Laptop dead (Is it mobo or BIOS?)

Hey guys,

Last thursday I put my laptop into sleep mode to head into uni. When I got there the laptop was dead, and not working properly.
When I turn it on, the power turns on, and the power light and touch buttons light up but nothing else happens. The CD drive spins up once or twice, but the screen stays blank.

It seems that the BIOS won't load.
I have tried
--Booting from USB flash drive, USB HDD
--Connecting it to an external monitor
--CMOS clear (I understand this can be done by holding the power button for 30s with no power attached.
--The HDD is fine
--I think the RAM is OK, I took out each of the 2 sticks but no luck

I have narrowed it down to the motherboard being dead, the BIOS becoming corrupted, or GPU dieing (not had GPU issues before).
I'm worried the motherboard being shorted out because I had some copper heatsinks attached to the heatsink with thermal paste, and when I opened the laptop one had fallen off and was touching the motherboard.

Is there any way to reflash the BIOS, or is it a lost cause with a dead motherboard?

Thanks

 

Bold mine.

Seems like you've fried your M/B.

 

I agree with Tiller. BIOS's usually don't corrupt themselves unless you've had a bad flash, etc.

 

Also, you didn't quite do a CMOS/BIOS "clear"/reset. You did what's known as a power refresh, or a EC (embedded controller) reset. Clearing the BIOS entails doing what you did (draining the electrical current), as well as removing the CMOS battery temporarily - but it sounds like regardless, the problem is not with BIOS. Copper is very conductive, so for it to make contact with the PCB and circuitry would most likely result in electrical damage to the motherboard.

 

Thanks for your responses guys

I was worried that it was the mobo myself, but had some hope that it may have been the BIOS.

The main reason for the hope was that it turns on, some status LEDs come on, and the drive spins.
Guess there's no point in trying to re-flash the BIOS then?

 

It certainly won't make matters worse. But from the sound of things, it's not the fix.

Motherboard replacement can be expensive, but that all depends on your make and model. Typically, laptop boards aren't cheap though.

 

Yeah I was thinking the motherboard is gone too.

I don't think its wise to replace such an expensive component in a 4 year old laptop. been thinking of upgrading to a clevo for some time, this might have been the push I needed
Thanks for your help guys