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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July 24th, 2008 at 9:41 am
CJ2600
The problem you were talking about with samuel, i have the same one!
Do you have a solution for it?
July 9th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Dear friends,
I have Compaq Presario V3000,
Problem: when i press power button, power indicator was sucessfully but screen doesn’t show any thing. laptop goes on untill battry will empty.
This problem happened on same laptop before 2 month. that time I given in service center. they told out of warrenty, and you need to replace your mother board to solve this problem. they given 15000/- repairing quotation for me.
after that I get my laptop and came to home.
that time I press power button. but problem still in laptop due to mother board problem. but one time I was started my laptop without battery. that laptop gose on sucessfully.
I shocked. they given me wrong quotation.
but right now I’m facing same problem, but previous trick couldn’t work.
SEND ME YOUR SUGESSION @
wordbox5@gmail.com
Thanks,
June 26th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Hi, I have exactly the same problem mentioned at the top except that the laptop is HP Compa nc6000.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Samuel,
You said that the laptop screen works for 10 minutes. Does it mean that during that time the laptop works normally and you can see normal desktop on the screen? After the screen goes blank, is it completely dark or you still can see the backlight? Can you see a very dim image if you look at the screen very closely?
Did you test your laptop with an external monitor? Will it go blank the same way as video on the laptop LCD?
June 24th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
i have a thinkpas ibm laptop that boots and displays for 10min and after tha goes blank and when it comes up again, it boots all over again and this displays nothing on the screen. pls what should i do
May 25th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Hello
please I need to get knowledge where to find this LCD screen assembly in my nx5000 hp compaq laptop (by pictures if possible)
Thanks
May 21st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
My NX5000 has a slightly different problem – boots OK but the built-in screen displays only the faintest image, then fades completely. An external monitor works fine. Is this problem likely to be the connectors to the screen, or the screen itself?
Any help appreciated
May 11th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Just a small update, one year later. I got a new laptop from work, so I didn’t bother to pursue the issue any further; if I desperately needed to boot the old one — the compaq nx5000 I had trouble with (it has a better sound card than the new one) — I’d press “on” until it started: usually after about 20-50 attempts.
Today, I had some spare time, and I took the whole thing apart, down to the system board — loosened and put back in again every connection I could find — and when I had put everything back together again — … it worked as new. I’ve tried a couple of times now, and it seems to be permanent. Then again, that’s probably what Adam thought too….
Just thought I’d let you know.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I had a power issue with the plug not seating very well, so took the cover off to see if I could get to the plug. Found out I couldn’t very well, so put it back together (I only took the heat sink out and cleaned it while it was out) and when I turned it on the fans started up, then shut off. The display never turned on. Didn’t have either of those problems before, just a mostly dead battery and a ac/dc adapter plug that would make a loose connection on the computer. Any thoughts? I’m willing to try the memory card first. Hopefully it’s not the motherboard…
March 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 5601. I updated the system drivers direct from the Acer website. After that, the system froze. I had to shut it down manually and now it does nothing. THe power button does nothing. I won’t power up on battery or AC Power. I tried everything to decipher the problem. If any knows how to fix it or has a diagram of how to take apart the system, please get back to me. Thanks!