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 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
October 7th, 2006 at 1:06 am
I’m posting again, i posted earlier on page 2. My compaq has officially died. Like i stated before, It turns on for maybe 2-3 seconds, then shuts off. Before every so often it would turn on, and run fine for as long as i left it turned on. It did seem a little sluggish sometimes though. It’s a compaq 2ghz, 1 gig of ram. Last night i took the thing apart as far as i could figure out. i took both ram chips out, swapped tried each separte, no help. I pulled the LCD completely out of the computer, and disconnected and reconnected every connector i saw hoping for a stroke of luck. Still the same symptom. I dropped my computer off to be configured for our network, and they told me my NIC card wasn’t reading correctly, so i bought an external usb one to try, but never made it that far yet. I have had an issue with using my Wireless NIC, it would freeze while trying to install software for it ( this was before the current problem) i’m just throwing out there everything i can think of. I’m not sure what else to try. i had the hard drive out, the battery out, and tried it with the battery out. I couldn’t get the main part of the laptop in half, i didn’t want to break it, though i did feel like bashing it many times. Basically i’m writing because i’m deployed in the desert and i’ve got nothing else to passt he time besides this laptop on occasions so if i can rig this thing or fix it somehow, that would be great. I just need it to last for another two months. Thanks for the help. I appreciate any ideas and replacement ideas for the laptop, or parts.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Paul,
I don’t think that you can attach the broken nut with a regular solder. I’m not familiar with Alienware laptops. Toshiba laptops have nuts glued into a hole on the motherboard, I guess Alienware uses the same technique, not sure though.
If you can easily access the video card under the keyboard, you can try this. Lift up the keyboard, press on the video card so it makes a better connection and turn on the laptop while you are still pressing on the card. Does it make any difference?
October 4th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Cheers cj, really appreciate it, will be sure to try all of your ideas. If I take my latop to an internet cafe I can chekily book a private booth and hook it up to their monitor to see if that works, and then try out everything else you said.
If I understand correctly your saying that by detaching the display assembly by just taking the video cable out of the motherboard and then attaching an external monitor I will thus determine whether the problem involves the display or not.
however the plot thickens, I noticed a couple of days ago when I removed the video card that one of the 4 nuts that the video card assembly screws into has broken off the motherboard. Basically their are two connecting strips for the video card on the board with 2 screws each, one at either end. The screws hold the video card and fan to the board connectors. thus one of the nuts not being there means the card is not firmly attached to one end of one of the board connections.
So before I do anything else I think I should solder the nut back onto the board (I found it down the side of the board), since this seems the most likely problem, if this dosn’t fix it then I can stat trying everything else.
Should I be concerned about damaging the board if I start soldering? Presumably if I use as little as possible and apply it very carefully the the nut it should be fine. Can you think of any obvious things I should be minful of etc. Also, to connect it tightly I probably need to somehow remove the solder still attached to the board, since it is preventing a snug fit. Not entirely sure how to go about this.
I’m also concerned that I have broken this nut of once I started messing with the laptop! and so the reason it is not turning on is something else, which would make me an idiot. Nontheless i think there’s little point doing anything else till this is fixed, process of elimination and all…
thanks again