Laptop: Black screen at startup, no beeps, LEDs light, HDD actvity

[sinmara]

Hi,

I'm having some troubles with my laptop (HP Compaq 8510w) not booting up, and now I'm trying to figure out which component that's the one that has went bust.

Put my Win7 to sleep mode one day, and the next day the laptop used quite a while to get back into Windows when starting up. Later the same evening I shut down the laptop before going to bed, or so I thought; when I woke up the next day the laptop still tried to shut down, but now the screen was pitch black, and it didn't respond to anything at all.

Forced it to power off, but when I tried to power it back on, everything was still pitch black, and nothing happened.

When I now try to boot it up there are no beeps at startup, just a pitch black screen, so I don't even get to the BIOS or anything. The only signs of life are a sound from the CD-drive as if the laptop tries to read a CD, and that the LEDs indicates HDD activity, plus that the fan is spinning.

So far I've tried:

• 
  ■ connecting an external screen
  ■ disassembling the laptop and taking out the battery (and holding down the power button for 30sec, 60sec, +++) before booting with AC power plugged in. Done this several times, no luck no matter how long I hold the power button before booting up.
  ■ other memory sticks that I know are functional, one at a time (for both memory slots).
  ■ "new" (refurbished) video card.
  ■ booting after taking out both the HDD and the CD-drive; when doing this there's no sign of life except the LEDs and the spinning fan.

Another thing I've noticed is that the laptop powers up by itself the moment I plug in the AC power; e.g., I don't have to push the power button or anything.

Since the laptop battery was almost fully charged when this happened, I've also tried booting it up with the battery in case it was the AC power supply that was the problem, but no luck again.

I believe it's either the motherboard or the CPU that has died, but I can't really tell since I'm no expert on these things. Is there an "easy" way to determine which of the two that can be the source? Or any other suggestions to what the problem may be?

 

[Nonos_33]

I have the exact same problem with my laptop... it worked fine on saturday, put it in sleep mode for the night, and when I tried to wake it up on sunday morning, it didn't respond, had to shut it off with the power button. When trying to start it, cdplayer tried to read a cd, fan started, but the screen didn't turn on and the cpu activity led is on for only 1 second, and then nothing... tried woth another hdd and I got the exact same problem... also tried powering it on battery only, and without the battery...

 

[ROCKSTARhjk]

What did u say how many beeps did u see on the caps lock key ?? Check that and tell us maybe we can help u then , talking about cpu or motherboard, both of these components are the most durable parts inside a computer, they die the last so tell us about the light beeps on the caps key or the num lock key

 

[sinmara]

What did u say how many beeps did u see on the caps lock key ?? Check that and tell us maybe we can help u then , talking about cpu or motherboard, both of these components are the most durable parts inside a computer, they die the last so tell us about the light beeps on the caps key or the num lock key

Sorry for the late reply, I've been out travelling so I haven't been able to check this until now.

When I power up the laptop there are no light beeps on the caps key or the num lock key, just the led showing the power is on, and that there is HDD activity. Other than that, only the spinning fan, and the noise from the optical drive are signs of that something is working.

 

[xamarshahx]

Were you able to get this fixed. I am having the same issue. Thanks!

 

[sinmara]

Were you able to get this fixed. I am having the same issue. Thanks!

No, I haven't fixed the problem yet, but I've concluded that for my laptop it has to be the motherboard that has burnt out or something. Testing with new CPU/GPU/RAM/HD/etc haven't changed anything, so basically it's only the motherboard left. I'll try to get a replacement later this year to fix it, but it's not top priority right now.