Laptop does not start. Fixing the problem.

If your laptop does not start at all or it starts but will not boot properly, it’s possible that you can fix the laptop at home without taking it to a repair center. Here are some troubleshooting tips for you. I’m not sure if I can cover all situation at once, so I will update this post as more examples come into my mind.
Situation 1.
The laptop appears to be dead. You plug the AC adapter but the LEDs (power light, hard drive light, battery charge light, etc…) do not light up and the laptop will not react at all if you press on the power button.
First of all in this situation check the AC adapter. You can test the output voltage with a voltmeter. If you cannot do that, find a known good AC adapter and use it for testing the laptop. It is possible the laptop appears to be dead because the AC adapter is bad (and the battery is discharged). If you know that the AC adapter is working properly and it outputs correct voltage but the laptop is still dead, most likely you have a power issue on the motherboard (or power board on some laptops) and it has to be replaced.
If you have to replace the AC adapter, make sure you use a correct one. The output voltage must be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The output amperage has to be the same as on the original adapter or higher, but not lower.
Situation 2.
When you plug the AC adapter the power LED and the battery charge LED light up. When you press on the power button the laptop powers up but will not start. There is no video on LCD or external monitor.
If the power LED lights up it indicates that the laptop is getting power from the AC adapter. Most likely there is nothing wrong with the adapter but just in case test it with a voltmeter to make sure the output voltage is correct.
Also try this. Unplug the AC adapter, remove the battery and wait for 1-2 minutes. After that plug the AC adapter ans try starting the laptop again. Sometimes this trick helps.
It also could be a memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module, just remove it from the slot on the motherboard and install it back. Try installing the memory module into the other slot (if it’s available). If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and start the laptop just with one memory module installed.
If the laptop starts fine with one memory module in both slots, but will not start with the second memory module in both slots, the second memory module is faulty. Replace the module.
If the laptop starts fine with both memory modules when they are installed in the slot A, but will not start with both memory modules installed in the slot B, the slot B is faulty and you’ll have to replace the motherboard or use only one memory slot.
Situation 3.
When you press on the power button, the laptop makes a series or short and long beeps and will not start up. There is no video on the screen.
In this situation test the memory module as I described in the situation2. Try installing a known good memory module. Most likely you are getting a beep error because of a faulty memory.
Situation 4.
You start the laptop. It sounds like the laptop is booting normally (hard drive LED is flashing) but there is no video on the screen
In this situation test the laptop with an external monitor. If the external screen works fine but there is no video on the laptop LCD, most likely there is a problem inside the laptop display assembly. Go to my previous post witch covers laptop video problems in more details.
Situation 5.
You start the laptop and it starts making repetitive clicking noise or grinding noise.
Most likely you hear this noise because of a faulty hard drive. You can remove the hard drive and start the laptop without it. If the noise is gone, the hard drive is your problem. Replace it.
If the laptop makes clicking or grinding noises and you still have video on the screen, you can run a hard drive test utility. I usually use Hitachi’s drive fitness test. This test is reliable and easy to use.
Situation 6.
The laptop boots into Windows ans works for a while, but after that it shuts down by itself without any reason or warning. You restart the laptop but the same problem appears again
Most likely it’s a heat related issue. Listen for the cooling fan, make sure it works.
Also this problem might appear because of a faulty memory module, try some tips from the situation 2.
The laptop still boots ans you still can see the screen, so you can run the memory test. I usually use Memtest86+. Run the memory test and if it fails, replace the faulty module.
Situation 6
The laptop starts normally but video on the screen has lines, some strange characters or other defects
It could indicate a problem with the laptop LCD screen, video cable, graphics card or motherboard. Here’s my previous post witch covers troubleshooting bad images on the screen in more details.
Related post: How to troubleshoot dead laptops.

Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 problems

Let’s talk about problems typical for Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks. Do you own one of these laptops? Is it working fine for you?
Here are some typical issues I’ve notices with this model.
1. First of all – overheating
Does your laptop shuts down without any reason when you ran CPU intensive programs? If yes, then most likely it happens because the laptop overheats. It happens because overtime the heatsink gets clogged with dust. A layer of dust collects between the cooling fan and the heat sink (dashed line on the picture) and heat produces by the processor gets trapped inside the laptop. As a result of that, the processor overheats and the laptop shuts down.

There are two different way to clean the heat sink and fan in these models:
– Buy a can of compressed air or find an air compressor and blow off the heat sink through the air intakes on the bottom of the laptop.
– Remove the keyboard and you’ll get an access to the cooling fan. Blow off dust from the fan and the heat sink.
In some cases the laptop overheats because of defective cooling fan. The fan should start working as soon as you power up the laptop. If the fan will not star, most likely it’s bad and must be replaced. You can find a new heat sink cooling fan for Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks by the following part number: V000042110.
2. Defective onboard memory
Here’s another common problem – bad onboard memory. This memory is integrated into the motherboard and if it goes bad you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.
If your laptop starts with some weird characters or lines of dots on the screen, most likely you have a faulty onboard memory. If you test the laptop with an external monitor, you’ll see the same defective video on the external monitor too. You can test the onboard memory with Memtest86+ utility. Remove any external RAM modules and run the memory test. If the onboard memory fails, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
The integrated memory module is located close by the memory extension slot, under the foil.

UPDATE: If you have bad memory, you should read this comment.
3. Last but not least – power jack issue.
With Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks this problem is not as common as with Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75, but it’s still a problem. Overtime, the power jack might get loose and the positive pin stops making a good contact with the motherboard anymore. As a result, the laptop switches to the battery power even though the power adapter is still plugged in. Usually you can temporally fix the problem by adjusting the power adapter plug on the back of the laptop, but after some time the problem reappears.
In this case you’ll have to disassemble the laptop, remove the motherboard and resolder the power jack.

Do you experience the same problems or you have another issue with your Satellite A60 or A65 notebook? Please share your experience.

Instructions for replacing laptop power jack yourself

Accessing hard drive using USB enclosure

If for some reason your notebook fails to boot and you need to access data on the hard drive (I assume there is nothing wrong with the hard drive itself), you can use an external USB enclosure. This method is very simple and could be very useful when you need an emergency access to your data on the hard drive.
First of all you’ll have to buy an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives. These enclosures are inexpensive and usually you can buy them in any local computer store. You also can find a wide variety of external enclosures on the Internet. Make sure to buy a correct one, enclosures for ATA and SATA hard drives are different (the connector inside the case will be different). Usually the enclosure includes the case and the USB cables.

Now remove the hard drive from the laptop. For this example I’m using an ATA hard drive.

Open up the enclosure case and connect the hard drive to the connector inside. After that insert the hard drive into the case.

After everything is assembled, you are ready to connect this device to any working computer (notebook or PC). The enclosure cable usually has two USB connectors on one end, make sure both of them are connected to the computer. You don’t need any external power supply for the enclosure because the hard drive gets power through USB ports. If the computer you are connecting the enclosure to runs Windows 2000 or higher, you will not need any device drivers. As soon as you connect the enclosure to the computer, the external hard drive should be detected and recognized automatically. After that the external hard drive will appear in My Computer and you can access it as any other hard drive in the computer.

If you are getting “Access denied” message when you are trying to access your files on the hard drive, you’ll have to take ownership of a file or folder.
My previous post explains how to connect a notebook hard drive to a desktop PC via IDE hard drive adapter.

A key fell off the keyboard. Fixing the problem.

One or more keys fell off the laptop keyboard and you are not sure how to put them back? Don’t worry, most likely you can fix the keyboard and it’s not necessary to buy a new one. There is no universal repair guide because all keyboards are different. Here’s what I usually do in this case.
Situation 1. The key cap and key retainer fell off the keyboard and you cannot figure out how to assemble them back.



ReplacementLaptopKeys.com has the right Laptop Key Replacement for you.
Carefully remove the cap from any other working key so the key retainer stays connected to the keyboard.

Take a closer look at the key retainer, it’s connected to the keyboard at four different points.

Assemble the disconnected retainer the same way as one on the keyboard and put it back in place.

Put the key cap on the retainer and snap the cap back in place.

Situation 2. The key fell off the keyboard and you lost the cap or the retainer. In this case you can purchase a single key on the internet, just search for it. (Search examples: “Dell keyboard key”, “Toshiba keyboard key”, “HP keyboard key”, etc… )
After you found a new key, put it back in place the same way as I described in the situation 1.
Installing the space bar key.
The space bar key is connected to the keyboard a little bit differently then any other key.

There is a metal retainer connected to the space bar key (on some keyboard models). Separate the retainer from the space bar key with a flat head screwdriver.

Install the retainer back in place as it shown on the picture. You have to engage the retainer with the small hooks on the keyboard.

Put the space bar key back in place and gently press on it with fingers until it snaps back in place.

That’s it. The space bar key is installed back in place and should work as before.
Here’s another technique you can use to fix a broken keyboard key.
As you see on the picture below the keyboard is missing the U key. The key cap, retainer and even silicone membrane were lost. Let’s see if it’s possible to temporarily fix the U key without buying any spare parts.
Personally, I cannot use keyboard without U key but I can live without a key located on the side from the right ALT – the “Right clicker” key. In the following guide I will remove one key I never use and install it in the place of missing U.

Carefully remove the key cap with your fingers.

Remove the retainer. The retainer has two pieces connected to each other. If one piece got disconnected from the other, connect them back together.

The silicon membrane is glued to the keyboard. Very very slowly separate the membrane from the keyboard with a sharp knife. While creating this disassembly guide I damaged one membrane because I wasn’t careful enough.
Again, you have to be very careful removing the membrane.
If you damage the membrane you’ll end up with two broken keys instead of just one.

The silicon membrane has been removed.

Now apply some superglue on the bottom edge of the membrane, just enough to keep the membrane in the place.

Carefully place the membrane in the center of the U. Make sure the membrane is positioned correctly. Wait until the glue cures.

Install the retainer.

Position the key cap above the retainer. Gently press on the key cap until it clips in and connects to the retainer.

Now you can use the U key again.

Troubleshooting. Why the key will not clip on.
 
Turn the key upside down and take a closer look at the locking clips. It’s possible that one of the clips is damaged and because of that the key will not clip on the retainer. If that’s the case, you’ll have to purchase a new key.

On the next picture you can see that one of the clips is missing, it’s broken. This key will not stay connected to the retainer either. If that’s the case, you’ll have to purchase a new key.

It’s possible that the key is fine, but the retainer itself is broken. On the next picture you can see that one of the tips is missing on the retainer. The left tip is OK, but the right one is missing. If that’s the case, you’ll have to purchase a new retainer.

Here’s one more picture. In this case two parts of the retainer will not stay connected to each other. It happens because one of the tips is broken. The left tip is OK, but the right one is missing. If that’s the case, you’ll have to purchase a new retainer.

HP Compaq manuals

Fixing a HP/Compaq laptop yourself? Need some help with taking the laptop apart? Here are links to manuals with step-by-step disassembly instructions. All these manuals are available from the HP website.
Here’s how to get the manual:
1. Follow the link
2. Select your model
3. Go to manuals
4. Find the maintenance and service guide and open it up (pdf file, some of them are huge)
5. Go to Removal and Replacement procedures chapter, you’ll find disassembly instructions in there
Manuals for the following Compaq Armada Notebook PC series. Get maintenance and service guide.
Compaq Armada 110, Compaq Armada 110s, Compaq Armada 1100, Compaq Armada 1500, Compaq Armada 1500c, Compaq Armada 1700, Compaq Armada 1750, Compaq Armada 3500, Compaq Armada 4100, Compaq Armada 4200, Compaq Armada 6500, Armada 7300, Compaq rmada 7400, Compaq Armada 7700, Compaq Armada 7800, Compaq Armada e500, Compaq Armada e500s, Compaq Armada E700, Compaq Armada m300, Compaq Armada m700, Compaq Armada SB, Compaq Armada V300
Manuals for the following Compaq Evo Notebook PC series. Get maintenance and service guide.
Compaq Evo n150, Compaq Evo n160, Compaq Evo n180, Compaq Evo n400c, Compaq Evo n410c, Compaq Evo n600c, Compaq Evo n610c, Compaq Evo n610v, Compaq Evo n620c, Compaq Evo n800c, Compaq Evo n800v, Compaq Evo n800w, Compaq Evo n1000c, Compaq Evo n1000v, Compaq Evo n1005v, Compaq Evo n1010v, Compaq Evo n1015v, Compaq Evo n1020v, Compaq Evo n1050v, Compaq Evo n200, Compaq Evo n110, Compaq vo n115
Manuals for the following HP Compaq Notebook PC series. Get maintenance and service guide.
HP Compaq 2400, HP Compaq 4400, HP Compaq 6100, HP Compaq 6200, HP Compaq 6300, HP Compaq 6305, HP Compaq 7400, HP Compaq 8200, HP Compaq 8400, HP Compaq 9400, HP Compaq nc4000, HP Compaq nc4010, HP Compaq nc4200, HP Compaq nc6000, HP Compaq nc6400, HP Compaq nc8000, HP Compaq nw8000, HP Compaq nw8240, HP Compaq nx4300, HP Compaq nx4800, HP Compaq nx4820, HP Compaq nx5000, HP Compaq nx6130, HP Compaq nx7000, HP Compaq nx7010, HP Compaq nx7100, HP Compaq nx7200, HP Compaq nx7220, HP Compaq nx7300, HP Compaq nx9000, HP Compaq nx9005, HP Compaq nx9008, HP Compaq nx9010, HP Compaq nx9020, HP Compaq nx9030, HP Compaq nx9040, HP Compaq nx9100, HP Compaq nx9105, HP Compaq nx9110, HP Compaq nx9500, HP Compaq nx9500A, HP Compaq nx9600
Manuals for the following HP Pavilion Notebook PC series. Get maintenance and service guide.
HP Pavilion de2000, HP Pavilion dv1000, HP Pavilion dv2000, HP Pavilion dv4000, HP Pavilion dv5000, HP Pavilion dv6000, HP Pavilion dv8000m, HP Pavilion dv9000, HP Pavilion n Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion tx1000, HP Pavilion xf Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion xh Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion xt Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion xu Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion xz Notebook PC series, HP Pavilion zd7000, HP Pavilion zd8000, HP Pavilion ze1000, HP Pavilion ze2000, HP Pavilion ze4000, HP Pavilion ze5000, HP Pavilion zt1000, HP Pavilion zt3000, HP Pavilion zu1000, HP Pavilion zv5000, HP Pavilion zv6000, HP Pavilion zx5000
Manuals for the following HP Presario Notebook PC series. Get maintenance and service guide.
Compaq Presario 300, Compaq Presario 700, Compaq Presario 800, Compaq Presario 900, Compaq Presario 1000, Compaq Presario 1100, Compaq Presario 1200, Compaq Presario 1400, Compaq Presario 1500, Compaq Presario 1600, Compaq Presario 1700, Compaq Presario 1800, Compaq Presario 1900, Compaq Presario 2100, Compaq Presario 2200, Compaq Presario 2500, Compaq Presario 2700, Compaq Presario 2800, Compaq Presario 3000, Compaq Presario B1000, Compaq Presario B2000, Compaq Presario B3000, Compaq Presario C300, Compaq Presario C500, Compaq Presario F500, Compaq Presario M2000, Compaq Presario R3000, Compaq Presario R4000, Compaq Presario V1000, Compaq Presario V2000, Compaq Presario V3000, Compaq Presario V4000, Compaq Presario V5000, Compaq Presario V6000, Compaq Presario X1000, Compaq Presario X1100, Compaq Presario X1200, Compaq Presario X1300, Compaq Presario X1400, Presario X1500, Compaq Presario X6000
Manuals for the following HP Special Edition Notebook PCs. Get maintenance and service guide.
Special Edition L2000 CTO Notebook PC, Special Edition L2005A3, Special Edition L2005A4, Special Edition L2005CL, Special Edition L2005CM, Special Edition L2005CO, Special Edition L2005CU, Special Edition L2005CX, Special Edition L2005US, Special Edition L2098XX, Special Edition L2099XX, Special Edition L2105CA, Special Edition L2105CL, Special Edition L2105NR, Special Edition L2205NR, Special Edition L2300 CTO Notebook PC, Special Edition L2310CU
UPDATE:
Here’s how you can fix known “No Video” issue on some HP Pavilion and Compaq laptops.

Repair LCD screen with water damage

Yesterday took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage. The screen itself was working just fine but it had two different problems.
- previous owner spilled water on the laptop. Somehow the water got inside the LCD screen and left stains inside the screen. The water marks were very noticeable on a white background and it was very irritating.
– the screen also had dust and lint inside also very noticeable on a white background. I have no idea how it got in there but I decided to clean it up too.
To fix both problems I had to open up the LCD screen. This was my first experience on opening a notebook screen. I was pretty confident because I didn’t really care if I break the screen, I just wanted to know if it’s possible to fix it.
Warning: the LCD screen can be easily damaged if you open it up. If you do something wrong the screen might become completely unusable and you’ll have to buy a new screen. It’s very expensive. Think twice before you decide opening the screen. Continue at your own risk.
Here’s my Dell Latitude D610 notebook with water damaged screen I’m going to take apart.
First of all remove the battery from the notebook.


Lift up rubber screw seals and remove all screws.

Carefully separate the screen bezel from the LCD cover and remove the bezel.

Remove two screws from the front and two screws from both sides.

Carefully remove the LCD screen from the cover and place it on the notebook base. Disconnect the video cable and the inverter board cable.

On this model the inverter board is attached to the screen with two screws. Remove both screws, disconnect the screen cable and remove the inverter board.

Carefully peel off sticky tape and foil and put it aside. You’ll have to put it back in place during the screen reassembly.

Remove two screws from both sides of the screen.

Carefully place the screen upside down on a flat surface. Carefully unglue the film that covers the circuit board and remove two screws from the board (top circles). I wasn’t really sure if I have to remove screws on the bottom, so I removed them just in case. Do not touch the circuit board with fingers.

After both screws are removed you should be able to lift up the circuit board. Be careful, it’s still attached to the LCD.

Start unsnapping the metal frame from the screen. There are a lot of latches on all sides of the screen. You can unlock them with nails or a small flat head screwdriver.

After all latches are opened you should be able to separate the screen into three pieces: metal frame, LCD and background (not sure about correct technical name).
If you have lint or dust inside the screen, probably you’ll find it between the LCD and the background. Do not touch LCD or background with your fingers. I was able to remove dust and lint up with a very soft cloth, barely touching the LCD and background surfaces.
After I split the screen I found that the background has a few some kind of optical layers (three transparent sheets) and in my case they were damaged by water. The water dried out and left stains between these optical layers.
In my case removing dust and lint wasn’t enough and I had to go further.

Very carefully separate the LCD with attached circuit board from the background.

To remove damaged optical layers it’s necessary to remove metal locks on both sides of the screen. It’s like a small clip that keeps layers in place.

After I removed both clips, I was able to look between the layers. At first I tried to clean up the dried water marks with a soft cloth but it didn’t help. The stains were still visible and didn’t want to go away.
Fortunately I had another similar screen laying around, it had a cracked LCD. I decided to borrow the optical layers from the cracked screen and transfer them to my screen. I wasn’t sure if it’s going to work, but as I mentioned before I didn’t really care if I break the screen. It was just an experiment.
So I disassembled the cracked screen and carefully transferred the white background and all transparent layers to my screen.

After that I assembled my screen back removing dust and lint with a very soft cloth. Breathlessly connected my new screen to the notebook. Turned it on and…
That’s a miracle, it works!
No dust, no lint, no water mars inside the screen! It’s clear and the background is absolutely clean!

My donor screen had a cracked LCD but it had a good working backlight tube. The backlght tube is very fragile and it’s located inside a metal casing. I didn’t remove the backlight tube, I just broke off the entire metal casing from the plastic frame. I’m going to use this backlight tube for testing purposes.

Fixing backlight problem by replacing inverter

Do you have a problem with the backlight on your laptop? If yes, you are not alone, that’s one of the most common laptop problems. In most cases the screen inverter is the culprit. Here are some LCD screen backlight failure symptoms that could be related to a bad inverter board:
- Laptop boots as usual but after some time the screen blacks out. You still can see an image on the screen but it’s very dim. You might even use a flashlight to see it better. Sometimes the backlight comes back for a while but then goes off again. In some cases you can turn the backlight on if you tap rapidly on the lid close switch.
– The screen always stay black and the backlight never comes on but you still can make out an image on the LCD. It’s dark, but the image is still there.
-In some cases you might hear a buzzing noise coming from the area where the inverter board is located, it’s on the bottom part of the display assembly.
NOTE: if you cannot see an image on the screen (not even very dim image), most likely you have a different problem and there is nothing wrong with the screen inverter.
Other related articles:
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
Notebook display assembly diagram. How image appears on the screen.
How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
How to replace laptop backlight lamp (CCFL)
Here’s an example of replacing the FL inverter board on an IBM ThinkPad T41 notebook. This guide will work fine for any other IBM notebook. Replacing screen inverter on other notebooks like Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc… will not be much different.


First of all, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.
In order to access the inverter board you’ll have to remove the LCD screen bezel. On most laptops screws are hidden behind screw seals. In this case we have 5 screw seals on the front. Carefully remove the seals with a sharp object and glue them on the LCD bezel, in this case you will not lose them. Remove all screws and mark them somehow so you are not confused when you assemble the notebook back.

Some laptops also have screws on the side of the display. This notebook has 3 screws on each side. Remove screws seals and then remove screws.

Start removing the LCD bezel with all fingers. Carefully wiggle the bezel to release plastic latches. Never use any sharp object during disassemble because you can accidentally damage the screen.

If latches are very tight you can use a guitar pick to unlock them. Insert the guitar pick between the LCD bezel and cover and carefully move it alone the side.

This notebook allows you to replace the inverter board without removing the LCD bezel completely. Lift up the bottom part of the bezel and remove one screw securing the inverter board to the LCD cover. This location is very common for the screen inverter. On most laptops you’ll find it under the display bezel below the screen.

Carefully lift up the FL inverter and rotate it a little bit. Unplug cables on both sides. The left side of the inverter board connects to the video cable, the right side to the backlight bulb (CCFL tube) inside the LCD screen. Remove the inverter and replace it with a new one.

To find a new inverter board (and any other spare part too) for any IBM notebook you should use the FRU number from the part.