Laptop shut down by itself while working. Since then it is dead and doesn’t power up.
My Toshiba laptop shut down by itself while working. All light indicators were out. clicking the power button did not help. After few minutes, I pressed the power button, the laptop came on but shut down again after few moment. Since then it is dead and does not power up. Any idea what could be the problem?
Test the power adapter first. Plug the adapter into the laptop and check if the power LED lights up. If the LED is still off, most likely the adapter is bad. Here’s my guess. The power adapter died while you were working on the laptop. After that the laptop worked for a while until the battery got discharged and finally shut down. The laptop will not power up anymore because you have a dead adapter and empty battery. Find a voltmeter and test if the adapter puts out any power at all.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Thanks Laptop Freak. I’ve now got it to start after unplugging the CMOS battery for a while but now I get a corrupt bios screen which looks a bit like http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=487b1os8.jpg (someone elses picture). I’ve seen this before when a BIOS gets corrupted so I reflashed both the bios and the firmware (I always thought they were the same thing) using toshiba’s dos based chgbiosa.exe and chgfirma.exe but that hasn’t helped. I now suspect the video bios or a damaged or badly seated internal monitor cable.
I’ll try to find an 855GM video bios and flash it from DOS + check the connection on the lead.
Oh, I also tried to install XP but it crapped out after copying loads of files with a “the BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant” BSOD.
I’m sure there’ll be a single root cause to all this but damned if I’ve managed to find it yet.
Ideas welcome.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Paul,
Will it start without hard drive installed?
I believe so. Make sure the hard drive is oriented correctly and pins on the hard drive match holes on the connector on the motherboard.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 am
I’ve had my Portege A100 apart quite a few times to replace ram, network card etc but today I’ve tried to replace the hard drive and cant get it to power back up.
With either the old or the new drive it wont fully power up. The light changes from blue to green but there is no display and no fan or hd noise.
Step 12 at this guide says “slide the hard drive to the left” but this doesn’t seem clear. Surely it is just necessary to put the hard drive into the cage and then slid it firmly into place?
Any ideas much appreciated.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Hi Laptop Freak!
Similar situation.
I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop
No prior issues however yesterday I was working on it, closed the lid (which would normally put it in “standby mode”) and left to do other things. Several hours later I came back to finish my work and when I lifted the lid it appeared my pc had never gone into “standby mode” and the screen was exactly as I had left it. The computer was locked up; nothing would work, not even the mouse >:) So I held the power button until it turned off. The pc was a bit warmer than normal but I assumed it was because it never had a “rest”.
From that point on the pc will not turn on. It will do nothing. I have taken the battery out, checked the power cords and all seems fine. The lights on the front are: solid green in the power spot, no light in the middle spot and a yellowish color in the battery/last spot.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Hi Laptop Freak –
re my Toshiba A100 – the HDD seems fine.
I pulled it out and got all the data off it.
Any further ideas?
Also there are no beep codes if I pull the memory out and try booting without it.
Thanks
March 16th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Ruchi,
Will it turn back on after a while, after it cools down? If it does, probably it’s heat related issue. Even though the fan works, it’s possible that the heatsink is clogged with dust preventing normal air circulation.
Clean the heatsink with compressed air and test the laptop again.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Hi laptop freak,
I have HP dv1000 series. Today ot suddenly switched off while I was working and I could restart it only by removing hte battery and pressing the power switch. After that I kept the battery removed and th patop was on direct power supply. Again the laptop switched off while I was working but his time I could switch it on by pressing the power switch as the battery was already removed. I am not sure what the problem is…it cannot be the battery as even after I removed the battery it switched off. Is it due to overheating but I can hear the fan work.
Please help/advice asap.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Isaac,
If water went down to the motherboard, most likely it’s fried and has to be replaced. I cannot help you to troubleshoot this problem over the Internet. It’s necessary to disassembly the laptop and take a closer look on the motherboard.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Andrew,
Are you sure the noise was coming from the cooling fan and not from the hard drive?
Try turning on the laptop without the hard drive installed. Can you boot the laptop to the Toshiba logo on the screen?
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 am
I need some help although its not the right topic,
but i poured some water on my comp by accident and now it is short circuit, all water near keyboard wiped, no water seen from overview but now my laptop on button
wont work, need some help! By that i mean it cant on… but the lights below the screen are still green for sum reason :s
PLEASE HELP! VERY IMPORTANT!
February 21st, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Oh, it is not the power adapter – I have two separate ones!
And it was fully charged when it wouldn’t turn on the first time!
February 21st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Hi laptop freak. First of all, you are a guru!
I have a Toshiba A100, and it’s cooling fan was starting to make a bit of a noise 3 days ago, though if i tipped it on it’s side, it would go away.
Then when I opened it up today, nothing came on the screen – it was just blank.
I held the power button down, and it went to amber as normal after five secs for a warm shutdown.
When I press the power now, it makes the normal boot-up sounds, but nothing on screen.
wi-fi light does not come on, and it is not visible on the network (damn).
Any ideas?
January 31st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hi,
Same problem here as Terrance.
My Sony VAIO VGN-FS660W after two and a half years just shut down wile being plugged in to the wall. With or without the AC adapter and/or battery there is no power or lights.
I did upgraded my RAM a month or two before that happened. And two month before I had a problem to where windows would not load past the Windows startup screen, which I fixed by pressing the F8 and recovering my system.
Any known problems with power that you can think of for this Sony?
I will try removing/replacing my RAM when I get home and see if that dose it.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:55 am
How can be fixed a dv1000 series notebook that shuts off after a few seconds. (system board problem ??)
Thanks
January 1st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hi there, I’ve got a Toshiba Satellite A60 and I’ve had problems with the AC connection for about 6 months, which I understand is a common problem with Toshiba laptops. The laptop would switch to battery power unless I wiggled the adaptor tip when it would run off AC power for a little while, before going back to the battery. It gradually got worse until last week I could only use the laptop if I held the adaptor tip into the computer all the time.
A few days ago I couldn’t get the laptop to run off AC power at all, so I removed the adaptor and put it back into the computer quite forcefully to try and get it to connect. There was a crackling sound and a burning smell, and the laptop shut down. I’ve tried resoldering the connections on the DC jack and have tested the AC adaptor which is working, but now I can’t get the laptop to turn on at all. So my question is, is the problem likely to be with the DC jack or could a power surge have damaged the circuit board? There’s no visible damage on the circuit board. Thanks in advance for your help, Shane
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:29 am
hi
i am having a pc with intel d945gnt,1.5gb ram,6200 xfx
and when i start using an application or installing a long appln like msoffice it shut down automatically but the led lights are on after some time i used to get started it again it works fine for some day
please any one help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
Help…we have a M65 Toshiba with a power problem. We tried different AC adapters, no help there. Then we had someone replace the AC power adapter that goes to the motherboard, nope…then we bought a used motherboard, still no power. When you plug the laptop in, it makes a clicking/buzzing sound, but no lights. At the beginning, we were more hopefully because we had the blue light come on for about 3 seconds and shut off, but not even that anymore. I think that was from the remaining battery power though. Any ideas would be really appreciated.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I have a Dell Inspirion 9300 which has been working just fine until yesterday, when it started giving some beeping sounds like radio static, today it gave that sound and the an error message came up on the screen saying that the laptop has to be turned off to prevent computer damage. Since then the laptop doesnt come on, actually when you start it normally, the lights all flash on and then flash off without the computer starting unless you hold on to the start button for a long time and then it starts but after sometimes it makes that beeping sounds and then switches off. I have removed the battery and started it with ac and it still gives the same problem. Can someone help me?
December 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
LTF:
My problem is that the notebook randomnly shuts off–makes a little “click” sound and then the computer goes dead. The batters LED signal is a constant amber color. Sometimes I can reboot it successfully, other times not so much.
What can I do? Thanks.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Ian,
The battery plugs directly into the motherboard. If you experience the same problem with two different batteries, there has to be something wrong with the battery charging circuit on the motherboard.
It means you’ll have to repair the motherboard of find a technician who can fix the motherboard on the component level.
You can try this. Remove the battery and start the laptop from the AC adapter. Now insert the battery while the laptop is still running on AC, it might “shock” the battery and it will start working. This is just a guess, so proceed on your own risk.
I worked on a Portege A100 only one time and has created a disassembly guide for this model, just in case if you need it in the future.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I have a Toshiba Portege A100. Works fine on AC but battery always shows 99%. When laptop off and AC cord in, power light is green and battery light is amber and flashes.
Laptop doesnt work on battery at all tried 2 batteries same problem with amber battery light flashing.
Any ideas?
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:36 am
Hellow…!
Can u help me how can i find my acer aspire 1400xc laptop, VGA driver and Network driver!
Thnx!
September 29th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Sieg,
The laptop reboots or it just shuts down by itself?
Yes, this problem can be related to overheating. Clean the cooling module with compressed air and see if it helps.
Can you hear the fan working, maybe the fan is dead?
September 26th, 2007 at 12:13 am
HI,My laptop Acer Aspire 1400Xc keeps rebooting, I thought it might have been a problem
with the OS so i formated. the first two times the computer started to
format then rebooted again on the third try the format was complete
but right after it formated again. Now I cant get A OS on it. Im
thinking its the fan because it seams to be running very hot. I tried also to change my Ac Adapter but nothing change at all!
Anyone know what might be causing this?
Any help would be welcomed
Thanks
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Hi I have a Toshiba Sat. (M35x-s111) I just replaced the power DC jack. Now I have a new problem. Whenever I turn it on, it powers up, the fan comes on, but within a30 seconds or so the fan stops it stays on but nothing else…nothing on the screen. I have been reading a lot that it might be a dirty fan which I cleaned still no luck…any ideas
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
Hi,
I was working on my Pavilion DV 1000 notebook while plugged in and suddenly out of nowhere it turns off.. that wasn’t unusual since I had a problem with over-heating and the laptop randomly turning off. I turn it back on, a few minutes later, there’s still battery, it turns off again, but this time, never turns back on. No LED lights, doesn’t show charging, no noises, NOTHING! absoluttely dead. I tried another charged battery and adapter, nothing. I’m really hoping it’s not the mother board, is there any way I can check? What other possibilities are there? I heard something about either the fuse or the keyboard short-circuiting.. could it be those? is there anything else? how can I check for these or others.. Really appreciate it.
July 21st, 2007 at 10:11 pm
rwcrazy,
Here I covered a Toshiba TE2100 notebook boot problems. It’s a very common problem with this model by the way, probably a bad connection between the power board and the motherboard or the video board and the motherboard. Reseating the power board and the VGA board might help.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I am having the same problem as Bejamin,
My laptop (Toshiba TE 2100) shut off very suddenly. Only after unplugging and taking out the battery it would sometimes boot up again. This went on for weeks but then, finally, the laptop was completely dead.
Very sometimes the power board will give me an error code sequence with an orange LED flashing. Unfortunately I do not know how to convert it into an error code.
My amber codes are 1 long
3 short
1 long
1 long
1 short
1 long
Thanks a lot for helping – if possible.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I have a dell latitude c540/c640 when I power it on it boots up like normal then about 3 to 5 seconds pass then it shuts off, it worked fine before. I know it is not a battery problem because the battery is fully charged. I also have a burnt out backlight does anyone know a website to buy one it from.
Does anyone have any suggestions how I could fix my problem.
Thanks, Chris
July 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hi
Apologies if this has been covered before, but there are quite a few posts to go through. I have a Toshiba Portege A100 which appears to be dead. For the last few weeks the power cord appeared to be a bit iffy i.e. even when plugged into the back of the laptop it didn’t appear to be charging, then sometimes when you moved it around it would again.
Last night it was left on overnight by mistake and when I came to it this morning the screen was blank and power appeared to be off. When I pressed the ‘power on’ button the button flashed blue as it usually does but nothing happened to the screen and the laptop didn’t sound like it was ‘firing up’. I kept it plugged into the power cord and the button switched between the ‘stand-by’ orange colour light and off altogether. When depressed it would flash blue.
Now the power on button doesn’t light up at all and the LED displays at the front of the laptop are not lit.
What do you think the problem is??? AC adaptor? Battery? Motherboard? Need some help here!