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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May 3rd, 2011 at 8:19 am
The adapter looks fine and there’s plenty battery power. I don’t know what caused something like this to happen, I was just watching a movie and then the screen turned blurry and froze. I shut it down manually and every time I turn it on it just shuts down and turns on in a cycle.
May 3rd, 2011 at 7:53 am
jamesw746,
Did you test your AC adapter?
It’s possible your AC adapter failed and the battery doesn’t have enough charge to start the laptop.
Maybe it’s just failed adapter. You can test your AC adapter with a voltmeter. Make sure the adapter outputs correct voltage.
May 3rd, 2011 at 6:48 am
My problem is exactly like yours only when I tried an external monitor nothing showed up on it. So in this case could the problem be something else?
April 9th, 2011 at 9:57 am
hi i have tried to
disaasemble the whole laptop static discharge didnt help
memory changed still the machine will not turn on
January 30th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
james manion,
It’s not very clear. Do you get garbled image only on the laptop screen or the image garbled on both, the internal and external monitors?
If images is garbled on both internal and external monitors, this is graphics card failure.
January 30th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
RAY TRAVIS,
It’s hard to tell what is causing the problem because it’s not a common failure.
When I’m not sure which part is failing, I disassemble the laptop to bare bone system (motherboard, video card, CPU and memory) and test in basic configuration. If it still fails, I start replacing parts one by one until find the faulty component.
If the system works in basic configuration, I start adding parts one by one until the laptop fails again. Most likely the last added part is not good.
January 24th, 2011 at 5:26 am
now when i turn it on it stays running fast like a car with a high idle when it slows down then the laptop turns on the screen
January 24th, 2011 at 5:02 am
Hello
Good pic on external monitor but When i hook up more than one thing to my usb ports or use something powereful in the usb port the color on the screen on the external monitor crumbles
and falls apart Is that the video card even if i pres down on the mouse which dont work anyhow the color changes
video card seperate from motherboard Would a bad motherboard cause all that other than video card 2nd video card
January 21st, 2011 at 9:42 am
hello
i m defintely getting that video course you have soon Good idea
Question
i have this laptop 450sx4 i sent away for amotherboard and the laptop turned on where previously it didnt
But the laptop gets hot and all of a sudden the video gets garbled like its gone to pieces is that the video card or a troubled motherboard Great pic on external monitor except for the garbled Well what happened is that after i put a external hardrive to the usb port then the garbling started and some time it would stay at the welcome screen
Now its on the desktop screen fine intermitten problem does it sound like a motherboard
if i do something like hook something up to the usb ports etc it starts up what is the dc control board
December 8th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Hello,
I just have a small question.
How do you connect to an external monitor to check if the lcd is the source of the problem ?
do you have to disconect the lcd screen in the rear of the lcd and just plug the vga output to an external monitor ?
Thank you