Laptop won't boot... .

David333

A quick question. My mum's laptop won't start when she presses the on button. Essentially she says that she presses the button and the hard drives don't even start to boot up. We had this problem last week and basically it sorted itself out (one day it wouldn't work, one day it would).

Obviously it's difficult to diagnose but I know that the slot for the RAM is quite loose. I was wondering if this had slipped, therefore the laptop doesn't find any RAM and won't start booting, and therefore the fact it worked last week was because the RAM had slipped into position. Does this sound like it could be the reason...?

propaintballa

That sounds like a completely valid diagnosis. I have fixed many systems where the ram has slipped out and just causes nothing to come up on the screen when you turn it on. If you have the know how, i would advise checking it, i would suspect that you've hit the nail on the head Either that, or the ram is faulty and will need replacing.

totalsolutions

Battery flat / dead, Charger fault or power socket loose connection. Re memory find the small panel and remove the screws and refit the memory card. Easy.

David333

propaintballa wrote: »

That sounds like a completely valid diagnosis. I have fixed many systems where the ram has slipped out and just causes nothing to come up on the screen when you turn it on. If you have the know how, i would advise checking it, i would suspect that you've hit the nail on the head Either that, or the ram is faulty and will need replacing.

Thank you. It's relatively new RAM which has been working fine for a couple of months so I'm going to guess that it's not faulty. Unfortunately I'm several hundred miles away so I'm going to have to give clear directions on the phone about securing the RAM!

How do you think the best way to secure it is? It's an IBM Thinkpad T20 and the RAM is just held in by a metal strip, which is quite loose because of age. A bit of blu-tac...? ;-)

David333

totalsolutions wrote: »

Battery flat / dead, Charger fault or power socket loose connection. Re memory find the small panel and remove the screws and refit the memory card. Easy.

The 'plugged in' light is on and varies between amber and green as to whether the computer is charging so I don't think it's a power problem. The laptop does supposedly make a noise as well, just not a hard drives booting noise. I'm trying to to do this over the phone so sorry that I'm not being very clear!

propaintballa

Aha i see. I wouldn't use blutac because the ram will get quite warm and possible make the Blutac go funky?

How is the metal strip secured? Do you know? It should just stay in the place that you leave it in, which is odd. Is there no screws or anythingggg?

David333

propaintballa wrote: »

Aha i see. I wouldn't use blutac because the ram will get quite warm and possible make the Blutac go funky?

How is the metal strip secured? Do you know? It should just stay in the place that you leave it in, which is odd. Is there no screws or anythingggg?

Screws undo the battery cover and then the RAM slots in at an angle, you push it down, and then a little metal clip secures it. There is a picture here: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/replace-upgrade-memory-ibm-thinkpad-t40-t41-t42-laptops/

The second picture down on this webpage shows the RAM at an angle and if you push it down, the metal clip on the right hand side (and left) keeps it secure. This metal clip isn't in a great condition. It's not worth paying somebody to replace it so it's just a case of somehow fixing it!

propaintballa

Ah yes, i know what you mean now, I'm not really sure in what way that it's broken, so i can't really suggest a fix for it! I guess you could try Blutac? Sorry i can't help more!

David333

I'm a little reluctant to use Blutac... . I think it's like a spring mechanism which has just become worn with age... Anybody have any other ideas? :-)

propaintballa

Yeh i would be... Hmm... I'm not sure on which bit is broken where... Is a really small cable tie an option? Or maybe a bit of fishing line?

David333

propaintballa wrote: »

Yeh i would be... Hmm... I'm not sure on which bit is broken where... Is a really small cable tie an option? Or maybe a bit of fishing line?

Thanks, I might just try to tweak the metal clip a little; hopefully that will work... .