A few days ago I had to repair a notebook with symptoms that didn’t look like a hard drive failure at all. But the problem was fixed after I replace the hard drive.
It was Toshiba Satellite A70-S249 notebook with the following problem.
When I press on the power button, the laptop starts up as usual and a red Toshiba logo appears on the screen. After a moment the logo disappears and the screen turns black without any faint image and flashing cursor. The blue light around the power button stays on and fans continue to spin normal but nothing appears on the screen. I noticed that the hard drive LED blinks green on the startup and after that shows no activity at all. After a closer inspection I noticed that the screen is not completely black (like dead black), it didn’t have any image on it but it had a very faint backlight (I would say about 3-5% of normal brightness). I was able to see that there is some backlight after I pressed on the lid close switch and the screen turned to completely black.
Here are my troubleshooting steps that I went through to find the problem.
First of all, I replaced the memory module and didn’t get any changes. Removed the wireless card, still had the same problem.
After that I removed the hard drive and started the computer. This time I got something. The notebook successfully passed the Toshiba screen and started looking for a boot device. I got some activity on the screen. To make sure that the notebook itself works fine, I booted it from Knoppix (live Linux CD) and successfully loaded the Linux operating system to the desktop. So, that’s the hard drive problem!
I installed the hard drive back in the laptop and tried to boot it again. The same failure occurred again; I got a black screen with a very faint backlight and no hard drive activity at all. I tested the hard drive with Hitachi DFT test and failed an advanced test. The problem is detected!
Finally I installed a new hard drive, reimaged the drive with a recovery DVD and got the laptop back up and running.
By the way, even though the customer’s hard drive failed the DFT test, I still was able to access it from another computer. The customer had important personal files on the failed drive. I connected it to our recovery desktop computer using IDE adapter. The “failed” hard drive was detected without any problem and I was able to recover the data.
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December 16th, 2010 at 2:56 am
Yes, I tried to use only one memory module, changed with a new module but the problem still the same.
I know that the problem is motherboard but I should know where is the problem!
I tried also to clear CMOS but there is nothing to do.
I measured voltages on the voltage reg. inside and I have 5 volts, 3,3volts and a strange 7 volts, what is used for?!
I should have also 12volts but I cannot find it.
Thank you
December 14th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Ivan,
Did you try known good memory module? Because this could be memory failure.
Also, if you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and test laptop separately with each one.
If replacing/swapping memory doesn’t help, most likely this is motherboard failure.
December 13th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Hi, I have an Acer 5720 notebook with a strange problem.
It turns on, power LED on, fan on but black screen (even with external monitor) and the strange thing is that hard disk does not spin at all and cdrom have the LED always on and if I press eject does not work.
I tried also the motherboard alone without any other card installed, so no wifi, no modem, no pcmcia, no hard disk, no cdrom, nothing, only RAM and the problem still present.
Please let me know what do you think.
Thank you
November 9th, 2010 at 8:46 am
hi…i do know what happened wif my laptop.
it happened several times, n until now no one can fix it.
can u help me in solving this prob;
when i pushed the power button, there was nothing on the screen..
-blank-
n all the lights, such as power button, WIFI signal light, battery light, etc-all the light are blink blink..
please help me if u know.thank u so much.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Daniel,
Will it work properly in VGA mode?
Can you try Last Known Good Configuration?
Also, you can try using System Restore. Boot the laptop in Safe Mode, access System Restore and revert OS back to the time when it was working properly.
I think it’s possible. You can download and run hard drive test utility. I usually use SeaTools from Seagate, it works fine for many different hard drive brands.
Download this utility, burn it on a CD, boot the laptop from the CD and run Long hard drive test.
If errors detected, you’ll have to replace the hard drive and reinstall Windows from scratch.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:05 am
Hi,
I have a ASUS laptop and since yesterday it freezes after Vista starts up. I can access SAFE MODE though without any problem.
When it happenned I got blue screen with saying someting like “your computer will be stopped to prevent damage to your hard drive”, then after restart I got message that there isn’t bootable drive, so I switched it off and on and Vista started normally however it freezes every time.
Do you think it is faulty hard drive?
Thank you,
Daniel
September 13th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
hi,.. 1st this is not about harddisk failure,it is about sound problem with my acer apire 4520 lptp. I’ve try so many solution but again it fail.. can anyone here help me please.. I’ve already install the driver for sound driver but the fail to start. the icon were not present at the botton screen and in control panel the there were no realtek device controller..Again there were issue about the UAA HD audio bus driver with this model.. i’m a bit confuse about this situation..please help me.. i dont know were to find the answer for this.. tq…
June 10th, 2010 at 6:56 am
hp laptop is not switching on after several attempts then it might suprise you after continuosly attempting by switching on
i tried removing all external parts until am left with the board only and still it will switch on for a few seconds then turn off.
however after several attempts it might turn on and remain on
January 17th, 2010 at 5:13 am
Thanks for your very informative site. I have a dead Gateway 7320 laptop. The hard drive is fine as I’ve put it in a working 6625 to recover the files. Power cable checks good with 19v. How do I test the motherboard? This is my son’s unit and it smoked up early on, but still worked, then it did it again about a year later and is now dormant. Thanks again, Dave
January 5th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
dave brennan,
Nope, you are not missing anything. There is no “contact us” because I cannot answer all questions individually.
If you have a question, post it as a comment. I’ll answer if I know what’s going on.