Odd problem

[DogsBody]

I fixed a mate's laptop for him a few weeks back (new motherboard)
Anyway called round last night and he says that it just cut out whilst he was using it and wouldnt work after that.

It's symptoms when he gave it to me were that it fired up but nothing on screen (even when plugged into a monitor), pulled the battery, tried another charger. Tried different ram (in different slots also) tried a diff CPU and nothing.

I was ready to give it back and tell him it was dead then thought I'll just try changing the CMOS battery. It now works fine ??????
Is it normal for a computer to just die because of the CMOS battery without warning?

Another mate looked at it before me and he said that he had reset the CMOS already and that hadnt worked, I cannot verify he did that though because I wasnt there. And also the cutting out *may* not have been down to the battery, the laptop has the wrong charger and if the cord gets the slightest pull it comes out of the DC jack about 1mm and as the battery isnt holding charge it just dies so it could have been that that switched it off initially, my mate is obviously also aware of this though so I would have thought he would have mentioned it if that had happened.

James

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I agree it's very unlikely the problem was due to the CMOS battery as this is only intended to hold the values assigned in the BIOS rather than general running of the system. However, i have found that with many laptops brought in to me, that the PSU connection becomes weak and instable. This is mainly because people have the laptop plugged in whilst the unit is being moved around, like on a bed or on a sofa. I advise people to only use the charger on a static surface where there is no tension or pull on the socket. i would look at seeing if you can strenghten the socket by some means.

You did well to change the CPU, not something i enjoy and try and avoid.

 

[DogsBody]

cpu change was easy peasey on this one.
3 screws to remove a cover that covers half the bottom of the lappy, then 5 screws to remove the HSF.

I think the charger is wrong for the laptop as when i use my charger (same make laptop but newer) it stays in without any problems, my charger connector is slightly longer than his. But my charger isnt strong enough to start windows his is over 6amp mine is around 2.3 iirc.

 

[Bubba]

Failing battery that is giving out a low voltage could be corrupting the BIOS and stopping it from posting.

What laptop is it?

 

[DogsBody]

It is quite an old one. Running a celeron (upgrading to a P4 later this week) with 256mb ram and windows XP.
Pretty big and heavy as well.