Laptop Motherboard dead? Recycles No Boot 99% of time?

I wrote about a broken Dell laptop last month and have narrowed down
the symtoms a bit more. Strange that it will boot when you do not turn
it on for a few days.

Dell laptop; battery, cd drive, hard drive have all been removed.
System simply turns on the green light, hums for 1 second then green light
(i.e. power) goes off and it recylces the process. If I leave it plugged in
this cycling will just continue. The screen is just blank.

However if I don't touch the PC for several days and let it discharge?, the
system will boot off a floppy, function for a few minutes then it will lock
up. When you then try to boot it goes back to the cycling issue discribed
above. Nothing.

Does this sound like the motherboard is dead? What would cause it to boot
once or twice when the system has not been used for several days?

Al Franz wrote:
I wrote about a broken Dell laptop last month and have narrowed down
the symtoms a bit more. Strange that it will boot when you do not
turn
it on for a few days.

Dell laptop; battery, cd drive, hard drive have all been removed.
System simply turns on the green light, hums for 1 second then green
light (i.e. power) goes off and it recylces the process. If I leave
it plugged in this cycling will just continue. The screen is just
blank.

However if I don't touch the PC for several days and let it
discharge?, the system will boot off a floppy, function for a few
minutes then it will lock up. When you then try to boot it goes back
to the cycling issue discribed above. Nothing.

Does this sound like the motherboard is dead? What would cause it to
boot once or twice when the system has not been used for several days?

I'd go for memory before motherboard. If you have two modules pull one and
see if the problem goes away. If not put that one back in and pull the
other. If you only have one module and the laptop is worth it go out to
www.curcial.com and pick up a new module and replace the old one.

You may also want to make sure that everything is seated well. Look at any
miniPCI boards that are in the PC. Make sure there is nothing lose or
rattling around. You can also pop off the thin trim piece at the display
and make sure the thin display cable is secure.

HTH


--

Rob
- "You put a living room where the crack den used to be!!!"
- "Wouldn't it be great if stupidity was painful?"

May also be a heat problem. Don't use it and it cools off. Try to use it
constantly and it heats up, shutting the Intel processor down. Try putting
a small fan to the bottom of the case, when you start it. Just a shot, I
had a similar problem with a desktop and it ran fine with a fan blowing on
the CPU. HTH

Pat Conover


"Robert R Kircher, Jr." wrote in message
...
Al Franz wrote:
I wrote about a broken Dell laptop last month and have narrowed down
the symtoms a bit more. Strange that it will boot when you do not
turn
it on for a few days.

Dell laptop; battery, cd drive, hard drive have all been removed.
System simply turns on the green light, hums for 1 second then green
light (i.e. power) goes off and it recylces the process. If I leave
it plugged in this cycling will just continue. The screen is just
blank.

However if I don't touch the PC for several days and let it
discharge?, the system will boot off a floppy, function for a few
minutes then it will lock up. When you then try to boot it goes back
to the cycling issue discribed above. Nothing.

Does this sound like the motherboard is dead? What would cause it to
boot once or twice when the system has not been used for several days?

I'd go for memory before motherboard. If you have two modules pull one
and
see if the problem goes away. If not put that one back in and pull the
other. If you only have one module and the laptop is worth it go out to
www.curcial.com and pick up a new module and replace the old one.

You may also want to make sure that everything is seated well. Look at
any
miniPCI boards that are in the PC. Make sure there is nothing lose or
rattling around. You can also pop off the thin trim piece at the display
and make sure the thin display cable is secure.

HTH


--

Rob
- "You put a living room where the crack den used to be!!!"
- "Wouldn't it be great if stupidity was painful?"