Dead laptop?

[5150]

Can anyone offer any advice as to what might be wrong with my laptop? When I turn it on, it powers up, but doesn't even get past the window boot, just goes to black screen and stays there. Is it likely to be problem with corrupted windows or hard drive failure. Can't even get into Bios at all. BTW, Laptop is only 2 years old. (I7 processor with 8gig of RAM, and un-clocked) But obviously out of it's warranty.

[bogan]

Like black screen straight away? or does it try to do the windows loading or POST (lots of text) stuff first?

[Akzle]

it powers up, but doesn't even get past the window boot, just goes to black screen and stays there.
Can't even get into Bios at all.

these are two different things.
does the screen backlight come on? disk or drive activity?

reset the CMOS. (take the battery out) on a laptop, i find this easiest done with a 1" holesaw, just... go easy eh.

[5150]

Sorry, should have been more specific. Yes, there is activity like it is doing something in the background. But there is no activity on the screen what so ever. The only thing I noticed is that it comes up with manufacturer name (welcome screen??) then straight to black screen. Little "_" flashing couple of times, then nothing. To turn it off I have to pull the battery out

[Trade_nancy]

Manufacturer?
Try getting into the OS rebuild/system recovery menu - access very early as the BIOS POST starts and u see that manufacturer logo come on. The recovery system is usually inbuilt into hidden partition on hard drive. Access by pressing certain keys - eg ALT F6 or ALT F10.....whatever.That info may be available if u can google from another PC to see what those keys are...or go to suppotr website for manufacturer.

[5150]

Manufacturer?
Try getting into the OS rebuild/system recovery menu - access very early as the BIOS POST starts and u see that manufacturer logo come on. The recovery system is usually inbuilt into hidden partition on hard drive. Access by pressing certain keys - eg ALT F6 or ALT F10.....whatever.That info may be available if u can google from another PC to see what those keys are...or go to suppotr website for manufacturer.

It's an Acer if it helps

[Akzle]

POST handover. your windows has shit itself.
rescue CD and "fixmbr" tool.

[Akzle]

bust first reset your CMOS.

and since you're going to this effort, flash your BIOS with the latest.


otherwise, give it to me.

[Akzle]

Manufacturer?
Try getting into the OS rebuild/system recovery menu - access very early as the BIOS POST starts and u see that manufacturer logo come on. The recovery system is usually inbuilt into hidden partition on hard drive. Access by pressing certain keys - eg ALT F6 or ALT F10.....whatever.That info may be available if u can google from another PC to see what those keys are...or go to suppotr website for manufacturer.

bios and post are two different things.

and acer usually use F 2. (or 12 - i dont fucken know)

the OS rebuild is only good if the bootloader (and windows boot loader eats dick all day long) can digest the post.

-edit-
ok fuck i dont't know. my first thought was f12, so that could be right, then for some reason i thought i had it wrong, upon jewgling i'm now even more confused.

push all the buttons.


but reset your cmos first.

[p.dath]

Do you have any USB devices plugged in, particularly USB hard drives or memory keys? If so, try unplugging them all and then rebooting.

I've seen this happen before when a machine tries to boot from a USB drive that the user does not normally have plugged in.

[slofox]

Check the video card maybe...I had a couple experiences with desktops that went a little like that when the card had shat itself.

[R650R]

My Toshiba started randomly doing that couple years ago.
Solution is as per axle says:

Hold down power button and force it to hard shutdown.
Remove AC power cable.
Remove battery.
Wait 30 secs or so reconnect all that crap and turn on again.

When my one does it only the power on and HDD light show, it doesn't even acknowledge the battery or power cable is there and does the black screen after a few harddrive whirrs....
Maybe try without battery too, hasn't done it in awhile so not sure.

[Tazz]

You need to hard reset the whosit in the dohicky menu followed by a swift boot to the whatsajangal to enable the endoplasmicfluxinhibitor's relay race, thus enabling Windoze.

[Trade_nancy]

If an Acer - the recovery image will be on the hard disk - unless you created a recovery set for yourself. Most people don't.
The POST (power on self test) is initiated by the BIOS firmware.
You could attempt a safe mode start if you haven't already tried. Push F8 at initial start. See if you can get to that and choose SAFE Mode start OK. Would indicate Windows problem rather than hardware.

[Akzle]

Hold down power button and force it to hard shutdown.
Remove AC power cable.
Remove battery.
Wait 30 secs or so reconnect all that crap and turn on again.

just to be contrary, that's not what i said at all.

my way involves some dismantlement, and actually prising bits off the motherboard, then shorting out stuff.

[avgas]

Unplug it from the wall, unplug the charger, take the battery out and put just the laptop without the battery in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Take it out, put the battery in, plug the charger end into the laptop and wait 5 minutes. Then plug the power into the wall.

Have a listen/look to see if it does anything weird before you turn it on.

When you turn it on - listen to the hard-drive. Some acers don't display much of a POST as they have series of bypass screens. So all you might see is a cursor flash for a bit.

I got the "Cold" restart theory from Acer support many years ago. Worked a treat on 3 old acers so far. Apparently rather than making it easier for the system to work, it makes it harder - but the support guy said they had a policy for many years to over-engineer stuff.....then put "power saving" green logic......so over a period of time the components try and get more and more efficient until they don't turn on.
Unplugging the power supply from the wall and the unit for 30 minutes, then plugging it into discharged unit wakes up the psu.
Leaving the batteryless laptop in the freezer discharges the caps, and forces the CMOS battery to discharge rapidly. So when the battery is put back in, it has to charge up the whole board (waking up the board and the battery).

Never bothered to look at the exactly science of it to see if it was true. As it seemed to work.

[5150]

Thank you guys for all the advice. Done full factory restore and it works perfectly again. Very Happy :yes: