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 8th, 2007 at 7:52 am
i have a dell inspiron 2650 i’m working on the the situation was you plug it in try to turn it on and it would blink for a sec then shut down the know good power supply (the lite on the power brick would turn off!)- so i figured to get a cheap used motherboard off ebay- so i picked one up well this one will work for like a day then shut off- the fan will come on for a second all leds light up then just the power one is lit- tried all the usual troubleshooting tips swap out the ram disconnect all drives- hook up external monitor – no video there either- swap out the video card (its separate on this model) i don’t have an extra cpu so it could be that- anyone have a tip for fixing either of these 2 motherboards- sometimes if i reseat the cpu and reseat all the connectors it will work for a day or so- any tips or info would be great- i don’t wanna shell out a couple hundred dollars for a known working mainboard this computer isn’t worth it
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 am
I had the SAME dell, with the SAME issue, mine turned out to be the video connector on the MB, unplugged it from the MB, used external video and worked, so i reseated the video, and good as new!.. thanks for the post!.
April 29th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Rachael,
It shouldn’t break the computer.
You said the laptop was broken a week ago, maybe it actually hasn’t been fixed and the BSOD error you are getting now is related to the previous problem?
First of all test the hard drive and run the memory test. You can use Hitachi’s drive fitness test for the HDD and Memtest86+ for the memory. You’ll find both links on the right side in Resources.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
ok well; i pressed the power button while my computer was starting up and now it wont turn on.
and when it goes to the screen where you choose how to run windows cause it wasnt turned off properly, i choose what it says and it goes to a blue screen which disapears to fast for me to read. it sucks..
cause it was broken like a week ago… and i broke it AGAIN.
my parents like hate me!
any ideas?
April 29th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Eyolf,
Not sure what is causing the problem, probably you still have a loose connection somewhere inside the laptop. Did you reseat the CPU? Did you actually open up the display assembly and reseat the video cable on the back of the LCD screen, not just on the motherboard?
Here’s what I would try.
Unplug the laptop display panel from the motherboard and test the laptop with an external monitor. If the laptop works fine with the external monitor and never fails when the LCD is unplugged but it fails when the LCD is plugged back into the motherboard, the problem is somewhere inside the display panel.
If the laptop fails with the external monitor even when the LCD is unplugged from the motherboard, probably there is a loose connection somewhere on the motherboard.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:53 am
Great site!
I have a very similar problem as in the original article:
Compaq nx5000, followed me to the ground in a stumbling accident after I was attacked by a vicious sidewalk. I feared the worst, both for my knee and the computer, but it worked – until my knee was good enough to move three days later, and when I tried to turn it on (the laptop, that is), the behaviour was exactly as described in the post:
- fan starts
- HD led (#4 from left) lights up
- computer power-offs
- orange power led (#3 from left) blinks and goes off.
I followed the suggestions above, took the whole thing apart, more or less, at least up until the screen and the memory modules.
Here are the results:
- Most times, nothing happens
- Once, this was after I had taken off the screen, the three green leds on the top went on and the computer started. I had then forgotten to put in the PCI card, so it wouldn’t boot, but there was hope…
- … but on the next attempt, it was black again.
- Once, a number of attempts later, the green leds momentarily blinked on just before it shut down again.
- Once, I actually managed to get into the computer with an external display. Everything worked, and I backed up the past few days’ work. Phew….
- Next attempt: black again. And again. And again.
- until I had given up and assembled the whole thing again, to bring it to repair, and I pressed the button one last time — and it went on.
And that’s where I am right now. I don’t think I’ll turn it off again, although I will have to do something about it.
It seems very erratic when it works and when it doesn’t. At first I thought it must be the screen (it seemed to have taken some beating in the fall; the right hinge was a bit looser than it used to), but now it’s working just fine. I’ve looked for loose connectors and tried to reassemble various cards, but I can’t find anything that seems wrong.
What are the odds that it can be fixed, by me or some official repair guy? Any ideas what it can be?
April 16th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Jennifer,
If the laptop was dropped and doesn’t work properly anymore, I would recommend checking all cables and reseating all connectors first. It’s possible that one of the cables inside the laptop got loose and that’s why the screen doesn’t come on. I would check the video cable first. Unfortunately, it will be necessary to take the laptop apart and if you have no experience fixing laptops, do not open the case.
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