Hmm... laptop won't switch on (I'm very clueless...!)

C00kie_2

Hello

Now - to warn you... I am by NO means a computer whizz... I plug it it, switch it on... there pretty much ends my knowledge!

I have a 2nd hand laptop that I got cheap... it had no hard drive, and when I tried to switch it on it had yellow lights showing it's plugged in but wouldn't turn on. Had a friend who had a working hard drive that sent it to me. Woohoo... I thought. I fit the hard drive..nice and simple, but still, nothing happens when I plug it in. It has a flashing light, which I assumed was because it was completely out of power, but nothing happens with it plugged in for a while. Have taken out the battery, and plugged it in to see if it will work off the mains, still there's a flashing light saying power goes in, but nothing happens with the power button.

I assumed it would work with the hard drive in, friend is saying I might need to change some settings to make it work... but he doesn't know the details specifically and I can't do anything with it if it doesn't switch on.

Is there anything I can try? Someone must be a genius... or you all probably are, but I'm clueless at what to do. If you have some top class tips... speak to me like you're telling a 3 year old how to do it! :rotfl:

Fightsback

have a 2nd hand laptop that I got cheap...

Hmmm cheap.

Where did you buy it from and make and model please ?

C00kie_2

It's a HP NX6310 - supposedly working and with hard drive, but it certainly didn't. Cheap like £6... I took a risk, assuming a working laptop with a hard drive. Was wrong... booo... but now no idea if it's worth trying to fix or if I should give up on it.

AndyPix

Try this.


Remove the battery from the laptop and disconnect it from the mains.


Now, hold you finger firmly on the power button on the laptop for 30 seconds.
Re-connect the battery, plug the mains in and see if it turns on.


By the way, what colour is this light that is flashing, and does it have any sequence to it (ie 2 quick flashes then a pause)


Andy

C00kie_2

I tried that one, read that there might be a quick fix... nothing happened. (http://ccm.net/forum/affich-448701-hp-compac-presario-laptop-won-t-turn-on)

It's an orange light that flashes ...one...one...one...one...one... no other sequence.

There is meant to be 4 lights: wireless, power (I assume), lightning and the 3 circles for (I assume?) H/D.

The flashing light seems to be from under the lightning symbol, but it lights up the other things a bit. Not from them though.

AndyPix

Either the power brick is goosed, or the motherboard.
Possibly the battery too, but in that case it should still turn on with the AC connected


Do you have a similar HP charger you could try / borrow from friend ?

J_B

Erm, Surely (if you don't mind me calling you that)
You need to install an operating system first of all.
A random HDD from a different PC won't just boot up in another PC without a compatible OS .... will it?

AndyPix

The OP should still get a bios splash screen though ??

agrinnall

AndyPix wrote: »

The OP should still get a bios splash screen though ??

So would it be worth replacing the BIOS battery too for a couple of quid?

AndyPix

Not at this stage.
The bios battery is only to remember settings such as the system time/ bios password (if there is one) etc and has nothing to do with wether the machine will turn on or not.

googler

J_B wrote: »

You need to install an operating system first of all. A random HDD from a different PC won't just boot up in another PC without a compatible OS .... will it?

As was said, the BIOS should run through POST and display an error when it doesn't find a bootable volume;

No Boot Disk
No bootable volume

Something like that