OT: Any laptop wizards here?

[whiskychaser]

Have of course sought help on a more appropriate board, but got an answer like 'find out which part is faulty and replace it'. Very constructive. So in the hope somebody can point me in the right direction here goes:
Her Toshibaba Satellite Pro L300-21F 'just stopped working'. Of course its 18 months old so out of warranty. A friend's techie had a quick and somewhat reluctant look and pronounced that either the motherboard or CPU was dead.The power supply light and battery light come on. When you press the power switch, the power light comes on and the fan kicks up. There is a click from the CD drive but I know drives will do that when powered. The hard drive is silent and no lights appear on it. There is no message or display on the screen. I removed the battery, the memory stick, the CD and hard drives and keyboard and still nothing. Not even a beep of protest that the memory or keyboard are missing. I've looked at the board and can see no sign of overheating but I didnt really expect to. I think the guy was right. But how do you tell if its the board or CPU that is at fault? I was told the CPU should get warm but I understand the board switches it on so its like Catch 22? Yes I know it will have to go to a specialist but I love a puzzle and would like to learn something too Any ideas and help much appreciated. And apologies for the OT thread

[ss2115]

Hi.
If your getting nothing at all as you say apart from a few clicks and grunts, then it's probably the bios chip because every PC starts on the bios (Basic In Out System) which then tells the system what to start and do.

I say this because the Bios does give you the start up screen - where it says what Hdd its found, to press Delete to enter the Bios and that basic first seen stuff.

The next probable is the CPU and if its gone out in a big way, its possibly holding the power supply down which is why the Bios isn't showing - ie: the equivelent to a short. Sort of like trying to start the car with absolutely everything on that could possibly be on and having nothing left to turn the starter.

Unfortunately, Bios are chips are never replaceable and CPU's in laptops are usually hard soldered to the M/Board and not in a socket (saves room & money).

Have you tried it just on battery without the power supply plugged in? It might be a faulty 240 pwr supply or the pwr section board inside the laptop.
But test the battery first to see if its fully charged. If the 240 Pwr Supply has been faulty for a little while, or the board inside the laptop that handles the different voltages and charging of the battery, the battery might be near flat and give you a false impression that the fault still exists when in fact it could be the 240 pwr supply or its internal pwr board. These usually are replaceable or repairable.
My daughters Acer had a similar problem where the external supply kept dropping out and it would run on battery intermitedly until it flattened. I was able to repair the internal board and get it all up again.

I cannot offer any further advice. Best to see the Toshiba service agent - it might be a common problem that they know how to fix and have the parts for if its not the Bios or CPU chips.

best regards.

Have of course sought help on a more appropriate board, but got an answer like 'find out which part is faulty and replace it'. Very constructive. So in the hope somebody can point me in the right direction here goes:
Her Toshibaba Satellite Pro L300-21F 'just stopped working'. Of course its 18 months old so out of warranty. A friend's techie had a quick and somewhat reluctant look and pronounced that either the motherboard or CPU was dead.The power supply light and battery light come on. When you press the power switch, the power light comes on and the fan kicks up. There is a click from the CD drive but I know drives will do that when powered. The hard drive is silent and no lights appear on it. There is no message or display on the screen. I removed the battery, the memory stick, the CD and hard drives and keyboard and still nothing. Not even a beep of protest that the memory or keyboard are missing. I've looked at the board and can see no sign of overheating but I didnt really expect to. I think the guy was right. But how do you tell if its the board or CPU that is at fault? I was told the CPU should get warm but I understand the board switches it on so its like Catch 22? Yes I know it will have to go to a specialist but I love a puzzle and would like to learn something too Any ideas and help much appreciated. And apologies for the OT thread

[whiskychaser]

Many thanks for the prompt and very helpful response!
I checked the AC adapter and it is supplying the correct voltage. I substituted a good known one just to make sure. The battery light is showing battery is fully charged. Unfortunately the response with/without the power lead is the same - no display, fan running and a the CD kicks in for a while. I hoped it may be the power board too but this laptop doesnt have a seperate one
What you say about the bios makes perfect sense. I expected to get some beeps but it doesnt even appear to be completing the self test. I thought about getting a POST test board. It was very cheap but needed to be connected to both the USB and serial port. Of course this laptop doesnt have a serial port.
Looks like its off to Toshiba. Will report what they have to say. Meanwhile thanks for your help and other members' patience

[Tiger]

I work on computers and laptops. I would say that the memory is dead. If you have another laptop with same memory, swap it and see if it starts up.

From all those noises and movements and lights, I'd say the mobo is fine... I never seen a dead CPU. If the BIOS chip is dead, it would not make any sounds or movement... it would be completely dead.

[BMWDriver]

Bios might come alive without memory installed?

[Tiger]

Nope... dead as doornail without memory

[Kibokojoe]

Bios is in the CPU try the delete key to see if you can enter the bios. If not I would say Mother board ie CPU

[Tiger]

Um... Bios is a chip on the motherboard... not part of CPU.

[sal_park]

Have you tried booting it with an external monitor plugged in ?

[genphreak]

Whisky, if it can't make it to POST (Power On Self Check), it could well be the BIOS or something very low level as others have suggested. BIOS can be re-flashed, but there is a cause for everything- so if power spikes or a quite massive charge of static is not a likely one, think again...

If major componenet failure is the cause, CPU is possible but if the main fan works and it hasn't had a meltdown (PC equivalent of a seized engine), it is unlikely. It is probably most likely the internal ower supply (often an indiviudal circuit dies) - resulting in one of the DC rails going out (not the one running your lights- but maybe one the Hardrive, CPU and other vitals need).

What is most likely is that it has had coke (or coffee or some sugary sweet drinks) split into it, in which case it will be really easy to tell once its apart. My gf did it to my mega$ 17" Macbook when we were last on holiday in France. Luckily she practiced the 2nd principle of safe (mobile) computing: She brought it to me upside down so I was able to rip the battery out before it fried anything. Hah- I didn't think she listened to much I said about anything, but whoa... what a surprise.

That night we managed to drape the pieces over a warm breeze and it dried out with no major damage other than the internal static memory (NVRAM) being 'lost'.

With liquid going in there and any form of power connected, one barely has seconds to act. And what do you know, years later, the MacBook still works hard for me every day... and we're still together

I hope you have even better luck with that one!