Computer doesn't even turn on BIOS! Afraid motherboard is dead!

Hi, my mothers laptop (HP-2133 *Large Battery*) just stopped working.
There have happened a couple of things, so I'll tell it one by one:

- My mother turned on (From hibernation) her laptop one day, and the screen was green.
:My thoughts: I thought that it might be the graphics card that had some kind of error on start up, so I just turned it off and on again. Then it ran like it used to.

- A few hours later the laptop had these random freezes, which made "Force-shutdown" the only possible way of rebooting.
:My thoughts: I thought that this was perhaps a virus, but I never got the chance to run our Anti-virus (Kaspersky Antivirus PRO)

- Now (two days later), when she/I tries/try to turn on the laptop, nothing happens... The laptop powers on, but doesn't actually run the HDD, or even the motherboard for that matter (Doesn't run the BIOS).
:My thoughts: I noticed that the only light that's on, is the power-light, (The HDD doesn't even blink). I also noticed that the screen doesn't even turn on, but the fans actually run (Most likely because the laptop is powered on)

So I can imagine that the motherboard is dead, and in these couple of days, it's shown me that this is it's last days to live.

But before I rip it apart and save the value parts, and scrap the rest, I would like to ask you guys for your opinion.... Do you guys have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance xD

+1^

Also, another thing to test before declaring it dead is the power supply and battery.

Laptops can exhibit some strange behavior when the battery is dying. To test, remove the battery and run on power supply only.

vrosa said:

Remove the RAM sticks and turn it on. If the board is alive it must beeeeep...

But the HDD should run nonetheless, regardless if it has RAM or not, right?

TVeblen said:

+1^

Also, another thing to test before declaring it dead is the power supply and battery.

Laptops can exhibit some strange behavior when the battery is dying. To test, remove the battery and run on power supply only.

Hi I tried it, but no success

So my only logical standpoint is the motherboard... :/

zigzag3143: I haven't tried your method, so I'll give it a try!

suuunly said:

vrosa said:

Remove the RAM sticks and turn it on. If the board is alive it must beeeeep...

But the HDD should run nonetheless, regardless if it has RAM or not, right?

No/yes - depends on what you mean by "run".

The PC's BIOS will not get to the point where it even looks for a hard drive if there is no RAM installed. It will just discover that there is no RAM, stop, and start complaining with a beep code.

But the hard drive is electrically connected physically, so it will start spinning when the power comes on, but that does not mean it is working - it's just spinning.

The point of the exercise is to test to see if the motherboard is alive. If you take the RAM out and it does not complain then it is probably dead.

TVeblen said:

suuunly said:

vrosa said:

Remove the RAM sticks and turn it on. If the board is alive it must beeeeep...

But the HDD should run nonetheless, regardless if it has RAM or not, right?

No/yes - depends on what you mean by "run".

The PC's BIOS will not get to the point where it even looks for a hard drive if there is no RAM installed. It will just discover that there is no RAM, stop, and start complaining with a beep code.

But the hard drive is electrically connected physically, so it will start spinning when the power comes on, but that does not mean it is working - it's just spinning.

The point of the exercise is to test to see if the motherboard is alive. If you take the RAM out and it does not complain then it is probably dead.

There is no beep... But I'm starting to believe that the motherboard itself isn't getting any power, hence, no beep, because the HDD isn't spinning at all.
I also noticed that the laptops fan, doesn't start until after a while has passed, and it's not even spinning as fast as it should.

So my conclusion is, that the problem lies with the power-source, because:

- With the battery and no power-supply: It doesn't start at all (the fan)

- Without the battery, but plugged in to the power-supply: It'll start spinning after 5-10min

Any ideas on how to proceed?

If it is a power problem that is not caused by a bad motherboard then it can be 3 things:

• A bad power switch
• A bad Battery
• A bad power supply/charger.

You can test for a bad power switch by taking the laptop apart, finding the actual switch (below the button), and physically making the electrical connection by bridging the wire to a ground.


A bad power supply/charger would mean that the battery is not getting charged so it can cause two problems. You could buy or borrow a charging unit that has the exact same specs and connection as the old one to test this theory.


A bad battery can cause problems even when you are connected to the power supply and that is why you test the power supply with the battery removed. If it ran with only the power supply then you would know it is a bad battery.


It is a process of elimination.


Hope that helps.