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

Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?

HP Compaq laptop manuals

 

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217 Responses to “Laptop turns on for a few seconds and then shuts down. No video appears on the screen.”

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  1. 67
    cj2600 Says:

    Victor,

    In other cases it boots and in the boot process or after boot the laptop freezes and in the display appears malformed images something like colored squares or lines.

    Test the laptop with an external monitor. If the same images and colored squares appear on the external video, most likely you have a problem with the graphics card (integrated into the motherboard) or memory (integrated into the motherboard too).
    If you have any extra memory stick installed and test the laptop only with base memory. If the same problem appears, I would say you have a motherboard problem.
    If this Satellite A75 was purchased in the United States, take it to an authorized repair center. You can get a free repair because Toshiba extended warranty for this model.

  2. 66
    Heidi Says:

    I have an IBM Thinkpad that will turn on, but the screen stays black (dead). The fan whirs loudly in a pulse-like rhythm.

    I took it to a local computer-repair shop and they said my best bet was to buy a new laptop. (They said it might be the motherboard, but weren’t sure.) I’m not sure that they’re very experienced… Any other suggestions?

  3. 65
    Karissa Says:

    I have a floor display model, Toshiba Satellite M50 that I bought Jan. 26 at Best Buy, and I am having similar problems. It froze up for me when I was surfing the internet from my couch instead of my office desk (Maybe too much jiggling).

    When I went to restart it, it wouldn’t shut off so I unplugged it and removed the battery like I have had to do before. Then it wouldn’t start. The fan would run, the power lights would come on then it wouldn’t do anything. No sound or monitor. I took it to the Geek Squad and the guy there said that it probably was the motherboard and it needed to be sent to the Geek Squad Lab to have it replaced and have it back in 2 weeks IF they had the correct one, otherwise they would have to order it from Toshiba and it could take up to 6 weeks. All under manufactures warranty but I have to pay $50 shipping.

    I run a business from home and all my important info is on it. I can’t have it gone that long! So I had them do an unlimited data retrieval which cost another $150 since I have more then 10GB. I have a back up from when I transferred computers in January and did a partial back up in Feb. but I have gain 17 new clients since then and haven’t had time or remembered to do a back up.

    Tonight I found out about http://www.datadepositbox.com which looks GREAT for in the future since it makes backups when the computer is inactivate, all day long!
    I am also going to try to put everything online that I can so that this won’t be an issue again.

    So my question is,
    Would it be the same for my computer? I didn’t see any posts that said if it happens to different models.
    Thanks

  4. 64
    Victor Says:

    Helo
    This site is greate, thanks so much for this wanderful job.
    I have a problem whit my frend’s laptop is an toshiba A75
    the prblem is:
    In a few cases : Laptop turns on for a few seconds and then shuts down. No video appears on the screen. I do what your say in this page but still the same problem.
    In other cases it boots and in the boot proccess or after boot the laptop freez and in the display apears malformed images something like colored squares or lines.
    i check DC adapter and connecter and both is ok, check a cooling sistem and work “fine”.
    in this step i don’t know what else i can do.
    Thank you a lot for help

  5. 63
    Rob Says:

    Same problem here with an HP nc6000. Came on all of the sudden. I will try re-seating, but I have no experience disassembling a laptop and recognizing the parts :(

  6. 62
    Dan Says:

    Hi i have the same problem with an HP DV1000, sometimes when i boot it, it’ll power up and will do nothing. not even the BIOS will show. then sometimes it’ll shut off after a few secs like the first guy said. I looked inside for any loose cables and think i put everything in properly. It won’t boot with external or normal screen. I still think it’s the video like the first guy said. i just can’t find what you mean by “reseating the video card” i can’t find a card it’s just the motherboard, help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

  7. 61
    KEITH Says:

    I have a HP Pavilion n5000 notebook. It does the exact same thing as the first entry above. If the power button is pushed it runs a fan for a few seconds and then shuts off. I discovered that if the CD/DVD drawer was open that the computer would boot up normally. When the drawer was pushed in the computer would shut off. I replaced the CD/DVD drive (a Mashita UJDA710) with a new one and was pleased when the computer booted up normally. My elation was dampered when I inserted a CD disk into the drive and closed the drawer. The computer shut off immediately. I’m stumped. I could get a USB CD drive and use that, but I’d like to fix this problem. Ever seen this before or have any suggestions?

  8. 60
    cj2600 Says:

    bonnie flaig,

    I have a problem with the piece located on the back that the ac adapter plugs into. It was not making a connection and I fooled with it and made it worse. Where do I find a replacement part and what is it called.

    This part is called “Power jack”, “AC jack” or “DC-IN jack” and you can find it on eBay. But it’s not easy to replace it. Most likely the power jack is soldered on the motherboard and you’ll have to take the laptop apart, remove the motherboard and resolder the power jack.

  9. 59
    Hermanus Says:

    I can’t actually even get into windows to get as far as system restore, no safe mode or anything. Also, why do you think the one laptop would be working fine now? And the 3rd laptop was working fine with new updates until I hooked it up to the network.

  10. 58
    cj2600 Says:

    Hermanus,
    Maybe your problem somehow related to the latest Windows update? Do you set your computers to update automatically? Try reverting the operating system back to the previous state using the system restore utility and see if the problem disappears.

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