Samsung X10 Issues

[Sheepy69]

Hi all,

Im hoping someone out there can offer me some advice on a samsung x10 laptop that ive been asked to look at for someone.

I can vouch for the history of the laptop in that its current owner has had it from new and until recently had no problems with it.

He went on holiday for a couple of weeks, when he got back went to use the laptop to access the internet and it wouldnt turn on (message I got).

I have had the laptop and when turned on the power light indicator comes on, the cd drive spins up if there is a disk in and is ejectable, and occasionally the CPU fan spins up for a moment. However the screen doesnt power on (no back light or display of any sort), there is no output to the vga port either (Tried plugging a monitor in to see if it was a dead screen). There are no bios beeps or sound codes of any sort. None of the keyboard indicator lights respond.

I have two suspicions as to what the problem is. The first is a dead bios (is there a bios chip I can remove and have reprogrammed if this is the case?). The second is that the finger print scanner has for some reason become enabled and the computer is awaiting a valid finger print before it will allow the bios to continue (though I would have thought that the bios would need to have completed its cycle for the finger print scanner to work). Does anyone know if there is a display screen of any sort that is supposed to appear if the finger print scanner is enabled for boot time or are the symptoms ive listed above what its supposed to do if its waiting.

If it is the finger print scanner, are there any ways to get in through a key'd in code (Ive read that some laptop's will allow entry without a finger print if a pin code is given to them instead)?. If there are no pin code bypasses is there any sort of bios reset or procedure I can use to get the darn thing booting?.

Ive had the laptop to pieces when I got it to check for the usual suspects, loose cables, loose bios chip, fan unplugged, however all appeared to be in order inside, apart from I couldn't work out which is the bios chip for the centrino platform (is there a seperate chip?). I also couldnt find a reset jumper of any sort, so did the next best thing and unplugged the bios battery for about a week. Re-assembly revealed the above issues still.

If anyone can offer advice it would be appreciated as im pretty sure the samsung repair price is going to be rather daft.

Thanks in advance,
Andy

 

[J.B]

remove and reprograme the bios chip? rather you than me! I would say it could be the ram, you might want to try removing the battery and the motherboard battery to reset the bios.

Id put my money on a faulty ram chip. I've never used it myself but i would have thought even with the fingerprint scanner active it would have some sort display

 

[benjo plz.]

Dead cpu or memory maybe?

 

[Sheepy69]

Cheers for the ideas.

When i had the laptop in pieces i removed the cmos battery from the motherboard (its held in its own little rubbery case with a connection appearing from one end to connect to the mobo, this then appears to be glued to the motherboard, or stuck on with tape). It was disconnected for over a week so im hoping it was enough to reset the bios.

Id have been expecting a beep code from the bios if it was memory, however it does have a memory expansion installed so ill try removing that and see if there is any change.

If its the onboard stuff then im going to recommend he gets the laptop replaced. I dont mind replacing CPU's when their in a nice friendly socket, however when their soldered to the mobo im a little more cautious.

Cheers for the info, though if anyone does have one of these laptops and could confirm if there is a screen of any sort for the finger print scanner it would be appreciated.

Thanks again and for any future replies,
Andy