What is possibly wrong with my laptop?

qwerty · 24 May 2009 at 16:48

My laptop is completely broken! Here are the symptoms:

I press the 'on' button and the little green 'on' light comes on but the computer makes no sound, and the screen is completely blank. It stays like this, silent, with the screen completely blank, but the little 'on' light lit up forever.

Yesterday I was using it and it just turned off for no reason.

What is possibly wrong? Is there anything i can do to fix it? Or must I find some sort of computer repair shop?

alex24 · 24 May 2009 at 17:04

You could try reseating the RAM and if it has more than one stick, just putting in one at a time in case one has gone bad.

Other than that, since it's silent, could be the power supply or more likely (in my experience) a dead mobo, which is hard to diagnose on your own without some spare parts, though it's an issue from which most lappies don't recover.

What make/model?

EDIT: Also try taking the battery out and running without, or just removing it for 10 mins and putting it back in, sometimes works wonders for some reason!

qwerty · 24 May 2009 at 17:12

It's a Dell Inspiron 9300

Dead motherboard sounds bad

I will try the battery trick when I get home (I'm in an internet cafe atm!).

Could this problem have been caused by overheating? The laptop was insanely hot underneath yesterday when it crashed. Would the fact that its 35C here have an influence?

alex24 · 24 May 2009 at 17:20

Possibly a heat issue, though this could have just exacerbated a pre-existing problem and put it over the edge.

How old is the machine? Much over 3 years I wouldn't be surprised if it's given up the ghost, especially Dell unfortunately. I've seen too many similar in for repairs where I used to work.

Definitely try the battery and RAM first though, you've got nothing to lose! Though I do hope you have a backup. Fortunately HDD's are fairly easy to get out of these if needs be, though depending on the interface you may need an adapter to recover the data.

qwerty · 24 May 2009 at 17:25

Yeah, it's about 3 and a half years old! Stupid Dell...

I dont have a recent enough backup, but hopefully if it is completely irreparable a specialist person might be able to get the data of the hdd.

I'll try the battery. Would try the RAM but do not have an appropriately sized screwdriver to open it up atm

alex24 · 24 May 2009 at 17:26

Try and get your hands on one, might just be a case of buying a new stick. Also, if the mobo is dead, the HDD is usually just fine, so you can probably recover the data youself with access to another machine. You can buy an adapter to IDE connection, or even a USB caddy for the HDD. This would let you recover the data.