Laptop Troubles, oy vey

[Raybdbomb]

I have a laptop that I purchased from xtremenotebooks.com in November of '02, it has the following specs:
15.0" UXGA+
TFT Active Matrix Screen
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 with 64MB DDR RAM
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz Processor - 533MHz System Bus
1024MB PC2100/266 DDR Ram (2 DIMMs)
40GB ATA/100 HDD
8X16X10x24 DVD/CD-RW Combo w/Software
Smart Li-ion Battery
Second Battery
A/C Adapter
Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio
Carry Case

The laptop is "Prostar" brand, http://www.pro-star.com. I RMA'd this laptop in the past due to the PCMCIA port being broken on the motherboard. It was completely my fault it got broke, and I was hoping they'd fix it. Turns out the MB would have to be replaced, and they wouldn't do it even though it was under warranty. Well, now the warranty is passed, and there's another problem.

I was using the laptop on my lap when the screen started to flicker. It would no longer respond to my mouse movement or keyboard inputs, so I held down the power to shut it off. I left it off for about 20 minutes, I plugged it in and I turned it back on. When I turn it on, it sounds like it won't finish POST, it checks the CD-ROM, but doesn't display anything on the LCD. After it checks the CD-ROM it doesn't do anything, it just sits there with a black screen. I can spit the CD-ROM out, but since nothing shows up on the screen, I cannot do anything else.

I tried to boot up the laptop with another display, but that didn't work, the monitor did not receive any input. So I open the laptop and look inside, it seems like there is nothing disconnected or loose, nothing broken off that would cause a POST error.

Any ideas on what I can do? I already filled out an RMA request on pro-star.com, hopefully it won't be too expensive to fix this *sighs*. They told me $150 to fix the PCMCIA port, which was just rediculous, but they were going to replace the MB on the laptop. I said screw it and I got a USB wireless network card, that's all I used PCMCIA for anyway. This is bad though, the damn thing won't even power on!

Thanks for any help
Ray

 

[pyrojunkie]

Is there an error during post? Can you still access the BIOS? Does it just finish POST and then goto a blank screen?

 

[Raybdbomb]

It doesn't show anything on the screen. I thought POST happened before you could see anything... I'm pretty sure that's the case. Nothing shows up, so no I cannot get into BIOS, cann't access anything.

 

[Gravity]

have you tried an external monitor?

 

[HappyPuppy]

Before you connect the external monitor, disconnect the LCD cable from the motherboard. If you still get no display it's probably a video card problem. If the video card isn't built into the motherboard, remove and reseat it half a dozen times. I had a Dell Latitude C600 do that to me yesterday and after reseating the vidio card several times the LCD began working perfectly again. It's possible that over time a little corrosion has built up between the contacts.

Good luck.

 

[Raybdbomb]

it's hard to get to the LCD connection...

i can hear it not booting up though, the hard drive is never accessed it seems, only the cd-rom

yes i did try an external monitor

 

[pyrojunkie]

You would see the POST if the display is working. The POST will also beep when its finished. Does it finish POST? Can you hear the hard drive load up the OS?

 

[Raybdbomb]

i'm fairly sure it doesn't load the OS

 

[pyrojunkie]

Ok then, this doesn't rule out a LCD problem, but it suggests the problem is elsewhere. Have you tried swapping out the RAM? Try taking one out at a time. If the CPU is the socketed variety, see if you can test it in another setup.