If your laptop does not start at all or it starts but will not boot properly, it’s possible that you can fix the laptop at home without taking it to a repair center. Here are some troubleshooting tips for you. I’m not sure if I can cover all situation at once, so I will update this post as more examples come into my mind.
Situation 1.
The laptop appears to be dead. You plug the AC adapter but the LEDs (power light, hard drive light, battery charge light, etc…) do not light up and the laptop will not react at all if you press on the power button.
First of all in this situation check the AC adapter. You can test the output voltage with a voltmeter. If you cannot do that, find a known good AC adapter and use it for testing the laptop. It is possible the laptop appears to be dead because the AC adapter is bad (and the battery is discharged). If you know that the AC adapter is working properly and it outputs correct voltage but the laptop is still dead, most likely you have a power issue on the motherboard (or power board on some laptops) and it has to be replaced.
If you have to replace the AC adapter, make sure you use a correct one. The output voltage must be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The output amperage has to be the same as on the original adapter or higher, but not lower.
Situation 2.
When you plug the AC adapter the power LED and the battery charge LED light up. When you press on the power button the laptop powers up but will not start. There is no video on LCD or external monitor.
If the power LED lights up it indicates that the laptop is getting power from the AC adapter. Most likely there is nothing wrong with the adapter but just in case test it with a voltmeter to make sure the output voltage is correct.
Also try this. Unplug the AC adapter, remove the battery and wait for 1-2 minutes. After that plug the AC adapter ans try starting the laptop again. Sometimes this trick helps.
It also could be a memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module, just remove it from the slot on the motherboard and install it back. Try installing the memory module into the other slot (if it’s available). If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and start the laptop just with one memory module installed.
If the laptop starts fine with one memory module in both slots, but will not start with the second memory module in both slots, the second memory module is faulty. Replace the module.
If the laptop starts fine with both memory modules when they are installed in the slot A, but will not start with both memory modules installed in the slot B, the slot B is faulty and you’ll have to replace the motherboard or use only one memory slot.
Situation 3.
When you press on the power button, the laptop makes a series or short and long beeps and will not start up. There is no video on the screen.
In this situation test the memory module as I described in the situation2. Try installing a known good memory module. Most likely you are getting a beep error because of a faulty memory.
Situation 4.
You start the laptop. It sounds like the laptop is booting normally (hard drive LED is flashing) but there is no video on the screen
In this situation test the laptop with an external monitor. If the external screen works fine but there is no video on the laptop LCD, most likely there is a problem inside the laptop display assembly. Go to my previous post witch covers laptop video problems in more details.
Situation 5.
You start the laptop and it starts making repetitive clicking noise or grinding noise.
Most likely you hear this noise because of a faulty hard drive. You can remove the hard drive and start the laptop without it. If the noise is gone, the hard drive is your problem. Replace it.
If the laptop makes clicking or grinding noises and you still have video on the screen, you can run a hard drive test utility. I usually use Hitachi’s drive fitness test. This test is reliable and easy to use.
Situation 6.
The laptop boots into Windows ans works for a while, but after that it shuts down by itself without any reason or warning. You restart the laptop but the same problem appears again
Most likely it’s a heat related issue. Listen for the cooling fan, make sure it works.
Also this problem might appear because of a faulty memory module, try some tips from the situation 2.
The laptop still boots ans you still can see the screen, so you can run the memory test. I usually use Memtest86+. Run the memory test and if it fails, replace the faulty module.
Situation 6
The laptop starts normally but video on the screen has lines, some strange characters or other defects
It could indicate a problem with the laptop LCD screen, video cable, graphics card or motherboard. Here’s my previous post witch covers troubleshooting bad images on the screen in more details.
Related post: How to troubleshoot dead laptops.
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October 5th, 2007 at 7:30 am
acquired a laptop that had a soda spilled on it, was told by the owners that toshiba said it was the hard drive.
It was a recent spill so I pulled it apart and cleaned it up (yes I know what I’m doing there)
The problem now is it will power up fine, charge the battery, fans will go though I dont here a system beep.
But there is no video, at all. No vga nothing on the lcd and I am running out of ideas to try. usually even with a bad hd there will be even an error on the screen but I’m getting nothing. any suggestions?
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Sphiwe Mdletshe,
First of all, check the AC adapter. Make sure it outputs correct voltage and works properly.
After that check easy-to-remove parts like hard drive and memory. Try starting the laptop without battery installed.
Finally, start taking the laptop apart piece by piece and test it after each step. Minimize the laptop to barebone system: motherboard, CPU and memory. If the laptop is still dead and shows no signs of life, probably you have a failed motherboard.
Just in case. Check the power jack and make sure the motherboard gets power from the AC adapter, you can do it with a voltmeter.
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:09 am
Hi
I have a problem with my packard bell laptop, it for the client she complained that at no notice it just shut down and when she try to power it up it will never come up. so what i did i stripe it up to check if there is any burned wire, change the memory, check the cpu and fan they all fine atfer that i put back together and it powered up but no windows screen, i try to re-install but it couldn’t let after that i formated the hard drive the laptop work fine with no problem. after two months later the same problem occurred and it does even show that its have a life no power, no light in the battery nothing and i don’t know what to do now.
I will appreciate anyone help who knows how to solve this frastrating problem. help
Thanks
October 1st, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Mike,
After you install a brand new hard drive you have to load the operating system and device drivers. Without the operating system installed the laptop will not work. You get these CDs when you buy a laptop. Insert the first CD (operating system) into the DVD drive and boot the laptop from this CD. Follow instructions. After the OS is loaded, install missing device drivers from the second CD (device drivers).
October 1st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I have a Dell Latitude D610. I replaced the hard drive. Brand new one. I turned on the laptop after installing the new hard drive. It loads up but it goes to a screen where it says: No boot sector on internal hard drive. Then it says CARDBUS NIC boot failed. I need help. Thank you.
September 29th, 2007 at 10:28 am
KK,
The power LED lights up when you plug the AC adapter, so I assume the power adapter work fine.
1. Remove the battery and try turning on the laptop from the AC adapter. Sometimes it helps.
2. Remove both memory modules one by one and test the laptop with each module in each memory slot. It’s very unlikely that both memory modules failed at the same time.
3. Try turning on the laptop without the hard dive installed. In some cases a failed hard drive might suspend the whole system.
Does your laptop makes any kind of sounds when you push on the power button? Any LED activity?
September 28th, 2007 at 6:30 am
My problem matches with 2nd scenario but only difference is that in my case when I plug the AC adapter, only the power LED light up. It’s Toshiba A135-S2386 PDC T2080/512/80/15 and I bought it on Sep, 2nd 2007. Along with laptop, I bought 1GB RAM. First three weeks, it was fine but all of a sudden it stops working. Please advice.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
MC Shortbus,
Could be dead motherboard or dead CPU.
Minimize the system as much as you can and leave only motherboard, CPU and known good memory. Try starting this barebone system with an external monitor. If you still get no video, probably you have a faulty motherboard. There is a possibility of bad CPU but CPU failure is not very common.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
this website is of great help.. it helped me fixed my laptop by my self…. thanks and god bless
September 21st, 2007 at 6:34 am
Hi,
First of all, wonderful website with good information.
Secondly, I work in Tech support (no training, been on the job learning as I go for about 8 months) and I have been working on getting an aging fleet of Toshiba 8100 laptops back into reasonable shape.
There is one in particular that has me puzzled. It matches scenario 2 and I had already tried replacing the memory. Used known good memory, even swapped in a known good hard drive just to be certain the drive in there was not totally dead. No success. Are both slots toast or am I missing something entriely?
Thanks for your time