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    Dead P170HM?

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by Xui, Sep 30, 2015.

  1. Xui

    Xui Notebook Guru

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    Hi all,

    A bit of a problem with my P170HM - when I went to turn it on this morning from hibernation it first froze in the starting Windows screen. I left it for about an hour, and when nothing happened, I restarted it. It did not POST and gave me a black screen, with only the battery and Bluetooth lights on. Subsequently I cleared the CMOS, for lack of other things to do. Now when I manually turn it on or off it starts for a few seconds, restarts itself, and then just hangs with the power and Bluetooth lights on. I can hear the fans whirring quietly but the screen is blank.

    Two things worth knowing:
    (1) This laptop has a 680m, which I added myself. Never had any problems with it. When it was giving me trouble I just assumed perhaps it had somehow gotten put to sleep, but it's clear that is no longer a potential issue.
    (2) I forgot to remove an old HP tablet when I hibernated the computer last night. The tablet started up this morning (before I tried to turn the computer on). Now I can't get the tablet to turn on (but it could be out of power, and USB is my only means of charging it). My concern is that something went wrong in the hibernating/booting process because this tablet was plugged in and somehow the motherboard is toast. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be wrong, and how I might go around fixing this?
     
    Xui, Sep 30, 2015
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  2. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    hm, could be several things: RAM, CPU, PSU, Battery, GPU or mobo

    RAM: take out all sticks and test each one individually in different sockets
    PSU: disconnect machine and test battery only
    Battery: take out battery and test with PSU only
    CPU: got a spare one lying around to test? otherwise take out cpu and reseat it, apply fresh thermal paste and clean out your system from accumulated dust
    GPU: same as CPU, take out, reseat, apply fresh thermal paste, check correct placement of thermal pads, check for any obvious signs of damage (blown capacitors, and burn marks, etc). also try and connect an external screen, see if it shows anything. can u hear windows sounds during boot up?
    Mobo: if everything else pans out / looks ok, then its most probably the mobo. hard to test though...
     
    jaybee83, Sep 30, 2015
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    Prema and Xui like this.
  3. Xui

    Xui Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the help! It turned out to be a bad stick of RAM, which is an immense relief. A new mobo would necessitate a new computer at this point, I fear.
     
    Xui, Sep 30, 2015
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  4. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    nice, very glad to hear it was the cheapest possible solution out of those enumerated! :D continue having fun with that awesome machine ;)
     
    jaybee83, Sep 30, 2015
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