Packard bell easynote tj74 startup issues..

[fossil31]

Hi all. Our old laptop is having a few start-up problems, and I have been trying to diagnose this issue without much luck. When powered on, sometimes it boots fine, no problems. Others, the fans start-up, and nothing else happens, the screen is black, and that's all it does. I can hold in the power button, open and close the screen, try again and it will power on ok. I have checked the battery, ram modules, tried draining the power etc., still issue persists...

Anyone any ideas on this?
Easynote tj74, windows 7

 

[webworkings]

It sounds like it may not be a power/start up problem, but a screen/display one. You say the fan runs right? Do you hear any other start up sounds when that happens?

 

[fossil31]

Yes the fans spin up, and I can hear the dvd drive head moving but nothing else shortly after. There are a row of lights for some touch controls above the keyboard, and they are not lit when this happens, no hdd light. When she boots ok, some of these are lit and the hdd functions normally. Would it not continue to boot as normal, even if the screen was defective?

 

[webworkings]

If the hard drive is making sounds as well (lights are not a good test) then it may well be the display.

You can try connecting an external monitor, while the laptop is turned off, then turn on the external monitor and finally turn on the laptop.

If you can see the desktop, etc., on the external monitor, your attached display is the problem. If you can't see anything on the external monitor either, then it could be the graphics card/GPU and possibly the motherboard.

 

[fossil31]

Thanks for the replies, the hard disk spins up but doesn't do anything else, it doesn't boot windows when the screen is black. I will try the second monitor, but I'm leaning towards the motherboard at the moment, maybe scrap it since I have an extra system for a backup now.