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ok hard drive out, lappy on.....still the same noise as if its trying the dvd but nothing else

TheMrs

Have you tried taking the battery out and seeing if you get anything?

Yup battery out too

sorry guys

TheMrs

Does it have a RAM upgrade? Maybe the RAM stick is loose.

nope

The problem with laptops is there is only so much you can take out to test, with a desktop you can change everything to test.

As you have removed the battery, hard drive and cd/dvd drive, plus there is no RAM stick in the expansion port, you should at least get the BIOS screen.

The fact you don't would suggest to me a hardware problem within the laptop. Could be the screen, either the bulb or hardware fault, but I doubt that as you said when you have tried with the cd/dvd drive in it just keeps clicking, if it was the screen it should just boot as normal, just with no image.

I'm fairly certain its hardware related, something inside the laptop itself not easily replaceable, possibly the motherboard, GFX card or one of the built in features; sound, lan, wireless, etc.

Has it:
been dropped?
had liquid spilled on it?
been left on a place that could potentially overheat it (duvet, blanket, cushion, etc)?
had the wrong PSU plugged into it?
had something plugged in that shouldnt have been?

Unless anyone else has any ideas?

The weird thing is that it will eventually start....sometimes this can take several hours sometimes all night but then just bursts into life and runs perfectly well.

Not been dropped or had any liquid on it as far as I know.

If it does suddenly start is there any tests or anything I can do?
We already copied everything over to an external hard drive.

Thanks everyone for trying to help

TheMrs

hmmmm, you could try a Burn in test, basically a stress test.

http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

30 day evaluation.

Give that a run, see if it reports any errors.

I would still say that its a built-in hardware fault. Maybe something is very slightly loose or a wire is only microns away from its contact point and is touching every now and then, and thats when it works. Something like that.

When you switch it on does the screen glow? As in, the difference between an off screen and an on screen displaying a black screen.

Thanks will give that link a try if it ever bursts in to life. No difference in the screen at all.

Thanks again

TheMrs

....also, check the device manager to see if any hardware is reporting a fault.

will do

Thanks again

TheMrs

When it does come back on, is it as if you just switched it on (BIOS, then loading screen, etc), or is it instantly at the windows logon screen/desktop?


EDIT: no problem, I didnt help much, but hope you get it sorted

So just to confirm, have you actually taken the RAM out and tried to boot? It'll fail of course but it shouldn't make any weird sounds before then.

Since you've removed everything attached you're only really left with it being a motherboard or cpu fault.

erm....no idea, it normally boots up in the middle of the night so we just see the start screen.

If we do manage to catch the BIOS we will see what the boot sequence is and let you know

TheMrs

Theres no ram in the expansion.