Laptop won't start 2

[vickero007]

I am working on a friends laptop and it doesn't start at all. When turning it on the lights come on and the fan moves but it never reaches any screen (BIOS or Windows). I have hooked it to a regular monitor and verified that it is not the LCD. Any ideas?

-Volkoff007

 

[fenix]

well if there is no display on another known good monitor, then look for a problem the next level deeper. The graphic card, or most likely, the integrated graphics, would be what to look into next.

the more info you give, the easier it will be to diagnose.

Make, Model, S/N or approx age, OS, ?>?>?>??

Were there any problems before it failed to light up ?

Is the hard drive in use ? Listen carefully to the start up sounds. Does it sound like the hard drive goes through loading the operating system ? Any blinking lights ?

Reseat the RAM, and/or try to swap in known good ram. RAM can cause problems berore POST even starts. It might have been jarred loose, or it might be bad. Even try reseating the cpu.

 

[bcastner]

Remove the battery and start it under A/C alone.

 

[vickero007]

Turns out it was the RAM.

Just wondering, bcastner, what made you suggest removing the battery? In case I have a similar problem again.

Thanks

-Volkoff007

 

[bcastner]

Several laptop models from Dell, Gateway and IBM will not start if the battery reads zero unless it is removed.

As a guess this issue affects other laptop models as well. You can have the same experience if the machine hibernates with a dead or marginal battery.