Dead NP8150? Could Use Some Diagnostic Help

Hi all, let me begin by saying I have already ordered a new laptop. So, I'm not looking to try and squeeze anymore life out of this one. I just need a way to possibly bring this one back to life for a moment to get my data off of it.

I have a Sager NP8150 with a GTX 485M. I purchased it in July of 2011 and I always intended it to last for approximately 6 years. Just recently, I got back into playing the Mass Effect series on it and while playing through ME2, I noticed some pretty severe motion blur during some of the cut scenes. I didn't think much of it because gameplay was otherwise fine and gpu temps didn't seem nuts or anything like that (high 70s with rare spikes to 90-91). Also, it booted fine one or two times after that. I haven't cleaned out the fins for quite some time and I also haven't repasted in maybe a year and a half. Used AS5 last time.

Anyway, I also use this laptop to diagnose my cars. The wife and I drive BMWs and I was in the process of installing some diagnostic software that required a restart. Upon restart however, the screen never came back. Boots up just fine, I can hear the windows chime etc, but nothing on screen, absolutely black. Additionally, I attempted to plug in an external monitor through HDMI and nothing there either and additionally have re-seated the RAM with no effect. So I'm kinda at a loss as to what happened and what may have caused it.

TL|DR Version

6 year old laptop sort of maintenance neglected for a bit
Noticed some unnatural motion blur during a not too needy game
Temps a little high but not what I would consider unnatural
After software installation, rebooting and screen stays black while computer boots normally
Plugged in external monitor, nothing
Re-seated RAM, nothing
*Confusion reigns supreme*

 

Bump? If there's nothing to be done for this. What do I need to do to get the data off my HDD? I'm planning on putting it in another case anyway, but I would like to figure out how to do that properly and I feel a little leery just plugging it in without knowing what to do first.

 

Maybe unscrew the panel on the back, unplug the drivers and get a case to put them in to transfer the info on there to a new hard drive when the new machine arrives? There's tons of videos about drive cloning and the supplies you would need. Programs that write to the registry would need to be reinstalled but the rest should transfer ok.

 

while it was booting do you see anything on screen or does it remain black?

the fact that you can hear windows loading and you were getting motion blur while playing game points to an issue with the gpu.

anyway to get your data do what Xennyatta suggested.

 

Nothing on the screen whatsoever unfortunately. I understand a possible gpu issue, but Im surprised that I'm not getting any beeps or codes etc.

 

It could be the card is still able to send readings to the EC but the actual processing part is dead, it would be interesting to see if you could remote desktop to it.

 

You could simply get an external HDD caddy and transfer all your data that way. You would just plug it in mount the drive in windows and save all of your files.

 

Hmm, that would be interesting. I've never tried remote desktop connecting to this particular computer so unfortunately I don't think I've set it up. I haven't made a list of users and I don't remember if I've even enable remote desktop. Nice idea though.

 

I think this will be the way for me to go.

 

Sorry to resurrect what is thought was a dead thread, but I have question on the same topic. I have come across a 680m for the p150hm chassis. Conceivably, could I plug that in and maybe get something on screen? I'm almost positive the 485 and 680 used the same heat sink set up so as long as I got something on screen I could proceed with the appropriate driver updates etc with doing a card swap.

 

It has a decent chance, was your system BIOS up to date?

 

I believe it was, but I'm not 100% sure. I know I updated it at least once but I can't remember when the last time I did that was.

 

Take a hairdryer and hold it over your GPU for around 5 minutes. If it works then congratz saving data, if not the oven awaits.