laptop just went blank

I have an older travelmate 4001wlci and yesterday I was watching a DVD when the screen just froze. I tried everything but the HDD light didn't even blink so I had to hard shutdown.

When I tried to restart the power light comes on and the DVD drive light comes on for a minute as if its trying to read something, but none of the other lights come on. I can't hear the hard drive spinning either and there's no POST. The screen is completely blank. I tried an external monitor and same results, nothing on screen.

For the last several months I have not taken the laptop anywhere so I've had the battery removed and plugged directly to power. Since a year or so, I've removed windows and running mandriva on it without any problems.

For a while, I've had two lines vertically on the screen so I knew the screen or the cable is coming to an end soon, but this doesn't seem like a screen issue.

Do you guys think my motherboard is gone? If so, what is the norm in dealing with this? I don't think it's worth sending this to acer to fix if it's the motherboard considering I don't have a warranty.

Thanks for any help.

 

anyone got any ideas?

 

Did you try removing the battery and then putting it back in after a few (5) minutes?
Is the battery still good/charged.
If your not using the battery did you check your connections, try a different outlet?
Good luck hope you up and running soon.

 

'yeah the last time I took the battery out I charged it fully (a week ago maybe). I put the battery in (without AC) and it's the same results

 

Try the following:

Remove the battery, unplug the power cord from the wall, hold the power button for 30 sec. then put everything back and try to power on.

 

I found that on a search last night, and tried it with same results. Since you mentioned it, I tried it again and no change.

The battery is charging when plugged in to AC.

One other thing I noticed, the fan starts up but dies in a few seconds as well. It's really quiet once the dvd drive read stops.

 

actually figured out the problem. One of my RAM chips was bad from the looks of it. I had a 1GB chip I bought couple of years ago. Took it out and machine boots fine. I can't believe I forgot the RAM.

have to check with patriot on the warranty terms, and hopefully get it replaced. even on linux, 256mb is way too slow lol.

thanks for the help guys.


EDIT: spoke too soon. that froze mid desktop lol. Put the patriot chip back in the other slot and booted up. It might actually be the slots or motherboard. For now, its' booting.