advent dead ish

[wpe]

hi peeps
i have an advent 5421 laptop that was working fine then put away when my daughter got a new laptop it just got put under the bed for 6 months anyway i needed to use it while i'm having internet probs with my own unit [ another thread ] the problem is it will turn on i ear the disk drive make a noise i can here what i would say is the hard drive spinning then it click's as if it shuts down then trys to start up again going through the motions time after time i see the web cam led light up and this goes through the same motion as above theres no sign of the screen turning on as it don't have time to get that far it will do the same over and over again but never boots up any clues or ideas please thanks in advance wayne

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

anyone ?? i can only imagine it could be a power problem maybe?

[sparker1]

Re: advent dead ish

There are a few basic things to try. I'm just a noob around here so they'll be simple things.

1. Are the clicks that you hear from the hard drive? If Yes, See if it will boot past bios without the hard drive.
2. If there are 2 sticks of RAM, remove one stick of RAM and see if it will boot with the other stick. If not, try the other stick of RAM.
3. See if it will boot on battery alone (without AC charger) if not see if it will boot on AC charger (without battery).
4. Remove all power including CMOS battery. Leave for 5 minutes and reassemble and try again.

I think what you describe could be a bad bios but could also be lots of other things too. Further tests would depend how confident you are about taking the laptop apart, for instance to try another processor. good luck.

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

thanks i'll give it a go and taking it aparts not a problem if needed thats one thing i am good at and like ti know how things work

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

hi
yes the click is from the hard drive if you mean boot using f2 to get in to bios then no it won't theres no sign of screen life. will not boot from battery alone or AC alone i removed the CMOS as said and still nothing ???

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

and i've just noticed the fan kicking every now and then even though its not booting up

[akotalik]

Re: advent dead ish

I had a hard drive clicking when a computer was dropped (pretty bad, the screen cracked) and the hard drive was damaged in fall. It would still read partially, but i thought the clicking was when it tried to access some sectors it could not.

Anyway, did you try booting it with another hard drive? You can also try to pull the hard drive and connect it to a working computer via usb, if you have the right cable (I use xbox data transfer cable)

[sparker1]

Re: advent dead ish

hi
yes the click is from the hard drive if you mean boot using f2 to get in to bios then no it won't theres no sign of screen life. will not boot from battery alone or AC alone i removed the CMOS as said and still nothing ???

No. I mean taking the hard drive out and starting the laptop to see if you get as far as a pxe/media error.

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

yes done that and still the same with no hard drive fitted

[atsio]

Re: advent dead ish

Without any power source plugged in (power suply and battery) hold down the power button for 60 seconds. After that connect power supply and try again.

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

just tried the above but no joy but thanks for helping

[sparker1]

Re: advent dead ish

Try removing ram stick by stick and attempt to boot. If no luck then replace with some borrowed known working ram and try again.

Then do the same with the processor If no luck with the ram.

If none of that works your next step would be a bios re-program. How to do that will depend on your laptop brand and if you have access to a bios programmer.

If that doesn't work you're looking at chasing voltages and you'll need someone smarter than me to help you with that.

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

ill look in the other laptops in the house and see if the bits are the same. thanks

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: advent dead ish

It may be bad solder at the power jack...

[wpe]

Re: advent dead ish

time to get the screw driver out and get involved i think. thanks all for advice ill keeo updating