OT: Laptop problems ...

[Jethro]

rather foolishly, I left my Packard Bell Easynote SJ51 on for a few days, plugged into AC power. Came down yesterday, and it was dead.

Turning it on causes the lights to flash, the fan to spin, but otherwise nothing. No screen activity, or HDD activity.

Data is backed up, so that's no problem.

Having a quick look, I checked memory seating - OK, and the CPU. The CPU is covered with a heatsink which has a cooler pipe attached to the fan over it. The fan vent was completely clogged with dust.

Removing the CPU makes no difference to the machines behaviour. Pressing the power button brings the "On" and "WiFi" lights on, and nothing else. Pressing it for a few seconds turns it off again.

Would it be a fair assumption the CPU got fried ? Once fried, it has to be a new one ? Obviously the vent and fan have now been cleaned out ... I also bolt stable doors, if you've lost your horse ;-)

[AlanD]

Leaving the laptop powered up for several days shouldn't be a problem, but the blocked heat-sink fins are. It does sound like either the CPU or motherboard are fried. I'd start with a S/H CPU of the same (or suitable/compatible upgraded) type, and if that doesn't solve it replace the motherboard. It may not be cost effective to do this however.

[Tim]

If you haven't done so, try removing the battery and diconnecting the power supply. It may just have crashed and sometimes the presense of a battery prevents you doing a full " cold reset".

Tim

[Jules Richardson]

*something* cooked and broke, but I wouldn't automatically assume it was the CPU.

If it were me, I'd take a little time to pull the board, check for obvious visual signs of stress, then check what components I could with a multimeter and/or swapping into a known-good system (e.g. memory, hard disk). As somone else said, try without the battery too.

cheers

Jules

[Bill]

In message , Jethro writes

It might be worth saying that if you were vaguely thinking of replacing the laptop anyway, you often get more on ebay for a non-working machine than for a working one.

I have and I didn't understand it either.

[Reentrant]

I'd hope the OP did that before removing the CPU.

[Jethro]

I did.

[Triffid]

The buyers may be relying on the fact that a non-working laptop may not have been 'cleaned' of valuable personal information...

-- Triff

[Jethro]

Golden rule : never sell a machine with a HDD.

Ever.

[Manticore]

Who would buy a PC without a HDD? Just use DBAN to clean it.

[Skipweasel]

Plenty of good cheap second-hand PCs out there with paranoid corporate first-users who've ripped out the HD.

They often sell for very reasonable prices - and it's not as if an HD is expensive.

[Clive George]

Bit of a pain when they're missing the mount or cable though.

[Skipweasel]

Yeah - that's just rude on the part of the bod who takes them apart.

[Jethro]

well, in as much as I'm not a *laptop* expert (have ripped plenty of desktops apart over the years, and have a respectable box of bits for testing) I've done as much as possible. The HDD is fine - I plugged that into my new work laptop (sadly completely different spec) and it booted into Vista fine. I've visually inspected the mobo, and can't see any obvious burns, or smell anything fruity which might hint at overheating. Capacitors look intact, not bulged.

Now I can get hold of a 2nd hand CPU for =A320, from a local shop, but of course it's no refunds. However, my reasoning is that if the motherboard had gone, then the power on button wouldn't work, as it's a soft switch which routes through the motherboard. But power on, and power off work. And I've had desktops where the CPU has gone, and the power button worked. So I think it's worth a punt ... otherwise I'll break it down and eBay it ... the sceen assembly could get a few quid on its own.

Good news is as part of this investigation I got myself a nifty IDE/ SATA to USB cable, which will save hours of messing when I'm testing old HDDs ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

the CPU is a good bet, as its the hottest thing on the board.