Laptop Not Starting

QuirkyChemistry

Hi,

I would appreciate some help please. I have a laptop that is 2 years old and runs on XP. Since yesterday everytime I try to turn it on it will not start unless I take the battery out and put it back in. It is the same whether it is plugged into the power or not. After that it works fine (until turned off then it won't turn on again). My techie friend said the bios looks fine and can't find any other problems and I have no idea why it has started doing this.

Any ideas?

Thank you for any help.

S0litaire

I've noticed this on Dells (the bit of the motherboard that tells the battery to charge get's in a tangle and won't charge the battery but stops the power from the mains as well)

Only way to fix it is to:

Take the battery out,
Unplug it form the adapter.
Press the power button in for 10 - 15 seconds
Plug it back in to the mains and start it.
Once it's fully up and running insert the battery.
Make sure you do "Start" and then "Shutdown" when turnign it off

QuirkyChemistry

S0litaire wrote: »

I've noticed this on Dells (the bit of the motherboard that tells the battery to charge get's in a tangle and won't charge the battery but stops the power from the mains as well)

Only way to fix it is to:

Take the battery out,
Unplug it form the adapter.
Press the power button in for 10 - 15 seconds
Plug it back in to the mains and start it.
Once it's fully up and running insert the battery.
Make sure you do "Start" and then "Shutdown" when turnign it off

I always make sure I shut it down properly. Just taking out the battery and trying again works but is there any definite solution to stop it happening each time?

onzey

What make/model of laptop is it?

QuirkyChemistry

It is a Hi-Grade laptop. www.higrade.com
Intel Pentium M 1.70 GHz processor and 1GB RAM.

onzey

I've not got any definitive solution I'm afraid.

I tend to think it's a hardware problem with something not quite right with the charging/power circuitry of the laptop. If I'm right, the solution might involve a new motherboard in which case I'd probably just live with removing the power/battery.

If it were me I'd probably check the CMOS battery inside the laptop, just in case, but that would involve a certain amount of dismantling. (For peace of mind I would also first check basics like the output from the mains adapter and trying another battery if at all possible.)

There's a thread here (seems a very similar problem) that starts with a guy (using Vista) thinking it's related to updates but I think that's probably a red herring. You could keep an eye there in case anything useful appears.

When you try to restart (without removing power) does anything at all happen i.e lights, sounds ?

If I have any more thoughts I'll post again.

devizes18193

its going to sound thick but do you have memory in both slots . when i use both slpts on my higrade it works for about a day or so then i get the same problem

QuirkyChemistry

Thank you for your help. I might have a look at the upgrade thing. I know there have been some updates recently but not sure that they were before the problem. Nothing happens at all when I press the power button first time - no lights on the side etc. The mains adaptor seems to be fine and when I do turn the laptop, the battery level is practically full.

I haven't changed the memory since I got it. No idea how to. It's worked for 2 years with the memory like that so I doubt that's the problem.

I'm beginning to think it might be the motherboard.

Thanks for all your help and any more ideas are greatly appreciated.

QuirkyChemistry

Well the laptop was sent in for repair and the engineers have said that it's a problem with the motherboard and so that is now being replaced. Thank you for the help.