Advent Laptop

kaaloo

A friend of mine has a laptop that seems to have developed a fault.

It turns on occasionally but generally speaking it wont do anything. If you leave it a while it does sometimes regain some life. Its about 3 year and is a P3 running on xp.

I dont really know what to do!

chilli_dog

is the battery ok?
will it work at all if left connected tho the mains?
sound like a faulty battery or a failure to be charged or be run by the mains.

check the power lead and power pack first

kaaloo

same prob even when connected to mains - im sure that rules the battery out?

albertross_2

Try it on mains power without the battery installed. failing that, try taking any pc-cards out, and reseat the ram. Also, power saving features can cause strange problems, you could try disabling this feature in the bios, and any suspend to disk options

kaaloo

gonna try now! how do u reset the ram?

kaaloo

right - wont work without battery at all but I did manage to power it up and then got a few beeps and a message saying battery is dangerously low. I think Ive solved it! Batteries cost a fortune - doubt if this is worth replacing advent 6415

kaaloo

also noted another thing

"CMOS Battery low" comes up on start up

intel

kaaloo wrote:

also noted another thing

"CMOS Battery low" comes up on start up

Doubt its the Ram a laptop wont work on mains without the battery
and its more than likey the Cmos batt as you just said and I expect
that the main batt is faulty.

albertross_2

I have never come across a laptop that won't work on mains, with the battery out (yet) - but have no experience of Advent's.. ( I don't normally disagree with Intel! )

Normally if it won't work on mains with the battery out, it points to a problem with the power supply..(which would explain why the battery was dead, as it's got nothing to charge it)..

Does the psu have a light, is it on, have you checked the fuse? Suggest you check the power supply, before spending any money on a new battery..

The CMOS battery is a different issue, if that was dead, you would normally get forced into going into the bios screen at bootup, to set the clock..

This site sells cheap cmos batteries.. but you need to check which type is installed on the motherboard..

http://www.battery-force.co.uk/show_CR2032_Batteries.html

intel

albertross wrote:

I have never come across a laptop that won't work on mains, with the battery out (yet) - but have no experience of Advent's.. ( I don't normally disagree with Intel! )

Mmmm I cant get my sony to work with batt out and just on mains nor
my mid2020.... I shall have to get the missus to pedal faster. :rolleyes:

albertross_2

intel wrote:

Mmmm I cant get my sony to work with batt out and just on mains nor
my mid2020.... I shall have to get the missus to pedal faster. :rolleyes:

OK - I'll eat my words.. It must be a feature specific to the model then,, Dells/Tosh's/various other brands def work without the battery. Can't afford a Sony, so never used one - they do look nice though..