lap top wont turn on anymore...

[jaxxx]

recently my laptop stopped working or wont boot up, nothing on the screen at all. Its a toshiba a75-206. when I plug the battery or ac adapter I see the light that its recieving power and the fan comes on but thats it.
I took it to a tech to see what the problem was and he said it was the motherboard that has corrosion on it from a spill, but i never spilled anything on it.

any help??? on what could be the cause of this, is it from a virus?

thanks

 

[stduc]

Maybe someone else spilled something. Did the Tech show you the corrosion?

Can you see the corrosion? It may (just) be possible to clean it off. If the laptop is 100% dead you have little to lose.

Is it 100% dead? No BIOS screen even?

You may want to look at ways of getting the hard drive out to get your data off it.

You need to cost out having it fixed versus getting a new laptop and getting any data you need of the old drive.

Check out your household insurance policy - it may cover it.

I have been known to be wrong.
The best way to thank someone who helps you is give them a star.

 

[jaxxx]

what do i need to do to get the info out of my hraddrive?

 

[stduc]

If you have nothing you want - you don't.

Most people want to keep their old settings, emails or pictures or letters or whatever. If you have none of those things don't worry about it.

Sounds to me your simplest option is just to buy a new machine.

I have been known to be wrong.
The best way to thank someone who helps you is give them a star.

 

[StumblingForward]

If you just want the stuff off of your HDD like My Documents, Pic, stuff like that you can just remove the drive from the laptop and slave it to a desktop, (you may need an adapter for the IDE cable to work). Have you tried plugging the laptop into a monitor just to make sure that it’s not your display or onboard video card that has gone out?

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
Albert Einstein

 

[jaxxx]

well theres usually a light that comes on when booting my computer plus you can also hear the hardrive normally.

I do want to try to fix the problem ofcourse instead of just buying a new one but if not I atleast want to get my files and pics of the harddrive

 

[stduc]

Maybe you should take it somewhere else for a second opinion? Someone who has the skills to take it apart and see if it is damaged beyond repair. Or you could try to see if you can clean it yourself. Either way be sure not to damage the hard drive and make any repair service aware you do not want the hard drive damaged or re-formatted.

If it can't be repaired then you need to take the hard drive out and attach it to an ide adaptor so you can slave it to another machine to get your stuff off it.

Only you can decide how much time/effort/money you want to spend doing this.

You may get lucky. But if the first tech is right and the mobo is corroded then then your likely cheapest, simplest & quickest route is to get a new machine, get the old laptops drive slaved to desktop PC (It's not easy to slave to a laptop and slaving via USB has its own problems). Then network the new laptop to the desktop and get whatever you need off the drive.

I have been known to be wrong.
The best way to thank someone who helps you is give them a star.

 

[wahnula]

what do i need to do to get the info out of my harddrive?

jaxxx,

That 'corrosion' may be residue from too much canned air, if you've done that in the past.

I would recommend extracting the drive (usually quite easy), and placing it in a USB case (usually quite cheap) like

http://www.directron.com/sbteku25.html

This way you will not need to buy a 3.5" ->2.5" IDE adapter (which can be hooked up incorrectly and cook your drive...take it from me ) plus they make nifty backup drives. This way you can hook it up externally to ANY PC, and not open the case, hope for IDE and fool w/ jumpers.

BTW nobody has suggested the laptop repair tip of leavig the battery out and the AC mains unplugged, holding the power switch for 30 seconds -1 minute to drain caps, then plug in using AC only.

It seems like you are not alone...many owner of that laptop have had all sorts of issues, mostly involving overheating:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=52744&start=60

Best of luck, I'd say get the hard drive & RAM out, eBay the carcass cut your losses. I wish you luck.

Tony