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.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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?
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.