My Laptop is officially dead - mabey?

**avgas** · 9th January 2005, 18:41

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** · 9th January 2005, 19:22

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** · 9th January 2005, 19:24

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** · 9th January 2005, 19:40

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

**Biff** · 9th January 2005, 19:44

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** · 9th January 2005, 20:02

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

**StoneChucker** · 9th January 2005, 20:09

Originally Posted by onearmedbandit

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?

**John** · 9th January 2005, 20:12

Originally Posted by StoneChucker

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?

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

**onearmedbandit** · 9th January 2005, 22:33

Originally Posted by John

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** · 9th January 2005, 22:38

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

**toads** · 10th January 2005, 06:55

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** · 10th January 2005, 08:53

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** · 10th January 2005, 09:13

Originally Posted by 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)

F5 on my Toshiba

**Warren** · 10th January 2005, 10:08

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** · 10th January 2005, 18:06

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

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

But will report back all the same.
bummer my warrenty ran out last year