions. Hopefully I’ve been complete in my description.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Hi, i need some help,i have a nec versa rxi,750 mhz,when i power it on,the power light comes on the lights flash and then the hard drive light stays on perment,the screen remains blank, and i have tried an external monitor again nothing but the fan does run however if i put a cd in the drive the cd light flicker and the drive spins up,(if i took the chip out ,the cd drive does not work at all)i have tried the cpu in another machine all ok, and i have tried the ram in another machine too again all ok, i have checked the usb port for power and there is a 5v present,i get no post or even a bleep.If i plug the charger in the battery charges perfectly and the machine runs on the battery fine and when it gets low the battery light goes green to orange, but somtimes when i power it up with the adapter all the lights stay on,and when i powerdown and switch again on all the lights flash and the hard drive light will turn on after 10 seconds and stay on. Now heres the odd bit if i power on the music section (seperate button) the speakers click and the small nuber lcd lights up and i can put a music cd in and it plays fine and i can skip to differnt tracks and adjust the volume using the thumbwheel,so i my thinking this machine is not totaly dead,i just need to get some ideas on what the fault could be,even took the screen apart and there is a 14v supply to the inverter,but i can only assume there must a trigger line for the screen to turn on,i am good with electronics but not that good, i dont mind in getting the soldring iron out,please help,thanks john
July 1st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I have a acer (Aspire 5310 ) scince morning it is not booting properly.The problem is like it is bootin but in the time of showing the desktop it starts rebooting? this is happing.what should i do?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
JC,
This The lights will stay on for a bit, then blink off and usually come back on. sounds like a problem with the motherboard.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
John,
Did you try turning on the laptop when the hard drive is removed? Can you boot to the POST screen without the hard drive installed? I’m thinking maybe the hard dive is bad and it’s halting the whole system.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
NP,
Could be memory related problem. Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Shantanu Majumder,
Try this. Turn on the laptop and press F8 when Acer logo appears on the screen. Try booting the laptop with Last Known Good Configuration.
If Last Known Good Configuration doesn’t work, try Safe Mode. If you can boot in Safe Mode, use System Restore utility and recover the laptop back to the previous restore point.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 am
Hellow Laptop Freak, I need help to get past the bios password of a toshiba Qosmio F30,the previous owner passed on and nobody in the family knows the password, any ideas? Thanks in advance!
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:28 am
I have a MDG VisionBook.. one day I opened my lid to use the laptop and screen stays off.. The sleep LED is ON (moon icon). I tried to power off/on..power light is on, HD LED is on, wireless LED is on, battery LED is off.. i suppose its stuck in sleep mode.. i tried booting without the HD and same result
please help
thanks
August 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:28 am
I have a MDG VisionBook.. one day I opened my lid to use the laptop and screen stays off.. The sleep LED is ON (moon icon). I tried to power off/on..power light is on, HD LED is on, wireless LED is on, battery LED is off.. i suppose its stuck in sleep mode.. i tried booting without the HD and same result
please help
thanks
ME TOO!!!! and I can’t figure it out, just all of a sudden it just won’t start!
someone HELP!!!
September 16th, 2008 at 6:16 am
My Optical Drive Is Not Read Any Cd Or Dvd. I Replayced with Other Optical Drive But IT nOT Work And Send Error In StartUp (CDROM -ERROR)MY LAPTOP IS Toshiba Qosimo F30 -121
Thanks
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
I have an HP dv6500. It does not want to boot up. I turn the power on, all the leds light up, I can hear the fan. but nothing but black screen.
2 nights ago I was able to get into the bios, from there i was able to run a memory test and a hard drive test. both tests were good. when i left the bios i was able to boot into vista in safe mode. Once in windows i ran a virus scan. everything was good there. My son used the computer the rest of the evening. the next morning he called and again nothing. I went and picked up the laptop and brought it home. once home I tried too bootup with the power cord in- nothing. I then removed power adaptor and was able to boot into the bios. When I exited the bios again nothing but black screen. This morning I tried and I cannot get it to even go into the bios with or without the power adaptor. Again- all led’s light up, fan runs, but thats it. Powers off normally by holding power button 5 seconds. Could this be a fried cpu or mainboard? any suggestions?
October 15th, 2008 at 4:59 am
I have a dell D610 Latitude.When i power on it it did not boot.All the lights went on then capslock light start blinking for 10 seconds and then it turnoff.I have tried everything to boot it but nothing happens.Please tell me whats the problem and how to solve it.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
After spilling milk on Satellite M30 I was able to clean it up enuf to get a new version of xp,sp3 installed and fully updated but despite removing and cleaning every key the keyboard wouldnt operate (Ctrl key seemed to be stuck in ‘on’ position) .. well, after installing a new keyboard from ebay it ran perfectly normal for about 10 minutes until I started getting repeated BSOD’s until now it wont start at all. Have tried new power adapter (battery was already dead) but still have only blinking orange/amber power light. I tried the new adapter because even before the adapter didnt always start the pc. Any ideas or does it sound like the motherboard ??
January 29th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ195N, about 1 year old. A couple months ago the system started not being able to boot into Vista. It starts up per the norm and the screen displays “loading windows” with the animated taskbar and windows logo, but it never boots up. The HDD activity light goes off too. I do not think it’s a power issue as I am always able to boot into Safe Mode and into the Bios. There is no real fix: I just keep rebooting trying different things i.e. boot into Safe Mode and then restart, removing flash drives, unplugging unit and removing battery for a few seconds. Eventually, after 30 minutes or so, it finally boots up. I reinstalled Vista Business a month or so ago and it worked fine for a while, couple weeks, but then it started all over again. It happens moreso running on the battery but it does still happen, frequently, plugged in as well. Thanks.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:59 am
my error message after alt and f10 for the e recovery has this message. 107 EEPRO 100B LAN ADAPTER FAILED THE MEDIA TEST. … EXITING THE RPL LOADER. DISK BOOT FAILURE , insert system disk and press enter …I do not have a boot disk. How can i get one.?
February 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am
i tray to solve my fraiend laptop (accer)computer.
the firest problem was after booting it doesnt go to windoes .it stays WINDOES STARTING UP but noting happen after that
i dident make anything but now when i press power buten the fan gives sound but afte 30-60 secondes it becomes turns off
any one give advice
February 13th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
i have a dell inspiron 1501 i recently did a restore back to factory default and now my laptop just keeps restarting after the logo screen flashes and restarts if anybody could help me would be apreciated
March 8th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I purchased a Sony PCG-FRV28 on Ebay as dead. Troubleshooting I found the CPU paste was not applied properly, voids. One fan had a bit more drag than the other. Taking the motherboard out I found a cocoon, silky sticky, shiny, possibly silkworm, next to the CMOS battery and the battery dead. I replaced the battery and reassembled but looking closely I found what was making one of the fans drag more than the other, another sticky cocoon, this inside between the two fans that had been barely visible. Removing it the fan spins with normal drag. I also found one of the traces on the start switch ribbon cable slightly lifted and shorted to a neighbor. Instant glue fixed that with the surface clean. The battery module charged at a rate of 1.48 amps dropping progressively down to zero over the course of a few hours. While charging the battery LED would flash twice, pause, flash twice repeatedly. I tried the start button and got a single battery LED flash and nothing else. I tried pressing the recessed button on the bottom and tried again. Nothing. I’ve ripped it down repeatedly and removed/replaced the prom and CMOS battery and pressed the underside button in various combinations but no change trying to get a post on the bench with both minimum components and fully assembled. I’ve moved the CPU to a Dell Inspiron and it runs fine and am testing with a new Celeron 2.2GHz. Never any beep or activity on the LCD. I’ve put in known good RAM of the required spec and it has a new hard drive that’s never seen a computer. I’ve purchased a new power supply for this and voltage is found at the two conductor header on the power board. I’ve tried holding the power button for an extended period in case it’s in a suspend state of some kind, no change. The switch near the hinge is set to 011100 and I’ve tried with and without dynamic throttling switched. This is the first Sony I’ve attempted to repair. I don’t know the proper method of resetting the CMOS nor know what key combinations might allow this to self test and output a diagnostic code. Assistance will be appreciated. Thanks.
BillJ
March 8th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I’ve harvested a fine pitch 45 conductor ribbon from a DVD and trimmed it to 22 conductors. Replacing the ribbon on which I used super glue I get identical results.
BillJ
March 9th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I see online posts regarding some Sony laptops that go bad when the BIOS is flashed with RAM in the B slot. Apparently a bug that leaves the machine dead. I suspect the fan cocoon and poor heatsinking could have been causing thermal shutdown. A previous owner may have tried flashing the BIOS with RAM in both A and B slots leaving it dead.
A close inspection of the board has turned up nothing, no damaged caps, no IC’s showing any damage. With the motherboard on AC and an external monitor in place I measure 5 volts on one pin of the battery header. I push the on button and that 5 volts drops to zero. I press the underside reset button and the 5 volts returns. Without a CMOS battery in place and power applied I measure a trickle charge voltage at the CMOS battery which drops to zero when the reset button is depressed and returns with the release of the button.
Do you know if there’s any way to cold flash the BIOS via the USB port using flasher on another machine?
Thanks.
BillJ
March 18th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
hi my gateway m280E doesn’t turn on. once i plug in the adapter the light comes on both the adapter and the laptop(battery light). when i try to turn it on nothing happens at all. no sounds, no lights, nothing. I took out the battery and tried to turn it on with just the adaptor and still wouldn’t turn on. tried to turn it on with out the adaptor (I am sure the battery is charged) but still nothing. should i take out the hard drive? thanks a lot for your help.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Hi,
I have Lenovo 3000 Y410 laptop with Core 2 Duo (5750) processor and 2GB RAM. It had windows XP and Ubuntu both installed and was working fine and booting with GRUB bootloader. But yesterday when I started the laptop it displayed the Lenovo screen as usual but after that instead of booting it displayed a blank screen with white cursor blinking at the top right corner. It is very strange because it is not showing and error message and fan starts moving like I am working on some application. I thought might be bootloader got corrupted or something, so I tried booting with Ubuntu and XP CD both but no change still same blank screen with white blinking cursor. Please note that I have been able to enter Bios setup and change the booting option as well. Bios was showing all the hardware as it usually shows but its bios doesn’t give any options to change anything other than date, security password and booting option, well I guess that’s what they provide in value laptops. My laptop is still in warranty and only 6 months old but before I give them to repair I want to know what is wrong with it, is it software or hardware? One more thing, when I try its one key recovery button which should restore my C: to dos installation back again, it performs same thing, blank screen with blinking cursor.
Any help is very appreciated.
Thanks
March 19th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Mayur,
Sounds like a bad hard drive. Try reconnecting the hard drive, it might help.
I posted your question here:
Laptop starts to a blank screen with white cursor blinking
March 20th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
My HP was doing the same thing. took it to geek squad 4 times and they never got it fixed. As soon as i would get it back to them it would start not booting within 3 hours.
I had a bad memory mod.
hope this helps
March 28th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
As Laptop Freak said it was bad hard drive. I took it to Lenovo Service Center because it was in warranty. They checked it and replaced the hard drive on the spot (luckily they had one in stock). Now its working fine. Thanks everybody for your help as it helped me to figure what the problem was before giving it to repair.
Thanks
Mayur
June 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Hi there,
I’m having a big problem with my Toshiba Satellite M30X-166. My laptop starts (power on light ok) and the cooler fan runs, but it doesn’t show anything on screen (not even the Toshiba logo). This situation lasts for approximately 5 seconds, then the laptop runs off (fan stops and power on LED goes off). This happens with the battery inserted, if I have the AC charger plugged the laptop doesn’t even starts the fan nor the power on LED, in this case he shows itself completely dead. I have already verified the charger and the output is ok.
At this time my laptop is completely unassembled and I have only the basic hardware (motherboard, cpu + cooler, memory and power on button), I’m also using an external monitor.
Actions already done by myself:
- memories switched (status ok)
- cpu switched (status ok)
- My monitor detects a vga connection (graphics board ok)
- bios reset (bios battery removed and discharged – status ok)
- AC charger (status ok)
Can anyone help me please, I think I have done everything possible
. Am I forgetting anything ?
Could it be a bios firmware problem?
Thanks a lot and congratulations for this interesting blog
Best Regards
August 16th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Dell Laptop: I turn it on and the dell part flashes up but the screen goes black with a flashing white bit in the corner and thats it push the keys and it just beeps – the screen is plan black too – what I can do? Its the hard drive is the problem? its not booting up?
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am
HP Pavilion dv6915nr
is automatically turning off and on every one or two second. try everything took out battery, unplug ac, same problem. It dont stay on long enough to get to the screen. Had IT support, there no services for hp here, not really wanting to spend money on geek squad just yet.
Before all this happen weeks before battery stay charge at same %. And if the computer does stay on its just black screen.
Help? Help?
October 20th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Ann, Resolder the power chip. I’m trying this today.
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Hi i have sony vaio laptop.
when i turn on the power button on the laptop
nothing comes on the screen.
My dvd and cd drives opens.
power light flashes.
Sometimes it starts. But not always.
If it is not atarting i have to wait for 2 hours to try starting it
and then it starts.
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Sumit Gupta,
Could be memory failure.
Try reconnecting memory modules. Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with only one module installed.
If one of the modules is bad, the laptop will start properly when the bad module is removed.
July 4th, 2010 at 7:43 am
I have a Gateway m6866 which i bought from the US. It runs on 64-bit. Everytime i plug in my Ipod and it accesses Itunes it comes up with a message of changing my visual display. Whilst using it last night, My Itunes would open and then stop responding. So i keep closing it down through Ctrl+Elt+Del. At one point it came up with a blue screen and a message of having to close down my windows session. I closed it down and restart. To my surprise, it would not restart properly.
I turn on power and I can hear the fan working, the hard drive working but the screen remains dark. I have tried the following:
Connecting to another monitor- no success
testing the memory module – each one at a time – nothing happens.
Any advice on how I can diagnose this problem please.
Thanks