Laptop won't boot

hypochondriac · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:04

A friend of mines laptop won't boot, it usually gets as far as a plain black screen with a white command line at the top. Then it turns itself off.
I tried to get to the bios screen and it turned itself off.
I also tried booting it from a CD, same fate.
Booting from mains without battery doesn't change anything.

Any ideas? she has some work on there she needs. :/

J.B · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:11

Well if the work is on there and desperatly needed she can take the HDD out and put it in a caddy.

In terms of the laptop, id say it was probably overheating very quickly if its crashing when its in the BIOS.

Had a Fujitsu laptop a while ago that did this. Took it apart and pull all the dust out the heatsink and a new dab of thermal paste.

hypochondriac · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:25

well it was warm when it did it the first time, and now, from cold, it wont even be on for a minute or 2 before it turns off.
will removing the dust set it straight or will the first overheat have caused some damage?

Liquidfox · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:42

Normally the laptop shuts off before the overheat can cause damage...

hypochondriac · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:48

If thats the case then why is it turning off now even thought the laptop is cool.

GinG · 12 Dec 2008 at 16:59

Id go down the cooling, sisters laptop did this, gave it a good clean and as good as new!