Laptop - Probably Dead - Need advice

1dave123

Hi folks

My sister has a laptop - Hewlett Packard Easy Note. Its about 4 years old but has been used rarely.

Was working fine but suddenly - nothing happens. The screen is blank - absolutely nothing appears.

Power definitely reaching laptop because power light on the laptop lights up and the fan is working normal.

I don't think its a screen issue because I was unable to hook it up to an external screen (I was able to do this no problem with a different laptop)

I'm not an expert on computers but my fear is we are looking at a motherboard issue here - meaning that repair would most likely be uneconomical.

I don't know for sure but I strongly suspect that the graphics is integrated into the motherboard.

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts.

Thanks

advertsfox

Could just be the RAM. Try and reseat it, take and 1 stick and see if it boots (if there are 2 of course) and vice versa.

johnnybmac

You could try a hard reset, to remove any possible residual charge held in the capacitors (i.e.)

1. Disconnect charger
2. Remove the battery
3. Hold down the power button for at least 30 seconds.

Then, plug the charger back in (leave out the battery for now) and power on.

SMJSF

something like that happened to my Toshiba sat pro for about 7 months... but the screen would light up again after a few hours, go off, could be days where it would just be off, but powered on.
4 places couldn't figure out what was wrong, sent it to Toshiba, they said nothing was wrong; it was the motherboard. €90 to get repaired.

degsie

SMJSF wrote: »

sent it to Toshiba, they said nothing was wrong; it was the motherboard. €90 to get repaired.

????

johnnybmac

sent it to Toshiba, they said nothing was wrong; it was the motherboard.

Nothing was wrong, (and in the same sentence), "It was the motherboard", hmmmm.....

Edit, just spotted Degsie's post...

SMJSF

yeah, Toshiba misdiagnosed the problem... they couldn't see what the problem was, but 2 places said the same thing; it was the motherboard... and got it fixed!

1dave123

Hi folks - thanks for the replies and suggestions. Unfortunately had no success with either suggestion. Think it might be finished, sorry to say.

Cheers

riclad

You could put the laptop,on adverts.ie, sell it for parts,
as is, with the power supply.
take the drive out first,and put it in a 2.5inch caddy format it twice to erase personal data, credit card no,pin,bank passwords, etc
use this program,
http://www.dban.org/

DBAN is free erasure software .
You can get a pretty good laptop on adverts.ie for 140 euro,
cpu dual core, 2.oghz, , dvdrw drive, 2gig ram. 15inch widescreen.

COULD be 1 bad ram chip, ,
if theres 2 chips, swap them around, slot 2, to slot 1, slot 1 to 2,
leave laptop for a few minutes and try and turn it on.

PropJoe10

When you press the Power button, do you see the manufacturers screen appear, or does the screen remain completely blank?

AndyBoBandy

cover the fan vents (the exhaust) with sticky tape to restrict the flow of hot air out of the machine, and start it up a few times and force shut it down with the power button (enough for it to get quite warm).

eventually after 3-4 tries, and when it's quite hot, the screen should burst into life during a start up, however one you remove the tape, and it cools enough, the screen will go dodgy again,

the full fix will probably involve removing & re-seating the GPU.

Lesson: never buy a HP laptop again.

1dave123

PropJoe10 wrote: »

When you press the Power button, do you see the manufacturers screen appear, or does the screen remain completely blank?

Hi Joe - the screen is completely blank. The fans works and the power lights do appear on the keyboard. Thanks

1dave123

Andybobandy wrote: »

cover the fan vents (the exhaust) with sticky tape to restrict the flow of hot air out of the machine, and start it up a few times and force shut it down with the power button (enough for it to get quite warm).

eventually after 3-4 tries, and when it's quite hot, the screen should burst into life during a start up, however one you remove the tape, and it cools enough, the screen will go dodgy again,

the full fix will probably involve removing & re-seating the GPU.

Lesson: never buy a HP laptop again.

Hi Andybobandy - That's a very unusual approach. I will look into it. I spoke to a repair shop yesterday and their best guess is that its a graphics accelerator issue which I am thinking is along similar lines to your own thoughts. Thanks for your comment.

dollyk

same happenned to mil laptop.
I found some local on facebook and he fixed it for 40 euro.
still going well a year on.
he explained what was wrong, but it went straight over my head

Kinet1c

Sounds like the graphics card is fubar and hence why you're getting power with no display. You could find somebody to "reball" the gpu or use it as a paper weight going forward.

AndyBoBandy

1dave123 wrote: »

Hi Andybobandy - That's a very unusual approach. I will look into it. I spoke to a repair shop yesterday and their best guess is that its a graphics accelerator issue which I am thinking is along similar lines to your own thoughts. Thanks for your comment.

I guarantee you this will work. over heat it, and the heat will cause the GPU to expand slightly and re-contact the board, and thus light up the screen.