[ajcstr]

This is an "older" laptop (Toshiba A505D-S6958) so I would probably not pay to get it repaired, I just want to make sure I am not missing a step that I could do myself. 

 

It seems like it wants to boot up, the battery and power lights below the keyboard are on, the caps light blinks, I can feel the fan blowing but I hear no beeps at all.  The power light stays on but the volume controls above the keyboard do not light up.  Also, aside from the initial blink, the caps light will not come on when pressing the caps lock key.  If a CD is in when I hit the power button, the cd definitely spins so that is getting power.

 

I tried removing the battery and discharging, removing the memory, trying one chip at a time, tried with just adapter and just with battery.

 

Is there anything else I can try?  HD appears to be fine - hooked that up to an enclosure and got some files off it.

 

PS - I tried to disassemble a laptop once with mixed results, so I am willing to do some work on it bit not down to barebones.

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Hello ajcstr,

 

Good troubleshooting done on your behalf 

 

I can feel the fan blowing but I hear no beeps at all.

 

 

Does the notebook normally beep when the POST has completed.

 

Can you get into the BIOS or does the screen remain black throughout.

[phillpower2]

Hello ajcstr,

 

Good troubleshooting done on your behalf 

 

I can feel the fan blowing but I hear no beeps at all.

 

 

Does the notebook normally beep when the POST has completed.

 

Can you get into the BIOS or does the screen remain black throughout.

[ajcstr]

Hello ajcstr,

 

Good troubleshooting done on your behalf 

 

I can feel the fan blowing but I hear no beeps at all.

 

 

Does the notebook normally beep when the POST has completed.

 

Can you get into the BIOS or does the screen remain black throughout.

 

LOL - thats a good question, its not my computer but now that I think of it, I don't know if my laptops beep either like the desktop does.

 

Screen is just black.  Tried Hiren's boot CD, it spins but screen is black.  I have not tried hooking up to an external monitor, but as I say. nothing lit up except for the power button (if I use the adapter, that is lit also) so I figured it's not a display issue, but I should check that.

 

I guess those lights below the keyboard are connected to a different section of the mobo.  Is it possibly a CMOS battery issue?  Don't even know how they differ on a laptop vs desktop.

Edited by ajcstr, 23 March 2016 - 11:36 AM.

[phillpower2]

If you are not able to even get a BIOS screen it may suggest that there is a serious hardware problem and possibly with a failed video chip/MB, the reason that I asked about the POST beep was to see if removing the Ram and then powering up produced any error beeps/change in the behaviour.

 

You say the screen is black but have you tried to get into the BIOS by tapping either the F1 or Esc key when you power up the notebook, on a working notebook you should be able to get a BIOS screen even if it has been toggled to external display mode, stranger things have happened though so it would be prudent to try the toggle function by pressing down together the Fn and F5 keys.

[ajcstr]

You say the screen is black but have you tried to get into the BIOS by tapping either the F1 or Esc key when you power up the notebook, on a working notebook you should be able to get a BIOS screen even if it has been toggled to external display mode, stranger things have happened though so it would be prudent to try the toggle function by pressing down together the Fn and F5 keys.

 

I tried Esc, F2, F10, and F12 to get into BIOS

 

I was going to try an external just in case it was a video issue but I'll try the F1 and F5 also

Edited by ajcstr, 23 March 2016 - 12:10 PM.

[phillpower2]

Am I correct that you mean Fn + the F5 key.

 

If still a black screen after pressing Fn + F5, try removing the Ram and powering up the notebook without it to see if the behaviour changes in any way, btw, are you aware that the video chip relies on the Ram for support.

 

No need to quote every reply btw, makes less work for both of us that way 

[ajcstr]

Yes Fn+F5 (if this is the problem, I will be pissed)

 

Did not know about the video/Ram connection - I thought the ram supplied additional memory but that the video chip had some base amount of its own.  

 

Pretty sure I tried powering up with no memory, but at this point i'm losing track - I'll try again

 

I did not mention The cd I had in there was a Hiren's boot CD hoping that would work.

Edited by ajcstr, 23 March 2016 - 12:38 PM.

[phillpower2]

From the information that you have provided it is apparent that you know your way around a computer and the following info is for other less informed folk that may read this thread;

 

Some but not all computer MBs have an onboard speaker that emits error beeps to help with troubleshooting, if the present Toshiba notebook did normally emit a single beep after completing the POST but is not doing so now + it does not with all Ram removed it suggests MB or CPU failure and likewise if the Toshiba notebook does normally emit a single beep after completing the POST + now produces error beeps with all Ram removed it suggests that the Ram and memory slots are ok and it is the video chip that has problems, we cant disprove either without knowing if it does normally emit a single beep after POST but fwiw the other random behaviour with the Caps lock etc sounds more like a MB problem.

[ajcstr]

Unfortunately I don't know how it behaved before the problem. The absence of the beeps may be normal now that you got me thinking.

 

If it was a CPU overheating issue I would still be able to get into BIOS, correct?

Edited by ajcstr, 23 March 2016 - 02:28 PM.

[phillpower2]

My Sony notebook does not beep so the behaviour is not unusual.

 

Two things that can cause a completely black screen and no external display from a notebook, the screen itself being bad or a failed graphics solution, if you cannot get a BIOS screen on either display it points more towards the video chip which in most cases are integrated into the MB, the MB is more prone to fail than the processor is btw.

 

Going offline now as I have an early start, will check back asap tomorrow.

[ajcstr]

Tried FN-F5, nothing....connected to external monitor, repeated - nothing

 

Took memory out - no boot.  Swapped memory with another laptop.  Other laptop booted fine, nothing on this one.

 

I booted my other laptop (HP) side by side with this one, no beeps on that one either but by having the two next to each other I actually realized that the HD light on the Toshiba does not blink at all and I don't hear the HD spinning.  Tried another HD and it also did not spin.

 

So the only things that appear to be working are the fan and the optical drive.

[phillpower2]

the HD light on the Toshiba does not blink at all and I don't hear the HD spinning.  Tried another HD and it also did not spin.

 

Does sound like a bad MB as you would normally still bet a BIOS screen + get a boot device failure message if it was the HDD port on the MB that was bad, no BIOS screen, not booting from the Hirens disk and a replacement HDD also not working goes a long way to supporting the possibility that the board is bad I`m afraid 

[ajcstr]

OK, I figured that was a strong possibility.

 

Just to exhaust all, is there a CMOS battery in laptops?   Doesn't that hold the BIOS?

 

UPDATE

 

Looks like the battery is soldered on the mobo.  But I am thinking if it was the CMOS, all the other lights on the chasis would still work?

Edited by ajcstr, 24 March 2016 - 08:38 AM.

[phillpower2]

Notebooks do have a CMOS battery that powers the BIOS chip, while not impossible the CMOS battery being completely flat is unlikely to cause the behaviour that you describe, you would normally still get a BIOS screen + a checksum error message alerting you that the system settings such as the boot order and time and date need correcting, unfortunately I cannot find a guide for swapping out the CMOS battery on this particular model of notebook.

 

Only two things that I can suggest other than swapping out the CMOS battery, leave the notebook powered up overnight to see if a flat CMOS battery charges up and changes anything and take the notebook to a tech/tech store and have them check it over, they will at least have a known good power supply etc to test out the notebook. 

[ajcstr]

Well, thanks very much for your help, I'll see what my daughter in law wants to do, I would put the money they would charge into a new PC myself.

 

Would you agree that its probably not the adapter or the battery because the battery does appear to charge (battery light on chasis is orange when charging and changes to blue)?  Other thing I am going to try is she has another Toshiba that uses the same battery.  If this battery powers that PC, then I would definitely say its the mobo or something on the mobo.

Edited by ajcstr, 24 March 2016 - 03:06 PM.