Trying to troubleshoot a laptop

[deimos256]

I have really no experience with laptops and I took on the task of trying to fix a freinds. What happens is when you turn it on the lights come on, but the screen wont light up and the dvd drive keeps making this repetitive noise like its cycling over and over again. My pure guess is a bad power supply? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[kilo delta]

Have you tried removing the dvd drive and testing the laptop then? Are you sure that the screen is dead? Shine a flash light on the screen and if you can see a feint image then it's the inverter that's kapput.

[gigabyte]

Another trick with laptops is to connect an external monitor - before you hit the power, make sure the external is powered up then turn on the laptop, watch closly and see if the external is detected. Most monitors will display a pattern or message if powered on and not detecting a signal, if the monitor does not detect any signal you likely have mother board or power problems, if it does chances are good it is the laptop LCD.

I have also ran into a few cases where the BIOS will get corrupted, if that case there should be a way to reset it to the factory default, with most Dell's you remove the battery and external power and hold down the power swiitch for 30 seconds.

Depending on the brand you should check the Mfg site and see if there is a User or support forum, you can generally find help in those from users with the same model or problem.

Good Luck.

[deimos256]

Ok its an HP, and i looked up diagnostic codes for blinking leds for a blank screen startup, and it looks like a dead CPU, question is, is there any way to recover the data on the hard disc? do i have to remove it and plug it in to another computer or is there a way to hook the whole laptop up and get the data onto my desktop?

[kilo delta]

The easiest way to back up the data is to stick the drive into an external drive caddy first (make sure that your've the correct type first... PATA/IDE or SATA), then transfer to your pc.

[deimos256]

Alright, is there any way that doesnt involve me having to buy something that I will use once?

[kilo delta]

What type of connection does it have? If it's SATA you can hook it up to a spare SATA and power cable in your PC (maybe disconnect an internal HDD...not the one that houses the OS though,obviously!) :)

[deimos256]

ok excellent, i dont know much about laptops and didnt know if they had the same power connectors as desktops. I was planning on asking in my computer class tonight. ill just disconnect my second HD and pop this one in, i only need to recover some photos.

[gigabyte]

Deimos, if it is an OLD HP it could be an IDE drive, in that case it will not connect to a normal desktop computer IDE connector or power - HOWEVER, there is a way around that, you will have to buy something, (an adaptor) but it is cheap, and if you can't find the adaptor let me know I have a spare you can have, I'll just need an address to send it to.

Now the details, when you remove the drive from the laptop it is fairly easy to tell if it is IDE or SATA, look at the connector, and IDE drive has a small block with 40 pins on one end that connected it to the computer, an SATA drive has a much smaller slotted connector, which is about 1 & 1/2" wide. If you have the IDE you will need a Mini to full size IDE adaptor, as I said they are cheap $5.00 around here (Atlantic Canada).

I will try to grab a few quick pictures of teh connectors and the block so you know what to look for, give me an hour to grab a bite.

[gigabyte]

OK Here are some quick & dirty pictures, sorry about the focus but my camera does not do well up close, but these shoudl give you enough detail.

This is the adaptor I was talking about.
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This pic is the connector that plug into an IDE laptop drive, the drive itself has a male version of the small 40 pin connector.
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This is the SATA connector on a 2.5" Laptop drive, the newer of the two - IDE is an older style.
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This is the other side of the Adaptor that would connect to your Desktop power and IDE cable, beware you may need the IDE cable if your desktop has only SATA drives in it, but again those are cheap ($2.00 or less)
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As I said if you have an IDE laptop drive and can't locate an adaptor let me know (just PM me here) and I can send this one.

If you have any other questions just let me know.
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