Posted: 6/29/2012 12:16:15 PM EDT
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Oh hive...here's my problem:
We've been using a Toshiba Satellite L305D for the past 3 years as our primary household computer. It gets a heavy amount of use. About 2 weeks ago, I went to take it out of standby, and the monitor stayed black (no backlight). The fan spun up, and the hard drive was spinning (not being accessed, but you could hear it was spun up) and the power light was on. That's it...no monitor, hard drive lights, nothing. I powered it down and back up and got the same. No video, no splash screen, no bios screen. Nada. I tried all the Toshiba tricks I read about. Remove battery, hold down power button, etc, etc, etc. Symptoms stayed the same: no video, and the fan and hard drive would just spin up. That's it. Assuming the motherboard crapped out, I ordered a replacement and just finished installing it. You guessed it: same exact symptoms on the new MB. What's the next step? What are the chances the processor died (it's an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60). Could this all be a RAM issue? Can ram chips go bad, and would it cause these symptoms? I'm at the bounds of my knowlege here, so any help from our resident computer guru's would be appreciated!!! |
| Boot it as far as you think you can, then get out your brightest fucking flashlight, and light up the screen. If you can *just barely* see the ghost of your desktop on there, you blew the backlight in your screen. Pretty common. Sometimes it's just the cabling, but more frequently it requires a screen replacement, or abandoning the screen and going with an external. |
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Boot it as far as you think you can, then get out your brightest fucking flashlight, and light up the screen. If you can *just barely* see the ghost of your desktop on there, you blew the backlight in your screen. Pretty common. Sometimes it's just the cabling, but more frequently it requires a screen replacement, or abandoning the screen and going with an external. Probably This. If you can get your hands on a spare monitor, plug it into the external video port on the laptop. If you get video, your screen is shot. You can pick up replacement screens on Ebay for about $100. It's a lot easier to replace the screen than the MB, so you should have no problem with it. |
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Sorry...I should have been more clear with the symptoms.
I don't think it's a monitor issue, since the computer isnt actively booting. The hard drive spins, but it's not being accessed. The HDD light is also out. I never get any BIOS or splash screen "beeps". It just hangs with a spinning fan and power light. I mentioned the hard drive spinning up because it shows that the HDD is getting power, but it's definitely not being accessed as part of the start up routine. For kicks, I took a strong flashlight and checked to see if the backlight was out and I'm not even seeing ghost images (and I know exactly what you are talking about). I did a little more reading while waiting for responses to this thread, and it looks like it may be a processor failure. The toshiba has historically run knid of hot, and when I was disassembling the MB, I noticed the thermal paste was pretty well dried out. I just hate buying and randomly replacing parts on a 3-year old laptop. |
| Not the same scenario but my Toshiba L655 will not lite up the screen sometimes if it is closed then reopened a short time later. Similar in that all the lights are blinking and the whirry thing is whirring but no one is home on the screen. I have to shut down by holding the power button and restarting it. Its a fuggin PITA. |
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Sorry...I should have been more clear with the symptoms. I don't think it's a monitor issue, since the computer isnt actively booting. The hard drive spins, but it's not being accessed. The HDD light is also out. I never get any BIOS or splash screen "beeps". It just hangs with a spinning fan and power light. I mentioned the hard drive spinning up because it shows that the HDD is getting power, but it's definitely not being accessed as part of the start up routine. For kicks, I took a strong flashlight and checked to see if the backlight was out and I'm not even seeing ghost images (and I know exactly what you are talking about). I did a little more reading while waiting for responses to this thread, and it looks like it may be a processor failure. The toshiba has historically run knid of hot, and when I was disassembling the MB, I noticed the thermal paste was pretty well dried out. I just hate buying and randomly replacing parts on a 3-year old laptop. Gotcha. It could be ram too, and yes chips can go bad. It's a lot less common than DOA new chips, but it does happen. Sometimes they just work their way out of the slots too, and just need a good reseat. To test the ram, take both chips out and boot. I don't know about that particular model offhand, but you expect a funky sounding beep code, MAYBE an error on screen, and a hang. If you get no change of state whatsoever with the ram out, I think it's the processor. To really prove it out though, try each chip one at a time, or if you have a working machine, swap in ram from that. Make sure the ram slots and the chip's connector edge are free of gunk. I think the next logical step after that is to assume the processor is fried. Not sure where you're getting your parts, but that on top of the motherboard would be getting close to just scrapping it and grabbing whatever's on sale under $400 today. |
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The replacement MB was $90 (w/ free ship). I can get a processor for $20.
If that fails to fix the problem, I'll return the MB and chip, and scrap the whole damn thing. It just kills me to give in...this laptop is only 3 years old. Friggin toshiba! My last go-to laptop was a thinkpad. Lasted 6 years before the MB failed, and that was with heavy daily use. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
| Try removing the ram and blowing out the socket and reseating, preferably in a different ram socket and power it all up again (if you can get a known good stick of ram that would be better). First thing I would suspect would be a ram issue, then processor if not the ram with the description you are giving. |
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If the chip does fix it, don't be surprised if the motherboard is shot too if you try to swap that back in. The socket can warp. He's using a new mother board, so that shouldn't be an issue. Yup, I'm just saying I'd keep the new mobo if the new chip fires up on it. Probably wouldn't bother trying the old board again. |
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If the chip does fix it, don't be surprised if the motherboard is shot too if you try to swap that back in. The socket can warp. He's using a new mother board, so that shouldn't be an issue. Yup, I'm just saying I'd keep the new mobo if the new chip fires up on it. Probably wouldn't bother trying the old board again. Gotcha  Sorry, I are slow today.
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Quoted: Quoted: Just because the HD spins doesn't mean it's reading/writing. I know. That's why I thought it important to mention. The HDD is definitely getting power, but I'm not hearing the clicking that would indicate read/write. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile You need to ascertain if the boot program is running. This requires being able to see the display. If you can't see the boot operation on your laptop display, you need to plug in an external monitor and see if it shows up. The boot program lives on the motherboard. If it boots up with an exteral monitor, then your laptop's monitor is gunnybag. If it boots up but Windows fails to start...your HD is likely bad. Without being hands on it's really hard to diagnose.  |
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Just because the HD spins doesn't mean it's reading/writing. I know. That's why I thought it important to mention. The HDD is definitely getting power, but I'm not hearing the clicking that would indicate read/write. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile You need to ascertain if the boot program is running. This requires being able to see the display. If you can't see the boot operation on your laptop display, you need to plug in an external monitor and see if it shows up. The boot program lives on the motherboard. If it boots up with an exteral monitor, then your laptop's monitor is gunnybag. If it boots up but Windows fails to start...your HD is likely bad. Without being hands on it's really hard to diagnose.
I appreciate all the help so far. I doubt its the monitor, since it doesn't even seem to be running the normal start routine. In the least, I should be hearing an audible "beep" at the bios/splash screen. I'm not even getting activity on the HDD light. Just a spinning fan. I'll try to find an exterior monitor to plug it into. In the meantime, would a failed processor cause these symptoms? I'm reading more-and-more on chronic AMD failures at high temps. This laptop has run pretty hot for the past 3 years... Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |