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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April 12th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I have a dell inspiron 700m, last night i dropped it on the side that the dvd/cd drive is on. when i power the computer on, it seems to load fine except the screen does not come on. any sugguestions on what could be wrong or how to fix it? thanks.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Heidi,
Sounds like a problem with the motherboard. I think they are right.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Karissa,
Yes, it could happen with any computer. If the laptop is still under warranty, I wouldn’t open up the case myself.
Here’s what you can do to access the hard drive and backup all personal data.
1. Buy an external use enclosure for notebook hard drives
2. Remove the hard drive from the laptop and install it into the enclosure
3. Connect the enclosure to any other working computer via USB cable
4. The hard drive should be detected automatically
5. Access the hard drive and backup data
March 29th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Victor,
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.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
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?
March 26th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
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
March 24th, 2007 at 9:47 am
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
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:35 am
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
March 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
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
March 8th, 2007 at 9:34 am
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?