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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December 20th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Hello
I have a fujistu siemens notebook and everything was working fine, one day when i turned it on, the lcd is white and the computers boots normally, but nothing appears on the screen except the white color, if i press the button to dark the image that white color becomes darker, if I plug it to an external monitor the external monitor works fine but the notebook LCD keeps white, does anyone know what’s wrong? Please help me guys
December 19th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I have an inspiron 5000e and i have a prblem with it.It started earlier this year.It all of a sudden just started shutting on and then in a few seconds it shut down.I have tried many things,i took off all the parts to see if anything was wrong.Nothing was wrong so i took off the battery n left the ac adaptor in to see if it would work, but it stil didnt.i need help badly. it would be a pleasure to get help and see my laptop working again.
December 18th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
John,
Here’s a guide for taking apart a Toshiba Satellite A15-S127 notebook. You can see the CMOS battery (green) pictured on the step 23, it’s located close to the power jack. You can find a new CMOS (RTC) battery if you search on the interntet by the part number: P000377300
December 16th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I have a Toshiba A15-S127 that has worked fine for me even though the battery does not stay charged very long. Recently I tried to turnit on and the power light came on but nothing else happened. I checked all modules as best I could but found nothing loose. The last time it booted I got a CMOS settings lost which I associated with the battery being low. I cannot find any information about the MB to see if it has an old-fashioned CMOS battery. My basic problem is the power works but nothing runs, boot or fans. Any Ideas?
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:25 pm
qhozi,
Have you tried contacting the manufacturer and buy a new fan from them?
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:23 pm
insp93,
Enter the BIOS setup and see if you can change any settings for video in there. If there is an option “load default settings” go for it. Try upgrading/reflashing the BIOS.
December 2nd, 2006 at 4:55 am
hai.my old laptop(twinhead slimnote vxe) have a problem.hope you all can help me how to solve that problem.the problem is my laptop always turn off after 30-45 minute running.i open the casing and my cpu fans was dead.i’ve chang that cpu fan with fan with same size.but the problem is my cpu fan have 3 wire.red,black and yellow but my new fan with same size have 2 wires.just black and red.
November 30th, 2006 at 7:36 am
I bought a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop. The problem is only when operating with the battery, the video shuts off. The Windows XP logo is seen as it boots up, but then the video shuts off. Only the WiFi light is on and the Power (1st light) is ON, on the base of the lid.
Tried all software settings (set most to ‘Never’). Did diagnostics etc., Still it wont stay on.
It works fine with AC adapter.
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:52 pm
You were spot on with that solution, brilliant.
Must be a common problem with that series.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge
October 9th, 2006 at 7:32 am
I recently had a problem with my A60 Toshiba (overheating) as most people have. So i found a website which explained how to open the laptop up and clean it out but when i opened it up (100 scres later) it would not come fully apart (think it was cd drive stopping it). Realised i was out of my depth, put it back together, switched it on and the machine was switching on but the screen was blank (black). I obiously must of broke dissconnected something but dont know hat to do. Please Help