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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March 12th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Kenny Hendrick,
In order to start any laptop with video you’ll need only few major parts: motherboard, video card (if it’s a separate module), CPU and memory. Most laptops have integrated video card and they need only motherboard, CPU (with heatsink/fan) and memory.
If you connect all these three pats together and all these parts in good working condition, you should be able to start the laptop with video, at least get the logo. Make sure all three parts are properly connected, reseat the memory module.
In your case the laptop starts but there is no video, so it’s either memory (check first), CPU (fails rarely) or motherboard (fails often). I would say memory – the best case scenario bad connection or bad memory, the worst case scenario – bad motherboard.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
p.s….this is the second time i’ve taken it all apart but this time it’s a few steps further…there’s never been video out of this machine since it arrived (phew).
March 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Hello and many thanks for this website…
I have a relatively new laptop that came in here R3430 and all the lights come on all over the machine but nothing out of video and nothing out of the crt connection even with the lcd disconnected….I’ve taken every screw out of the unit….i’m surrounded by parts and trust god to put all this crap together later….anyway, I was wondering what the worst and best scenarios would be here…after reading some of the posts here I feel it’s moot taking apart the screen itself (it’s already disconnected….everything is disconnected)….
Thanks for your time.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
BobH,
Maybe the repair guy forgot to apply thermal compound on the processor and the laptop overheats? This would explain why the fans running fast right from the startup.
I think this problem may be related to overheating too.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
What do you think of this? Compaq Presario 2103US had a bad power jack. I had it repaired about 10 months ago. It failed again about a month ago. The computer could not be powered on or charged. I had another guy repair it a week ago. After that, the battery can be charged with the computer turned off. If I power it on, the computer starts to boot and, at least on the first try, shows the Compaq logo and a line that says, “Press ESC to change boot order, F2 to enter setup, etc.” Then the computer just shuts down.
During this brief power-on period, the fan is running fast, as if the computer had become hot from having vents blocked. There is air flowing out both fan areas in the back, though. If I power on again, I might get the Compaq logo but not the “Press ESC…” line. I have to wait awhile for that to come back. With the battery removed, the power-up is the same, but no logo.
I tried reseating the memory modules. No help. Why isn’t it booting up?
February 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I was working on my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite S2410 (I know its old…can’t afford a new one >.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Darius,
I think this can be memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module. Replace it with a known good memory stick and test the laptop again.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:45 am
C.A. Salmon,
I assume the new battery is good and it’s not the problem. Just in case, you can try re-flashing the BIOS.
If you have the same problem with a known good battery then most likely you problem is related to the motherboard. I doubt that you can fix the motherboard yourself on the component level. You’ll have to replace the motherboard or use the laptop as is.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I have an old laptop one day I turned it on it was saying : system error check some file and the windows didn`t started I restarted it and the screen was black no backlight but the laptop was working i pluged it in to an external monitor and the same thing happend please help me
February 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I recently purchased an Alienware Aurora m7700 off eBay and was told ahead of time that that battery did not hold a charge. After purchasing a new battery off eBay and swapping the two, I was surprised by the lack of change. My computer tells me it has a battery and will even charge, but when the AC cord is unplugged, it simply goes dead. I now believe that it is not a problem with the batteries, but rather a problem with the motherboard.
Symptoms: Notebook acts like desktop, incapable of powering up when unplugged.
Any suggestions on how I move forward and fix this?