My Laptop is officially dead - mabey?

[avgas]

Ok guys an girls, my laptop (Toshiba Satilite 1710CDS) is showing no sign of life, so if anyone has any clues here it would be a big help.
This is what happens, i hit the power button, fan turns on, cd rom boots, little 'on' light glows.....and thats it. The power suppy should be sweet as its only 1 year old, but i dont wanna take it into the shop cos its only worth something to me (its been on the back of the bike for so many years). Plus im a dead poor student right now - forced to used my GF's desktop.
Previous to it dieing it used to start up for about a min then just turn off.
My friend said that the bios battery could be dead - would this happen?
was working fine about 3 months ago, but now it sits there like a big paper weight.
Any thoughts??? anyone???? :spudwhat:

[John]

so nothing on screen?

1.
well have you dropped it recently?, make sure that all your ribbons are attached (re: LCD ribbon).

2.
Normally if there is any problems at boot you get a beep code, if that isnt happening:
a) CPU could be cooked (in laptops they dont beep or anything if the proccessor dies)
b) Just a lose lcd ribbon.

3.
To test if it is the LCD ribbon/LCD backlight, plug the laptop into an external VGA source the 1710's have both VGA, and Composite (on the 's' model?) either way try that, as on boot they normally initialise all external displays, if this doesnt help then it could be hundreds of problems..

Where did you buy it from if its still under warrenty then I would take it in for a checkup, otherwise just get a diagnosis done on it.

Sorry I cant help anymore, they are all the suggestions that I can provide without taking the thing apart or looking at it.

Goodluck.

[John]

or, it could be overheating - make sure its on a clear surface free of any ventilation obstructions... and if your daring open it up and check the CPU for any obvious signs of a blow out.. etc.

[Roadrash]

try hitting it harder that will fix it, always does..........
:ar15:

[Biff]

I doubt it's the BIOS battery. I go with checking the ribbon cables to the screen or a duff screen.

Do you have your boot disk handy? If so give that a try, but if it's powering up and staying up my monies on a screen issue.

[onearmedbandit]

What I want to know is, who is Mabey, and why would they know?

[StoneChucker]

What I want to know is, who is Mabey, and why would they know?
Haha, nice one... Maybe Mabey knows and maybe Mabey doesn't. I certainly don't. If Mabey doesn't know, maybe she can tell us who does? :banana:

[John]

Haha, nice one... Maybe Mabey knows and maybe Mabey doesn't. I certainly don't. If Mabey doesn't know, maybe she can tell us who does? :banana:
ah, you have had some kind of relationship with this 'maybey' character - or in some way, some sick perverted way determined its sex?..

[onearmedbandit]

ah, you have had some kind of relationship with this 'maybey' character - or in some way, some sick perverted way determined its sex?..

Ok ok, I had no idea who 'mabey' was, but now theres someone called 'maybey', oh fuck this. Just own up or tell him how to fix it mabey, or maybey.

[Warren]

I'm glad I am not the only one that spells maybe wrong (I prefer maby myself).

[toads]

i would think if you are seeing nothing at all on the screen, then it is possibly a loose cmos battery, or a bus cable to the lcd screen that is the problem, most laptops can be connected to a conventional montior so try that first, you should get some sort of beep from it, if the ram, or video chip have shit themselves, good luck with it, try connecting a conventional monitor, keyboard and mouse, to establish it isn't something really simple, also network it to another computer,and see if you can access the harddrive.

[Drunken Monkey]

10 years in the industry and I've never seen a flat CMOS battery do that to a laptop. It shouldn't come loose - they're normally soldered on in Tosh laptops, but that's easy enough to check.
I guess a loose cable to the screen could be the problem. It shouldn't take long to figure out if that's the case or not.
The most common cause for that symptom/fault for units we had inspected was a particular part of which the name escapes me. Unfortunately cost of repair always meant the laptop was a write-off.
Easiest way to rule out a mainboard/cpu fault, is as Toads suggested - plug in a regular screen to the VGA output on the back of the laptop and press Fn-"X", "X" being the key used to switch from laptop screen -> VGA output -> both (Typically F4 or F5)

[Biff]

10 years in the industry and I've never seen a flat CMOS battery do that to a laptop. It shouldn't come loose - they're normally soldered on in Tosh laptops, but that's easy enough to check.
I guess a loose cable to the screen could be the problem. It shouldn't take long to figure out if that's the case or not.
The most common cause for that symptom/fault for units we had inspected was a particular part of which the name escapes me. Unfortunately cost of repair always meant the laptop was a write-off.
Easiest way to rule out a mainboard/cpu fault, is as Toads suggested - plug in a regular screen to the VGA output on the back of the laptop and press Fn-"X", "X" being the key used to switch from laptop screen -> VGA output -> both (Typically F4 or F5)

F5 on my Toshiba

[Warren]

Actually I had a similar problem when my laptop crashed. When I rebooted the screen was dead. It was only when I plugged in an external screen that I found out that all I had to get the screen working again was to boot into Windows (normally boots to Linux) and press Fn-F4 to turn the screen on again.

[avgas]

thanks for the help guys, will shutdown this comp and pinch its monitor to see if thats the case.
Pretty much just doing as mentioned before, nothing more, nothing less.
No CMOS beep, nothing on screen, doesnt boot HD, and the only boot disk it came with is the ME system restore which can only be fired up once the ram has been checked.
Will also check the ribbon cables to see whats going on there - but as for it getting knockd recently :confused: not really, but way before this it lived a very bad life on the back of my bike - getting frozen an all sorts.
So with all this evaluated, she may have gone to a better place :crybaby:
But will report back all the same.
bummer my warrenty ran out last year

[avgas]

well, tried hooking up external monitor - still nothing. Hit Fcn and f4/f5 few times to see if it would swap between the too.
Open casing (after a small mission), too find the chip set was fine, ribbon cable looked old and sheath looked a little worn, but see no loose wires, so have concluded one of too things,
a) something big is dead or
b) a ribbon cable somewhere else is slightly loose - so when i reassemble it this problem will hopefully be fixed.
Cheers again for all the help.
Feel free to post here (or PM me) if you have any future suggestions.......or if this mabey character is tracked down :spudwhat:

[avgas]

just found cmos batt....will attempt to remove it 2moro.

[avgas]

i give up, cant find the fault.
Shes going cheap up for auction on this site
http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=21182842

[Drunken Monkey]

I would still say it's probably the common fault we experienced. I still can't for the life of me remember the name of the part. 'Fuser' keeps popping into my mind, but that's a laser printer component. It is something to do with providing the power and image signal to the screen, and typically cost around $800-$1200 to replace + labour.
From the results of your tests, assuming they were performed properly, I would just chuck it.

[avgas]

Sold for $200, went 2 day.
Sad to see her go.....but i still got her HD in a usb case