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Laptop troubles...... *SOLVED sort of *

I'm kindof surpised you can't open up the laptop. My first guess would be that the screws are hidden beneath snap-in/out plastic coverings. Here's a few thoughts. Something came loose; cables, wires, etc. Does the battery need replacing? Have you heard the beeps since the incident?
 
No, its definatly not the battery, as the computer TURNS ON.....its just nothing shows up on screen


and i definatly cant get the laptop open, ive tried, the best i can do is uncover the hdd and RAM areas, but nothing near the video card or anything else....

The beeps have not been heard again
 
The reason why I say the battery is because of some really wierd things I've noticed that batteries do. I have had three times where someone came to me with a laptop problem and it was resolved by taking out the battery plugging in the laptop, turning on the laptop til fully started, shut down the laptop and then replace the battery. I don't know why it does it, but it does. Anyway, is the RAM and HD slots underneath the laptop? Have you taken off the keyboard? Sometimes there is a screw underneath that unhooks the keyboard which slides to reveal the guts. I'm sorry to keep pressing the matter of getting it open, but if they put it together you should be able to get it apart. Maybe you could post some pics or something.
 
Well the battery was my first concern, so its been toyed with and it works fine..... the RAM and HDD are under the laptop.

Ive checked everywhere, theres no other screws to be found




Internal hardware aside, what else could be the problem....... i know its not the battery, or a power surge since the whole computer wouldnt work if that happened.
I am also 90% sure its not a hardware failure, since this same exact thing happened 2 months ago and it basically corrected itself within the matter of a day........
Any other ides why this is happening?
 
Originally posted by: EvilRage
Have you tried popping in a bootable CD to see if the computer will boot from your optical drive?
Click to expand...

Yes, and its not a boot problem

nothing shows up, not even the OEM screen for the BIOS, or anything else (meaning its not a problem of windows loading, or of the hdd being disconnected, because the OEM screen would still show even without a hdd)
 
Last time I had beepign problems with my laptop (IBM T43) I had a bad stick of 512 ram. Took it out and it booted up fine, just a suggestion.
 
Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
Last time I had beepign problems with my laptop (IBM T43) I had a bad stick of 512 ram. Took it out and it booted up fine, just a suggestion.
Click to expand...

Thanks, ill take out a stick and see how that works (tomorrow night of course)


any other suggestions while im at it?
 
Maybe the LCD backlight/inverter is going out? If you shine a strong external light (lamp, flashlight) on the monitor can you see the desktop underneath?

If this is the case, it may help to shutdown the laptop, disconnect all external devices, mouse, power cable, ethernet cable, everything.

Then start the system with all the external devices disconnected. When the system starts again, the backlight may work this time and the external devices can then be reconnected.
 
Originally posted by: birdpup
Maybe the LCD backlight/inverter is going out? If you shine a strong external light (lamp, flashlight) on the monitor can you see the desktop underneath?

If this is the case, it may help to shutdown the laptop, disconnect all external devices, mouse, power cable, ethernet cable, everything.

Then start the system with all the external devices disconnected. When the system starts again, the backlight may work this time and the external devices can then be reconnected.
Click to expand...



Nope, the screen is completely dark, and there is no sign of any illumination

basically, its the same as if there is a mobo error on a computer, such as if you didnt connect the P4 power connector and the system eill come on, but it wont "run"
 
Originally posted by: BigCoolJesus
Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
Last time I had beepign problems with my laptop (IBM T43) I had a bad stick of 512 ram. Took it out and it booted up fine, just a suggestion.
Click to expand...

Thanks, ill take out a stick and see how that works (tomorrow night of course)


any other suggestions while im at it?
Click to expand...


test each stick 1 by 1, don't just take out one stick. i hope you aren't that dumb 😛
 
With the black screen but a booting machine, it sounds as if the problem is related to one of three things:

1. Your LCD panel backlight has burned out (yes this does happen, though you'd have to use it a lot in two years) or the inverter has given out, meaning the backlight won't light, meaning you can't see anything on the LCD because the panel itself does not generate light.

2. A cable is loose within the casing, most likely the VGA cable that connects the LCD panel to the motherboard, meaning a signal isn't reaching the panel, thus no image.

3. Your video card is on the way out, usually a result of overheating, and thus no signal to the LCD, and no image, but the machine will still sound like it is booting.

I've never run into a laptop that is impossible to open up, they had to put it together somehow, oftentimes placing screws beneath padded feet (stuck on with glue) or underneat components such as the keyboard like others have noted. It doesn't sound like you're going to be able to solve this without figuring out how to see a bit more of the inside of the machine.
 
Yea, thanks CraKaJaX, definatly didnt know to do that already 😕
(sarcasm)


and Ill check out the LCD screen some more, but i am pretty sure this isnt the problem, as if the screen itself was still dead, id still be able to boot into windows and hear the windows sounds when it loads (and eassentially restart it via control+alt+delete), which hasnt happened

Like i said, this exact same problem happened two months ago and it somehow was corrected within a matter of hours for no apparent reason (i didnt do anything and it was fine later on that day)
 
If it has a connector for an external monitor, plug one in and see if you can get video on that.

You will likely have to press a couple keys to get the monitor port to turn on.
 
Ok, so i finally had time to access the RAM today, and i took out the first stick (both are 512MB sticks, running dual channel) and with just the one stick in it worked perfectly

I then took out that stick and replaced it with the one i already had out (to see if it was a defective stick) and it worked again.

Then i put both sticks back in and it worked yet again



So why did it give me this boot trouble when both sticks work fine?

all i did was take them out and put them back in, why would this possibly fix my problem?



Im stumped (but glad its working now)
 
based n what you said here, sounds like poor contact integrity
laptops are subject to more temperature differential and pollution and condensation on things like contact tabs
 
some sort of crud may of built up on the contacts and by removing and reinserting them it was cleaned off. or, a module was loose because of jarring or thermal expansion/contraction.
 
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