Laptop faulty

notbritishgas

We have a Toshiba Satellite L350d laptop which will not boot, fans start but screen remains black.
I was convinced a new one was necessary but I have just received an external hard drive caddy in order to retrieve some photos etc from the drive but the hard drive is not recognised when put in the caddy, no noise or anything.
So I presume the drive may be faulty and causing the original fault, am I correct?

Now to the question, the drive is a 160gb SATA drive. Can I put in any 2.5 inch drive as long as it is SATA.
Thanks for any replies.

GlasgowTech

Without testing the machine, (screen, HardDrive, etc) i couldn't comment on what the actual issue is.

But yes you will be able to put any 2.5" SATA drive into the laptop, i would try taking one from another laptop before buying a new one as the caddy you ordered me be faulty... Have you tried any other HDD's in it?

closed

the machine should switch on and display something even if the machine has no disk in. blank screen could mean it was stuck in hibernate

notbritishgas

Thanks so far.

GlasgowTech. Unfortunately I do not have access to another HD, thats why I asked about compatability as I may have to look for a cheap ebay one to test with.

Closed. If stuck in Hibernate how do I "unstick" it.

Thanks.

GlasgowTech

You may be cheaper popping into a wee computer shop locally and asking them to test a HDD, they might charge you £5/10 or something for the 'consultation' but at least you could decipher if its the laptop or not.

GlasgowTech

Could try a power drain !!

take the battery out n disconnect from the external power.

Hold on to the power button for 30 sec.

Try connect to external power source(AC adapter) without battery.

Later u can put the battery back and use as usual.

Its just to try to drain the static charge from RAM slots ..which can potential cause a blank display.

Give a try n let me know !!

closed

It probably isn't stuck on hibernate, but it's a possibility - put disk back in, hold down power button for 10 seconds, switch on, and report back exactly what comes on screen and which lights light up from the beginning - I was trying to make the point that for both the hard disk to fail, and the motherboard to fail at the same time is unlikely.

notbritishgas

GlasgowTech Tried the power drain with same results, ie does not attempt to boot.

Closed Still the same when trying your tip.

I have tried booting without the hard drive connected and the same thing happens, power on light comes on and fans start but screen remains black.
Also tried booting with a bootable disk in the DVD (puppy linux) the DVD looks and sounds as if it is reading the disk but nothing happens, still a black screen. This occurs whether the hard drive is connected or not.

50Twuncle

This sounds exactly the same as happened to my laptop (HP) - a couple of weeks ago
I could hear the fan and the HDD appeared to be turning - yet nothing on the screen (no BIOS either) - I tried the "holding the power button pressed for 30 secs - nothing)
The Caps lock was flashing and the wireless button was illuminated (wouldn't go out)
I tried the "HP bios recovery" - nothing
I had to give in and buy a new laptop

GunJack

or the RAM has failed.....

50Twuncle

GunJack wrote: »

or the RAM has failed.....

Unlikely - you can remove the RAM and still access the BIOS