My son left our HP laptop on overnight. In the morning it was seemingly not running but the power lights were on. We’ve done this many times before and when we hit the computer keyboard or mousepad it would reinitiate. Nothing this time.
I shut the lid. I re-opened the lid and tried to turn it on. It stayed on for about 5 to 10 seconds. I could get the DVD to run long enough to eject a disc only if I touched the blue DVD button just below the screen. I checked the muffin fan and when I hit power the fan would turn a few revolutions but quit when the power terminated. Motherboard?
1. Try this. Unplug the adapter and remove the battery. Wait for a few minutes. Plug in the adapter and try turning it on.
2. Test the power adapter with a voltmeter. Make sure the adapter outputs correct voltage.
If the adapter voltage is correct and reseating the battery doesn’t help, most likely it’s motherboard problem.
I had a problem with my Dell Smart PC 250N of overheating and shutting off after half an hour or so. I searched over the net and as per instructions on a web site opened up the laptop, cleaned the heatsink and the CPU and applied arctic silver thermal grease to the CPU and reassembled everything, thinking that everything would be fine now! To my horror now the laptop would not boot up!
As far as I am aware I have not damaged anything knowingly, the CPU seems to fit in the slots well and have tightened the heat sink well.
What do you think has gone wrong and what is the solution? If it is a goner then how can I retrieve the tons of files from my hard drive that I foolishly did not back up before trying this stunt.
In order to boot any laptop with video you need three main components: motherboard (with video card), CPU and memory and they have to be properly connected to each other.
Make sure the memory module is making good contact with the motherboard. Try reseating the memory module.
Make sure the CPU is making good contact with the socket. It’s possible that you accidentally pulled the CPU from the socket while removing the heatsink. Remove the heatsink again, unlock the socket, reseat the CPU and LOCK the socket. Also, when the CPU is removed, take a closer look on the pins. Hopefully the pins are not damaged.
While showing a presentation a few days ago my laptop went into hibernating and shut down. AC plugged in. When attempted to power back on nothing happened. LED lights on front panel blink but power LED does not. My laptop is HP Pavillion dv5000.
Probably the power (AC) adapter is dead. I think your power adapter died while the laptop was showing a presentation. Without AC power the laptop was working until the battery charge went down to zero and then it hibernated. Now, the front LED flashes but the laptop will not start because the battery is discharged. The power LED will not light up because the power adapter is dead. That’s my guess.
I have the following symptoms with my laptop. When I press the power button it lights up and I hear the fan and a single click sound, but nothing appears on the screen and it does nothing else. To power it off, I have to hold down the power button for about 10 seconds. Things I’ve tried so far: Removed & replaced existing battery; removed & replaced existing hard drive… still nothing. Please help!
That could be memory failure. Try reconnecting the memory module, moving it into the empty slot. If both memory slots are occupied, remove modules one by one and test the laptop with each one separately.
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I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149 that will not boot up or post.The led around the power button stays on.The only way to turn it off is to unplug the power adapter and take the battery out.It will power on for about 5 seconds and the fan will go right back off but it looks like the power button stays on. All the LEDs in the front are on as far as battery and power.Have tried to boot up with out a hard drive and same thing. Have pulled the memory out and replaced it same thing. Bought a new power adapter that didn’t work either. It’s like it’s always on but won’t boot. By turning it on the fan and the led for the hard flashes but goes right off again. About ready to throw this thing out and buy a different laptop.
I think there is a problem with the motherboard and it has to be replaced. You can try to troubleshoot the laptop as it explained in this post, but I’m pretty sure you’ll get the same result.
I have a HP Pavilion zd7000, question is, I get no lights on when I plug in the a/c adapter. I tried without battery and still no lights whatsoever. I hope its not the motherboard, I will hate buying it and that not being the problem. How can I know if it’s the motherboard or something else? Thanks for any replies.
What makes you think that you have a problem with the motherboard? First of all, you have to test the AC adapter. Make sure the adapter provides correct voltage, you can test it with a voltmeter. If the AC adapter is rated 19V, you have to get the same 19v on the voltmeter. It’s possible your adapter is dead and the laptop doesn’t get any power.
I bought Toshiba Portege laptop and when you turn it on it the Toshiba logo comes on then a screen comes up asking for a password, it doesn’t say what the password is for. It just shows Password = and that is it. I replaced the HHD but it hasn’t made a difference.
This is not the hard drive password, this is the BIOS password.
If you are not sure witch password the laptop is asking for, remove the hard dive and turn on the laptop. If you can enter the BIOS setup menu when the hard dive is removed, it was asking for the hard drive password. If the laptop still asking for the password even when the hard drive is removed, it’s asking for the BIOS password.
Removing the BIOS password from newer Portege laptops could be a pain. For example, in order to remove the BIOS password from Portege A100, M100, M200, R100 you’ll have to take it to the authorized repair center. Read the rest of this entry »
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 too. But nothing will come up on the screen. I have used an external screen and nothing has happened. I have switched the RAM with good ones and nothing. I have taken the battery out and tried AC power and nothing. I do not have a hard drive in it but thought it should boot to the BIOS but it dose not. Do you need a hard drive for it to boot? I have had one other Toshiba that had a bad motherboard in it but i got lucky and got it fixed for free. Can you help me?
You don’t need the hard drive in order to start the laptop and boot it with video on internal or external screen. Normally you can get into the BIOS even without hard drive.
All you need is motherboard, processor and memory. If one of these parts is bad, the laptop will not start.
It looks like you have a problem with the motherboard or CPU. Most likely it’s bad motherboard because CPU failures are not common.
I have an IBM X31, recently, after turning it off, it has never come back on.
The screen is blank but the fan is definitely on and it gets warm so something is going on inside.
If I press the CapsLock or NumLock their light doesn’t come on.
It is definitely not the contrast or the battery.
I have been told that it could well be the harddisk, screen or the motherboard. Is there anything else that could be wrong with it?
How hard is it to fit a motherboard or a new harddisk?
First of all, you’ll need to download the hardware maintenance manual for your IBM X31 notebook. The HMM has some troubleshooting tips and it explains how to remove internal parts including hard drive and motherboard.
Here are some troubleshooting tips for you.
1. Remove the battery, unplug the AC adapter and wait for a minute. After that plug in the AC adapter and try turning it on again. Sometimes it helps.
2. Remove the hard drive and try starting the laptop without the hard drive. If the laptop boots to the IBM logo when the hard drive is removed but will not boot when the hard drive is installed, probably you have a problem with the hard drive.
If removing the hard drive doesn’t help and the laptop is still dead, probably it’s not your problem.
3. This problem can be related to memory. Try reconnecting the memory module. If you have two RAM modules installed, remove the one by one. If the laptop starts with one module but will not start with another, you have a faulty RAM module.
Also, test the laptop with RAM module installed into different slots. In some cases there is nothing wrong with the memory and the laptop has a bad memory slot.
4. Here’s the final test. Remove hard drive, DVD drive, battery, wireless card, unplug the keyboard. In short, minimize the laptop as much as you can. Now test it again. If the laptop still will not boot, even with known good memory module, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard and it has to be replaced.
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.