Laptop problems.

[AWdeV]

As the title says.

They are, however, not my problems. Yesterday morning, I got a phonecall from FrisianDude if I could find some information on the internet on how to fix his laptop as it refused to boot up anymore. It tries but it doesn't get anywhere before it tries again, etc.

It did work eventually yesterday but refused to co-operate again yesterday evening and hasn't worked all day so far, so we were kind of wondering what to do about this? Does anyone have any idea?

 

[Splintert]

His HDD is probably failing.

Tell him to get into the BIOS and see if it recognizes the hard drive, if it does, enter Windows recovery console and do some CMD work to see if the disk is okay.

If he needs details on how to actually do this the best source is a quick google search.

 

[AWdeV]

It doesn't get that far.

 

[Splintert]

There's a key you have to press before it tries the first boot option in order to open the BIOS. If it can't get to BIOS... well, he's ****ed.

My ASUS's key is F2, but I've heard F1, F11, and F12 are common as well.

 

[AWdeV]

Yeah, it doesn't get that far. The screen stays black for the duration of the attempt and it resets before you could expect the option.

 

[Fehnor]

Take out the battery and put it back in. 

 

[Phonemelter]

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago and it was solved by having the motherboard replaced. I'd suggest playing with the battery first though.

 

[AWdeV]

I sent him a text to fiddle with the battery but he already tried that.

He just called and told me that one of his housemates said that there had apparently been a power surge of sorts yesterday and that apparently they're not uncommon and have over the years claimed several washing machines. He's taking it to a shop tomorrow, see what they think of it.

 

[Kevlar]

Ugh, repair shops. Tell him to have fun spending twice as much or more compared to what it will cost to actually fix it.

Some places still charge you even if they can't fix it 

 

[AWdeV]

That's nice and all, but it has to be fixed regardless and he can't do it himself. Getting it fixed at a nice profit margin for the shop is likely still cheaper than getting a new one.

 

[Kevlar]

Well, if it was a power surge it could have wrecked a whole lot of things (worst case). Hopefully the shop will just need to get him a new battery or something.

 

[AWdeV]

Yeah, pretty much. Ofcourse, if the innards of his laptop are severely toasted then it should've been visibly noticeable when he was mucking with the battery, so I don't know.

 

[Krik]

I had a faulty outlet do the same thing, fried the battery and charger. I ordered a new charger and plugged it into a new outlet without the battery in and it works just fine now.

 

[AWdeV]

That's pretty cool.

Alas, it seems his motherboard is fried.

 

[FrisianDude]

Hello, world.


Yep, it was damage to the motherboard. The fellow behind the repair counter identified that problem in a jiffy, then looked up how much a new motherboard would cost. Total almost as much as a new laptop, so I bought a new laptop. Files and shiz have all been recovered it seems, which wasn't expensive either. \/