Help determine my boot issue - G73jh

Yesterday after powering on from hibernation, my screen was having issues coming on. The function key plus F7 or whichever it is didn't do anything and I finally got it to come on after closing the lid a couple of times. Shortly after that, I noticed I wasn't getting any sound from the speakers (never tried headphones through usb or jack), so I shut it completely down to restart, thinking it was one of those odd issues that pop up here and there after resuming from hibernation.

Well, when I powered it back on, all the lights lit up, optical drive started to spin, hard drive light came on for a couple of seconds, then nothing. Monitor never turns on (haven't tried checking with my TV, but I don't think it's the monitor due to obvious reasons), hard drive light stops blinking, but I can hear it running so I know the boot drive isn't at fault. The laptop still has power and the lights are still on, but nothing is happening. The laptop then shuts down after about five minutes in this state. There are also no POST beeps when turning it on. I have tried booting it with battery, without battery, and with only the battery so it's not a power supply/battery issue. I tried pressing the reset button under the laptop, but that accomplished nothing. Tried re-seating both hard drives but got nothing from it. I am at a loss as to what is wrong. There were no previous signs as to the laptop messing up outside of the last restoration from hibernating, so there were no ongoing issues I can think of.

So yeah, any help is greatly appreciated. I really can't wait the 2+ weeks for an RMA as I work offshore and don't have the 2 weeks to wait before I'm gone again and I'm not quite ready for an upgrade. I'd like to fix this myself, I just need to figure out the issue. ;/

 

Srikar, Do you have an SSD in your system?
Press F2 enter the BIOS and verify that the hard drives are seen. Also reset the BIOS to all default settings.
Also try pressing ESC to get the alternate boot menu and select the boot drive from there.

 

No SSD, and I can't even get the screen to come up to see any boot menus if it's even loading that far (don't think it is). Tried F2 and F8 anyway and it accomplished nothing outside of a finger workout from rapidly hitting the keys, lol.

 

This link sounds like the same issues I'm having. I really hope the motherboard didn't somehow fry from shutting down and restarting (I even shut it down by the start menu, lol).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/177790-blank-screen-boot-laptop-doesnt-start.html

 

asd;lgkashp;gas;djga

I found out the initial problem. The hard drive controller that my C: drive was plugged to had died. The BIOS booted up with no drives plugged in. Windows booted up when I took out my secondary drive and plugged my primary into it. Well, after I put the hdd holder thingy on, plugged everything back up and hooked everything back up, I turned it on and the mobo fried. Gave me a nice burning smell from the HDD controller area. The computer doesn't turn on at all without the drives now, so I know it's not the controller this time but the mobo. Looks like I'm going to have to RMA it now. I suppose I'll go ahead and get that Sager NP9170 with a 7970 while I wait, lol.

I just don't know what caused it to fry in the first place. Hate strange, unknown issues like that.

 

Wow. Scary. Best guess: the psu gave too low effect while on load, and the volt on the external bus becomes unstable..?