Solved! Laptop doesn't boot - black screen constantly

[VirusWar]

Greetings,
one girl came the other day, brought in a Toshiba Satellite C655.

Problem: Laptop doesn't give any signs of life except fan spinning, heating up, lighting up those small lights for charging and activity. USB ports are powered, charging is working, fan responds to different temperatures (turns on and off depending on need).

I thought that the screen was malfunctioning, so I hooked it up on a VGA display (since the laptop doesn't have any other video output.) Nothing.
Reseated everything, still nothing. RAM is working, tried it in another laptop. HDD is functional, plugged it in my PC.

Was looking at it for half an hour, didn't move. Those damn spies...
The last thing I want to try is to hook it up on those PCI extensions that takes place of WiFi card and allows you to connect it to the desktop GPU. Maybe it shows some signs of life...

Could you give me any troubleshooting tips, and suggest what else could I check?
Also, how can I certainly determine the motherboard is dead?

If you need any more info, please ask.
Thanks.

 

[velocityg4]

Well you've...
- Determined the RAM is good
- Tested with external monitor
- Tested the HDD

All else I could suggest
- Test the laptops PSU with a multi-meter to determine voltage is correct
- Perform a CMOS reset
- Remove all the parts you can easily get at (DVD, HDD, 1 RAM Module, Battery, WiFi card) hook to the external monitor again and see if it will POST.

As it stands right now it sounds like a faulty motherboard. Given the age of the laptop. I'd never recommend to a client to do a repair. I'd recommend having me transfer the data to a new one. Even a refurbished one if money is tight. Their laptop is only worth about $50. Going by used prices on eBay.

 

[VirusWar]

Nope. Nothing.
I thought so myself, that the mb is dead, but I wanted to consult at least with another person, cause two heads are smarter than one.
I guess that's it, if anyone else has any more suggestions, feel free to post, it doesn't hurt to try everything.

Thank you.

 

[jarotech]

Hi, check if you have a NEC Tokin capacitor under the processor on the other side of the motherboard, often this capacitor is defective and stop the processor from working properly.

 

[VirusWar]

Really sorry for the late answer, I crossed this laptop as dead, and didn't bother to check. Today I went on this post, just to see, maybe someone said something that I missed.

@jarotech
are these the ones you speak about?
https/i.imgur.com/0exaDFn.jpg
Can they be checked like a normal standing capacitors? Didn't really work with these, so any tips on them?

Thank you very much.

 

[VirusWar]

I've checked them for continuity and both sides are beeping, which means they're bad. Am I correct?
I've searched around my country to buy new ones, but for the love of me, I can't find any...
If I am correct, and they're bad, I guess I'll have to order via aliexpress or something like that.

 

[jarotech]

No, these capacitors are not the NEC Tokin, it's a big capacitor written NEC Tokin on and it's on the other side of the motherboard. But not all Toshiba has this capacitor. Moreover, the beep is normal depending on how these capacitors are connected, the only way to check is to remove the capacitor and check the continuity.

 

[VirusWar]

I didn't find it on this MB so when I googled NEC Tokin, these popped up too, so I assumed that's it, just a different form/type. Doesn't matter. I'll remove these and check them. Will respond when I'm done.