Today I was able to fix a “dead” notebook simply by reseating connectors. The customer brought in Compaq nx5000 notebook with the following complaint:
“Laptop shuts down on power up. When the power button is pushed, the laptop flashes green lights for several seconds and then powers down. Unit will not stay on with battery or when plugged in”.
I plugged the AC adapter and tried to turn on the laptop. After I pushed on the power button, fans started spinning and were active for a few seconds and laptop just turned itself off. The video never came on. I tried to power it on for a few times with the same result.
Here is how I fixed it.
First of all I tried simple stuff: remove the battery and start the laptop with AC adapter plugged in, reseat and swap the memory module, remove the hard drive, the DVD drive, the wireless card. Nothing helped to start the laptop normally. After that I went a little bit further. I opened up the laptop case, removed the LCD screen assembly and reseated the video card and… Surprise, surprise, the laptop started fine with an external monitor attached. Just in case I restarted it 3-4 times and each time I got video on the screen. After I assembled everything back, one more surprise was waiting for me. The laptop failed to boot again with the same symptoms. So, the only part that I added before it failed was the LCD screen assembly. I unplugged the video cable from the system board and the laptop started fine again with the external monitor. Now I know that the problem is somewhere inside the display assembly (of course, if the video connector on the system board is fine). The next logical step would be opening up the LCD display assembly and check if all connectors are seated properly. Bingo!!! I wasn’t very surprised, but I was very happy. The video cable was half-way out from the connector on the back of the LCD screen. The laptop started perfectly fine as soon as I plugged the video cable back in place. Fixed!
That was my first experience when improperly plugged video cable prevented entire system from booting.
Read more:
How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
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January 20th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Just fixed my IBM T42p (~6 years old) by reseating the memory module. I’ve had the same startup problems (no video, but fan and battery and power lights) for about a year; every time that happens (~once a week), I use IBM’s mystical “static discharge” procedure (remove AC adapter and battery, press and release power button 10 times, then hold for 30 – 60 seconds) to bring my machine back to life. It worked pretty well… until today, when it took a really long time to start up, then powered off and wouldn’t turn back on (although each time I tried I’d get the fan and a couple lights). A couple times when trying to turn it on it gave me “Four cycles of four short beeps and a blank screen.”, which indicates: “System board (Security chip)” http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....46018.html
Lenovo offered out of warranty repair (~$500), but I searched around a bit and “the reseating of the ram worked like a charm!!”
http://forum.thinkpads.com/vie.....mp;start=0
December 21st, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop, when plugged in, the battery light goes green, but when I try to turn it on, all the lights and everything goes on, but no noise or anything on the screen. I’ve tried everything, everybody says it will turn on if you press the power button followed by the keys f9 and f10, and stuff like that, it hasn’t worked. I was wondering if somebody could please help me! I’m desperate! I have an old toshiba, and it works fine, could I maybe use some of thoes parts to fix it? please help!!!
Thanks,
Daisy
November 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
kp,
This could be memory related failure. Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one. Test the laptop with each memory module installed into different slots.
Will it work properly with only one memory module in place?
Also, listen for the cooling fan. Does it work at all? Maybe the cooling fan failed and the laptop freezes because of overheating.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
For the past couple of days now my ibm thinkpad T41 series is giving a set of problems ,whenever i put it on it will run for 5 minutes and it would just freeze and if turn off will not start , i will have to remove the battery and wait for a few minutes then install back the battery . This sometimes would not work . Could you please assist me with this problem . I’m from Guyana . PLEASE HELP ME I’M BEGGING YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE .Your trully KP.