Guild of Writers

My laptop died on me yesterday.
Thankfully the HD is fine so I still have all my files (gotta buy a few DVDs, time for some back-up fun). I am now using a 7 years old desktop and for some reason it won't connect to my internet rooter (looks like the ethernet port is wacky, and I don't have another ethernet card handy. So I got myself a new smartphone (i really needed one anyway) and I hooked my computer to it to get some internet. (yay for tethering)
Not sure what is wrong with my laptop; it just won't boot.. It doesn't look like a hardware problem, but on the other hand I don't know what else it could be. It starts; electricity runs through it; it doesn't throw out any errors beeps; it just won't display the boot screen, no logo, no bios setup, no nothing, just a blank screen and the fan blowing.. Like the bios is dead or something like that. Really no idea.. It happened all of a sudden; the previous evening it worked fine.
It's out of warranty too. :/ So I'll have to scour some hardware forums see if I can get some help.
At least my current computer works, can access internet and can run Blender, so all is not lost.

Did you do a BIOs update lately??

If so then when you try to Boot your Laptop try tapping F2 to access the BIOS
after entering
choose "optinum" setting and then "save"

No, I didn't do anything of the sort lately; nothing unusual. Which is why I don't understand why it's dead. Might be a virus issue that fried the bios, but that sounds unlikely, especially considering I have an up-to-date antivirus.

The only other things that I can think of is that the unit may have gotten dropped and the cable between the display and the unit was undone or the driver card came undone - Though that is unlikely because they are normalily glued...

The same thing happened to me when my laptop's HD started dying. I had to remember the boot mode selector hotkey, press that, then force it to boot from the HD. It worked for awhile, then it stopped.

It looks like the HD is not at fault here, but I'll definitely back up my files just in case...

Could it be your screen that died?

The screen looks fine as far as I can tell, it does lit up (although it does stay black I can see that at least the backlight is working). It's the boot sequence that doesn't work at all. Usually when I start that computer it beeps and then goes through its boot sequence -- displays the boot screen, detects the hardware; RAM, drives etc and then proceeds to load up its OS. Here nothing happens at all: I switch it on, the power LEDs lit up, the screen lights up, but then it doesn't boot: it doesn't beep, and the HD LED doesnt' blink at all; it just stays there, waiting for something that won't happen.
Whatever the source of the problem, at this point I'm afraid it's a hardware issue, and that's something I can't fix. And since it's out of warranty it would cost me an arm to get it fix and it would probably take two weeks or more. Might as well get a new one. Except that: A. I don't have the money right now and B. I have set up a desktop computer with old parts which isn't great but it does the job; so that will do for now..
So I guess I'll just put aside that laptop for now, and come back to it later... :/

Can you get anything else to boot up?

Like a Partition Magic repair disk or something that loads its own OS. Try running "memtest86". It has its own OS.

Not sure of the proper name but - the CMOS battery might be going bad or has.

No beeps sounds or HD lights like something major has failed. Unless you have turned the beeps off like I do when I can.

@Aloys: It sounds like you might have a bad lcd inverter. I repair laptops for a living - and see that a lot. If it's not the inverter, then it could be the cable, lcd, or at worst - the motherboard.

Even if the HDD died, it should still boot and show the bios post. Check on Ebay, you can usually pick them up for less than $15US.

"Edit: I re-read your posts... and missed something. Actually, it does seem like it's the motherboard. You can test this theory by hooking the laptop up to an external monitor - then after turning it on use the external-display hotkey. If the motherboard isn't fried, it should switch to the external. Hope this helps..."