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 30th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Hello every,
I have got a 5 yr old Acer TravelMate 2304NLC laptop, since last three days I am having the same above mentioned problem ( On POWER up, Power LED keeps glowing, fan starts and stop, but no Vid on the screen, laptop keep to blank and nothing happen afterward,)
It seems theres no problem with the power as Power LED keeps glowing and i can open/close the DVD drive also.
I have already back panel and cleaned up near fan, and memory bay, hard disk bay. but the problem is still the same.
The only thing left as i have read in the above post, is to disconnect the LCD panel now.
Can any one please give me any idea, how to do that. Do I have to Open up the complete motherboard to get access to solution mentioned in the above post.
Awaiting responses,
Noren Das @ gmail
July 6th, 2010 at 11:16 am
I need some help becuase my brain is hurting from all the troubleshooting that I’ve tried. I have a Toshiba Satellite A75 and it starts up fine past the BIOS and Windows screen but when it gets to the desktop, it shuts itself down.
I’ve charged it with the adapter, it starts up fine again but then when it gets to the desktop, an icon pops up and says something about the battery and switch to outlet power.
I’ve taking the battery out the laptop,used the laptop with the adapter, turned it off, charged the battery overnight, switched it back on and it still does the same thing.
The video is fine, the fans are fine, i’ve used a can of air and sprayed the fans, i’m using a cooling pad so it doesnt overheat.
I dont know what the problem is…is it my power adapter (its a universal one), the battery, the motherboard???
Please help aleviate my headache
March 19th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Hello, I thought I had fixed a friends Gateway T1620 AMD Turion 64 x2 laptop last night that was having video problems (overheating I believe). Cleaned out dust from heatsink and reseated heat sink with arctic silver. Laptop ran fine all night doing updates, surfing and even running prime95. The laptop put itself to sleep during the night.
This morning though it looked like it has turned itself off during the night (when it was supposed to be sleeping).
I managed once more to boot into windows OK, then shut down.
Next tried again to startup and have discovered that I can only get into the BIOS, but trying to go any further will cause the laptop to click and shut down.
Does being able to be in the BIOS indicated a good CPU? does the BIOS require the RAM to be good? Just trying to think of troubleshooting steps from here.
Thanks for any suggestions.
-Paul
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.....38;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.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Thanks. Had the exact symptons. Played with the video connection and it is working again. For how long remains to be seen.
Thanks again!
October 17th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I have a Gateway M350 notebook the problem is cannot use AC
ADAPTER so start on the other hand i can start it with battery
Is this mahine ia battery dependent one or something wrong
please give me some sort of help would be appreciated.
September 20th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Tricia,
I don’t think that your problem is related to the screen. Sounds more like a power related problem.
It’s possible that you have a failed AC adapter and the battery doesn’t have enough charge to start the laptop.
Can you test the laptop with another AC adapter. That would be the first thing to try.