Help with Laptops that won't boot!

[KM@ Dave]

Thought I'd share my experience with everyone on Laptop Boot/Bootloop problems, it seems I have a high success rate, even though I hate repairing Laptops. I have also seen some very strange things to cause boot problems also.

1.

Check the Laptops I/O ports on the outside of the Laptop, eg. USB ports, Firewire, HDMI, PCMCIA, to see if anything has snapped off in the port(s) as a few of my customers have done this without realising.

2.

If it comes to it, check the cables that lead from the screen, to the motherboard. As over time the they can split, just like a ribbon cable in flip/slide mobile phones, and get damaged if the Laptop is used often. This is typically due to manufacturer flaws in the design of the Laptop as I've picked up along the way.

3.

Just like a Desktop Computer, a Laptop can be rendered unusable due to faulty hardware, for example: the DVD Drive, RAM, Graphics Card (If dedicated, else you're screwed), Hard Drive, Wireless Card. Here's my point, if you can remove it, do it. I boot Desktops experiencing boot problems with just essential hardware, and most of the time it helps.

4.

Check the Battery connector pins, I know this is uncommon and I've never encountered this problem, but I do check every time I face a Boot/Bootloop problems as maybe it is the source of error.

5.

Well this is a very rare one, and I've only seen it once. The Wireless Card's signal/reception cable, I have caught this little bugger sitting between two components before, thus causing a short within the Laptop. It seemed the 'customer' had fiddled with the Laptop before and obviously left the cable dangling about inside thus causing a short.

6.

The CPU fan... well this is the most annoying one. Some Laptops have a failsafe built into the BIOS, and upon detecting a broken, non-connected CPU fan the Laptop doesn't even start up, or twinge! So check it, you'll be surprised.

7.

Sometimes a Laptop can be rendered unbootable due to the keyboard developing a fault, I haven't seen this much, but it has still happened so it may be something to check also.

END

I hope this helps some of you, and I am also open to other things to look out for, and maybe add over time.

 

[adiadasman]

I have seen this more than once. If you have a laptop come in that will not respond at all to pressing the power button try the following:

Remove the battery and disconnect from the AC adapter, hold down the power button for 30 seconds, reconnect the AC power but do NOT reconnect battery, then try to power on the laptop. If the laptop powers on, you can then reconnect the battery and it should charge normally. I'm not sure what causes this, maybe the system gets confused as to whether it should use battery or AC power so it uses neither, but I have made many a distraught customer very happy with this trick.

 

[rdctech]

I have seen this more than once. If you have a laptop come in that will not respond at all to pressing the power button try the following:

Remove the battery and disconnect from the AC adapter, hold down the power button for 30 seconds, reconnect the AC power but do NOT reconnect battery, then try to power on the laptop. If the laptop powers on, you can then reconnect the battery and it should charge normally. I'm not sure what causes this, maybe the system gets confused as to whether it should use battery or AC power so it uses neither, but I have made many a distraught customer very happy with this trick.

I have had this a few times. It such an easy fix. I also im not sure what causes it but it would be interesting to find it out but your theory does sound like a plausible cause.

 

[edgepcs]

I have had this a few times. It such an easy fix. I also im not sure what causes it but it would be interesting to find it out but your theory does sound like a plausible cause.

I believe it is caused by a build up of static charge inside the laptop. Holding the power button attempts to discharge it.
Don't quote me on this though.

 

[KM@ Dave]

I have seen this more than once. If you have a laptop come in that will not respond at all to pressing the power button try the following:

Remove the battery and disconnect from the AC adapter, hold down the power button for 30 seconds, reconnect the AC power but do NOT reconnect battery, then try to power on the laptop. If the laptop powers on, you can then reconnect the battery and it should charge normally. I'm not sure what causes this, maybe the system gets confused as to whether it should use battery or AC power so it uses neither, but I have made many a distraught customer very happy with this trick.

Actually you're correct, and I missed it out. I shall add it to my list when not busy.

And in answer to EdgePcs, I am not too sure on this issue either, I thought it did a hard reset in the BIOS to flush out any errors, or incorrect settings stopping the Laptop from booting.

 

[ATTech]

I'm not sure what causes this, maybe the system gets confused as to whether it should use battery or AC power so it uses neither

The charging circuits on laptops don't use anything more than some simple circuit logic, so this wouldn't explain it. It sounds like you're discharging a capacitor by doing this, so I would imagine it's related to that somehow.

 

[Don W.]

I've used this trick on desktops as well. Leaving out the bat step of course. IMHO I think when there is still some power there is some corrupted mem somewhere. Don't know but seen it work many times.

 

[KM@ Dave]

Thanks for your input guys. Think I may move this post to 'Guides, Tips & Tricks'