Hey guys, I know a little bit about computers but I need some help.

My laptop stopped working. It was working fine all day. Its been working fine all year. I turned it off the correct way (start menu/shutdown) and went on my way. I came back about 4 hours later and started it up. It loaded the frist screen fine (the one where you can hit F2 to enter setup) but when it goes to load the next screen nothing happens. There is just one little "_" flashing in the upper corner.

I let it sit over night and started it up today but I got the same thing. I entered BIOS and changed my boot drive to my CD-ROM drive and put my Windows XP disc in, but the same thing happened. So now I am stummped. I really need this laptop. Not only is it my main source of entertainment for the next four months but I also use it for work. I got sooooo many files and programs that I need on there.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what happened or how I can fix it?

31C

 

no beep codes or anything?

Try loading bios back to defaults and save.

Yank the battery and the power cord wait a few minutes.

I'm assuming safe mode is a non issue cause you aint getting that far.

You could always try downloading the latest bios version and reflashing.

Your hard drive is likely still in tact so you could always yank it if the system is fried.

 

Thanks for the input Vader, now Im glad I didn't bash your Ravens in that thread you just started

When it first happened I thought it could be the hard drive. But when nothing happened when I tried to boot of the Windows CD I realized it might be more then that. But what? The only thing I could think is the motherboard. But how would it just go bad over the span of four hours.

31C

 

You sure it was trying to boot to the cd?

I had a computer do this a couple weeks ago. There was nothing important on it so I reinstalled the os and set it all back up again. Acted jus like you described, went to turn it on and.... *_* (blinking)

 

LOL. I did what Vader told me and it worked. I reset BIOS to defualt and it started up fine!

I can't belive I am in a Raven fan's pocket now.

All I know is when I get home I am reformating, updating and upgrading this POS.

31C

 

You shouln't need to format. It wasn't even leaving the bios boot sector to start booting to the hard drive or cdrom. Now that it's working I wouldnt update the bios either. Bad things can happen when you flash your bios. Only update your bios firmware when they don't work anymore. Last resort type of thing. It was just a cliche in the bios.

 

Well my laptop has had other problems in the past. The big one is that (when connected to the AUX power) if it is unplugged in crashes to the BSOD. It also has two operating systems installed on it and I only need one. I think a reformat would be just what I need.

31C

 

Files this in the "wierd problems and resolutions" folder.

A reformat never hurts if you want to go through it all. I need to do that myself. Got a few OS problems I can't put a finger on.

 

My motherboard went out in the time I drove from school to a friends house. Less than 15 minutes. Was working fine at school, shut it down and when I got to my friends house it wouldn't do anything.

 

I dont update bios on servers unless it is necessary. My PC at home I keep current. The updates can help the system perform better.

Glad it worked 31....