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Dead laptop ~ any bright ideas please?

Hello! <slight but respectful bow from the waist> Yes, it's been a while. I'm not in so much right now. Good to see you. :)

You too :)
Would you join me in a quadrille? Man and I went to Brighton Pavillion (Regency palace of Prince of Wales, UK ~ very oppulant and quite fab!) on my birthday and when the audio guide played the music between the rooms we would hold hands high and greet each other and take a couple of steps ~ much to the amusement of the school parties before and after us! Oh children these days have no manners, or indeed a sense of the ridiculous :lol:

I usually give my computers a 4-5-year shelf-life, and then I replace them. They usually still work okay, but I get bored.

Will I have one of the ones you've got bored of then :techman:

I don't have them anymore, and I have a feeling I might keep this one for a while. It's a MacBook; it's going to last a lot longer.

Oh, a Mac ~ nods and smiles. SO much easier, and more stylish! Good call!
 
I was going to try and give advice, but then I remembered the fact that I'm on at least my sixth laptop in less than ten years. So I can't give you any advice on fixing them, but I'd be happy if anyone needs help breaking one!
 
I was going to try and give advice, but then I remembered the fact that I'm on at least my sixth laptop in less than ten years. So I can't give you any advice on fixing them, but I'd be happy if anyone needs help breaking one!

Thank you Kestra ~ at least I know Son isn't that bad anymore!

Bed calls, but if anything comes to mind, I thank you.
Goodnight,
K'Eh
x
 
Glad to hear others are having laptop issues and it's not just me.

Mean that in the nicest possible way, naturally.
 
This probably isn't the problem, but I had some similar issues that turned out to be a broken adaptor cord that wasn't charging the laptop properly so the battery was drained even though it was plugged into the wall. The little pins in the end of the cord that goes into the laptop had broken off and I had to buy a replacement. The lights would flash like it was going to turn on and then it went black again.

This also happened to me a few months back.

Have you checked for viruses Kehleyr? My most recent "boot up" trouble was caused by a bad email opened by mistake. I had to completely reload Windows and replace all my files. Thankfully everything was backed up.
 
This probably isn't the problem, but I had some similar issues that turned out to be a broken adaptor cord that wasn't charging the laptop properly so the battery was drained even though it was plugged into the wall. The little pins in the end of the cord that goes into the laptop had broken off and I had to buy a replacement. The lights would flash like it was going to turn on and then it went black again.

This also happened to me a few months back.

Have you checked for viruses Kehleyr? My most recent "boot up" trouble was caused by a bad email opened by mistake. I had to completely reload Windows and replace all my files. Thankfully everything was backed up.

Would do, but it won't boot up :(

Tried and tested advice of 'have you turned it off and turned it back on again' and I've even followed the RTFM tee-shirt suggestion!

Will have to resort to shaking it and swearing ~ excellent plan!
 
When you say it 'tries to boot', how long does it try?

What is it doing while it's trying? If you put your ear to the keyboard when you switch it on, can you hear the hard disk clicking/spinning?

Do you have a USB mouse or some other USB thing that illuminates when plugged in? Does it illuminate normally when you press the power button? and then does it go out when the computer stops trying to boot?
 
This probably isn't the problem, but I had some similar issues that turned out to be a broken adaptor cord that wasn't charging the laptop properly so the battery was drained even though it was plugged into the wall. The little pins in the end of the cord that goes into the laptop had broken off and I had to buy a replacement. The lights would flash like it was going to turn on and then it went black again.

This also happened to me a few months back.

Have you checked for viruses Kehleyr? My most recent "boot up" trouble was caused by a bad email opened by mistake. I had to completely reload Windows and replace all my files. Thankfully everything was backed up.

Would do, but it won't boot up :(

Tried and tested advice of 'have you turned it off and turned it back on again' and I've even followed the RTFM tee-shirt suggestion!

Will have to resort to shaking it and swearing ~ excellent plan!

Oh, then maybe I don't clearly understand the problem. Is your "boot up" trouble that the laptop simply won't load Windows, or won't power up at all? If it's the former (the trouble I had), then it could be a virus. If it's the latter, then, yeah, the power cord could need replacing.
 
Glad to hear others are having laptop issues and it's not just me.

Mean that in the nicest possible way, naturally.

Yep.. Me too.. My work laptop is pitching fits and IT can't seem to do a thing with it..

They installed some flash and Java updates a couple weeks ago and now, when ever I try to play a video from a news site, I get a momentary blue screen of death and then the whole thing reboots..

They've tried re-updating it, re-installing the older versions and yelling at it - all without success..

So the only thing they can think of doing now is a complete rebuild, which will take place next week. sigh...
 
When you say it 'tries to boot', how long does it try?

What is it doing while it's trying? If you put your ear to the keyboard when you switch it on, can you hear the hard disk clicking/spinning?

Do you have a USB mouse or some other USB thing that illuminates when plugged in? Does it illuminate normally when you press the power button? and then does it go out when the computer stops trying to boot?

Can hear minor spinning but it does this for a few seconds, then tries again half a minute later, whilst the little blue lights flash and then nothing. Still nothing on screen. It keeps trying every minute or so ~ feel I'm doing more harm than good by keeping trying without a fix.

Plugged in USB mouse and no light on mouse.

This is whilst plugged in on charger and blue charger light on :confused:
 
Plugged in USB mouse and no light on mouse.

This is whilst plugged in on charger and blue charger light on :confused:

This makes it seem like a power issue. If the computer has power, the USB ports usually have that power as soon as you press the on button... although that's not for definite.

I'll assume this is true.


Computers use two voltages: 5 volts and 12 volts. (No USB power is evidence of 5 volts not being present). But the spinning sound is evidence of some power, and spinning things always operate from 12 volts, such as the hard disk, or cooling fans.

But the hard disk will not unpark (clicking noises) unless it is told to unpark by the motherboard -- which requires the 5 volts which is apparently not present. You heard no clicking noises.

So my first idea is that the power supply module (a circuit board inside the computer which converts battery/charging voltage to the 12 and 5 volts) is not switching on properly.

That module may have broken (quite possible), or it may not be being instructed to switch on fully because of some other problem (more likely).

The more likely case could be caused would be a voltage irregularity ~ the motherboard is rejecting the voltages being supplied.

This in turn could be caused by a critical short/open circuit somewhere... and the most likely candidate there is that the GPU has overheated and desoldered itself from the motherboard.

So... If you already have the case open, you may be able to examine the GPU and see if looks uncomfortably seated or skewed at all. It is the small chip that says nvidia on it.

:)
 
Plugged in USB mouse and no light on mouse.

This is whilst plugged in on charger and blue charger light on :confused:

This makes it seem like a power issue. If the computer has power, the USB ports usually have that power as soon as you press the on button... although that's not for definite.

I'll assume this is true.


Computers use two voltages: 5 volts and 12 volts. (No USB power is evidence of 5 volts not being present). But the spinning sound is evidence of some power, and spinning things always operate from 12 volts, such as the hard disk, or cooling fans.

But the hard disk will not unpark (clicking noises) unless it is told to unpark by the motherboard -- which requires the 5 volts which is apparently not present. You heard no clicking noises.

So my first idea is that the power supply module (a circuit board inside the computer which converts battery/charging voltage to the 12 and 5 volts) is not switching on properly.

That module may have broken (quite possible), or it may not be being instructed to switch on fully because of some other problem (more likely).

The more likely case could be caused would be a voltage irregularity ~ the motherboard is rejecting the voltages being supplied.

This in turn could be caused by a critical short/open circuit somewhere... and the most likely candidate there is that the GPU has overheated and desoldered itself from the motherboard.

So... If you already have the case open, you may be able to examine the GPU and see if looks uncomfortably seated or skewed at all. It is the small chip that says nvidia on it.

:)

Jadzia, thank you so much for advice. But I am going to be totally girly and let Man do it tomorrow night.

With my limited knowledge I think it is a power problem and the GPU issue has been raised previously. So we have something to start working on at least.

The charger has been dodgy for a while ~ probably not helped by the sellotape and clips holding it together.

I will make Man delicious dinner and then set him down with lamp and magnetic screwdriver!

All will be well :)
 
seems unlikely to be the charger/battery, as that could explain why it doesn't start once, but it wouldn't keep cycling.

Willing to bet money it's either the motherboard or the graphics card/chip.

And just to repeat, my computer did exactly the same thing (starts to boot, spins up, gets about 30 seconds into it, then shuts off and starts the cycle again. Never anything on the screen/monitor). Motherboard had failed, swapping it out with a replacement fixed it right away.
 
seems unlikely to be the charger/battery, as that could explain why it doesn't start once, but it wouldn't keep cycling.

Willing to bet money it's either the motherboard or the graphics card/chip.

And just to repeat, my computer did exactly the same thing (starts to boot, spins up, gets about 30 seconds into it, then shuts off and starts the cycle again. Never anything on the screen/monitor). Motherboard had failed, swapping it out with a replacement fixed it right away.

I'm not betting money ~ have just lost $60,000 on virtual poker ~ my luck is bad :(

But I think you might be right... It's screwed but hopefully not by a magnetic screwdriver...

magnetic screwdriver!

NOOOOOOOO! :eek:

My thoughts exactly.

So I can blame Man then :)
 
[

I'm not betting money ~ have just lost $60,000 on virtual poker ~ my luck is bad :(

good lord! please tell me thats a joke.

But I think you might be right... It's screwed but hopefully not by a magnetic screwdriver...

Magnetic screwdrivers can damage a computer. but to be frank, the chance of that happening are insignificant unless you're deliberately drying to destroy the damn thing.
 
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