HELP!!! halloween disaster: laptop doesn't boot

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:06 pm

here's the deal: yesterday i used my laptop fine (except for the Live bug), switched it off yesterday night alright.
then this morning i boot it up, and... nothing happens. i just have the power led that lits up for 1/10s and that's all.
i removed the cover and noticed there was a loose screw wandering around. it seemed to come from under the motherboard, but i can't take the MB off to see where the screw was coming from. and i don't want to wreck my lappy more than it is now...

do you have any suggestion?
i guess i'd better bring it to repair, but all shops are closed until wednesday in france and i have a gig coming shortly....

shit, what an haloween nightmare...
any help appreciated!

amo · Post by **amo** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:09 pm

peeddrroo wrote:here's the deal: yesterday i used my laptop fine (except for the Live bug), switched it off yesterday night alright.
then this morning i boot it up, and... nothing happens. i just have the power led that lits up for 1/10s and that's all.
i removed the cover and noticed there was a loose screw wandering around. it seemed to come from under the motherboard, but i can't take the MB off to see where the screw was coming from. and i don't want to wreck my lappy more than it is now...

do you have any suggestion?
i guess i'd better bring it to repair, but all shops are closed until wednesday in france and i have a gig coming shortly....

shit, what an haloween nightmare...
any help appreciated!

man that sucks ! and I don't even see the beginning of a solution, so this message is only there to give you full moral support....

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:25 pm

Try removing the bettery, then reinstalling it, power on.

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 5:17 pm

i tried all combinations of powering with batteries, without, with or without the DC plugged (well, i knew that with DC unplugged and batteries removed i had a few chance of booting...).

anyway, it seems to be a power problem, so hopefully my data won't be lost.
i have to wait until wednesday to go to a repair...

pfffff...
well, gonna get some bears and forget...

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:05 pm

Aw man... that sucks!

Try reseating your ram, or booting with just one block of ram in.

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:46 pm

Maybe you could dress up as a laptop tonight... if at some point in the evening you feel one of your screws come loose, stop what you're doing, and find the screw, and figure out where it came out of, then like go home and do the same thing to your computer and...

Forgive me.

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:46 pm

if the screw came out of the motherboard that could be your problem.

i had a problem changeing a mother board once and when i put the old one back the computer would not boot and the problem was that i didn't use one screw

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:19 pm

peeddrroo wrote: well, gonna get some bears and forget...

That sucks man, but there's no reason to commit suicide by getting dangerous animals like bears kill you!!!

Full moral support from here too. If I were you, I would leave the lappie untouched and get it to technical support. It's too easy to break it by doing something uninformed...

tokyojoe69 · Post by **tokyojoe69** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:27 pm

What Machinate said... I had the same experience once and it turned out that the ram wasn't plugged in correctly. It's something you should be able to fix easily by yourself, and if it still doesn't work I'll go with what the others say and don't fiddle too much.

Cheer Emil

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:32 pm

hang tight, buddy. The loose screw clearly seems to be the culprit--I've had loose screw issues in two of my devices--my K-station keyboard, and my Drumkat midi controller. On the drumkat, freeking airline security apparently took it apart when I flew with it, and managed to just toss one screw inside of it that was meant to hold things together on the outside. It found its way to some sort of metal power thingy inside the Drumkat, and essentially it was shorting out the power, so that it would filcker on and off incessantly. Simply getting the screw out and putting it back in its place was the solution--without it there screwing up the power flow, it was all good. I could easily see how that would happen inside of your computer, where the metal screw might be connecting things that aren't supposed to touch, and interrupting the flow of electricity inside your box. Get a certified pro to take it apart and get the screw back to where it should be, and it seems things might work out. Note to self, if you must monkey with it yourself, remove the battery and avoid sparks when loose screws are bouncing around in your box (don't even ask why I know this).

Ryan

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:24 pm

Well hey, if you can't fix it, buy another laptop just for the gig.
Then return the computer the next day, and hopefully get the manager to waive the restocking fee by being real nice.

borg · Post by **borg** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:09 pm

apparantly it is the loose screw, but i just thought to share my experience. could be of help now or later to others...

a while ago i sold my toshiba laptop to a friend. all was fine while showing him the machine. a few weeks later he called me back in a panic. it wouldn't start up anymore. seemed that the laptop had been sitting on my desk open almost all of the time. my friend started to carry it around a lot. seemed the mechanical part that indicated the lid had opened was somehow not working properly, stopping the laptop to start up.

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:12 am

thanks guys for your feedback.

well, i just tried to forget about it yesterday, and might do the same today as it's bank holiday in france.
i'll bring it to a repair shop tomorrow.

it's not a RAM prob, i'm almost sure (don't know how to "reset the RAM", though).
i'm pretty sure it's just because of this loose screw that doesn't make some contact between parts. i just hope that it hasn't made some shortcircuit while wandering inside my laptop, but i don't think so, i shut it down alright 2 days ago, and yesterday i just couldn't boot it up.

anyway, i'll let you know what's up tomorrow.

maybe my laptop is just acting because today is the "day of the deads" in france... he's a funny laptop who likes to joke...

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:24 am

peeddrroo, "reseating the ram" is just a fancy way of saying "take it out and put it back in, one at a time"... It has helped a lot of people, and can be done really quickly by you....

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:39 am

yeah, ok, i did that already, except that there is some "unremovable" RAM (you know, the annoying permanent 256MB chip).
but i already removed the extra 512.

HELP!!! halloween disaster: laptop doesn't boot

HELP!!! halloween disaster: laptop doesn't boot

Re: HELP!!! halloween disaster: laptop doesn't boot