x7200 doesnt work after trip

Ok, so heres the deal.
I got back from germany to romania with a bus.

I packed the laptop pretty tight in my backpack. I was carefull that my bag was on top of other bags,(in the tow van the bus was towing) and the last part of the trip i took the bag with me beneath the seat.

Now i come home, and when i press the power button the laptop starts, all the light are on, and it seems to work, but i do not have any image on the screen.

I also observed the laptop does not boot windows, otherwise after a period of time it would start the windows sound.

So basicalyy the light are on, the laptop does not boot, and the screen does not start.

The one thing i did is open the hdd slot beneath the battery and plugged it in better.

Any suggestions ?
Maybe the ram got out of its place and thats why it doesnt boot nothing. But there is a small chance all 3 dimms are out of their place.
I have trasnported the laptop in similar conditions before, but nothing happened.

So any suggestions before i will send it back to mysn.de to deal with it ?

I will return in one week to Leer germany and remain there permanently, which is about 471 km from leipzig(place of mysn.de HQ)

Physically the laptop has nothing on the outside.
Maybe the LCD is dead. I have yet to find a dvi external monitor to start the laptop this way to see if its because the lcd is dead, but like i said, it doesnt seem to boot windows at all.

Oh well, hopefully it will be fixed in the future one way or another

 

What you could try is take out your keyboard and the 3 screw metal plate underneath there, then reseat your memory modules.

You already reseated all hard drives (do you have only one drive?)

If that is a no go then I would remove the battery on the motherboard that is right by the wifi card slot underneath the keyboard and under the metal plate and leave it out for a while then put it back in and start it up again.

Usually reseating items can fix this issue...
_

 

beat me to it babyhemi

 

yup, only one hdd. ill try that

 

there are 3 memmory slotss.
Where exactly is each one of them ?

 

All three memory slots are together underneath that metal plate under the keyboard.

 

i knew it saw it here somewhere, but do you know a link to a video to see how to detach the keyboard ?

Or maybe a quick description here how to take out the keyboard.

I got it in the manual.

 

Manual page 36/116:
Remove screws 1-3 from the bottom of the computer (Figure 8a).

I could only remove 1 screw.
Other 2 are stuck !

Cant i remove the touch panel without removing the 3 screws ?

 

Hello,

You mentioned that you hear the windows sound. this might suggest a problem with the display or the cable connecting the display to the video card. This is something that seems to get loose easily.

 

No to get the touch panel off you need to remove the 3 screws as they hold the touch panel on, Once they have been removed turn the laptop over, open the screen as far as it will go and lever the panel off, then remove the 5 screws that hold the keyboard on and remove the keyboard. There are then 3 screws that hold the metal plate down remove those and this exposes the mobo battery, Ram and the wifi card.

the OP said that he doesnt get the windows sound, doesnt sound like the machine even passes post

Pman

 

If you don't get anything on the screen at all I would try reseating the LCD too, and also maybe using an external screen to see if you can at least get to bios...

Something was probably jostled loose, just have to find what it was.

 

If the Windows sound is played than I think the windows is booted. If windows was indeed booted and you plugg an external monitor you need to switch to the external monitor. It should be Fn+F5.

Good luck.

 

Sounds like a loose ribbon cable that connects the LCD to the motherboard. You might want to try re-seating that.

 

Please read again his original posts. It is true the statements are a little contradicting, but if the windows sound starts, then the systems is booting, only that nothing is posted on the screen. It would be relevant to know if there is any hdd activity.

 

I cant see anything other then this?

either that or I need more coffee

 

Yah, i dont get any windows sound. So it does not seem to boot at all.

Thing is i tried with all my might to unscrew 2 of the 3 screws that hold the panel bar.

Tomorrow i will go to a tv repair shop near me, maybe they got there something to unscrew the 2 problematic screws. Some kind of electric machine.

Anyways, is this problem bound to happen to all laptops.
It seems i need to be more careful with transportation in the future.

 

Nope, seems more like bad luck, some unfortunate coincidence with your specific laptop, sorry. My own x7200 did quite a bit of traveling - 4 countries all over the world all in just one month - and I never ever had a slightest glitch afterwards. So, I'd say this laptop is not at all prone to transportation-related issues.

On the other hand, I can confirm that the screws are indeed overtightened - I managed to undo this with a heavy duty screwdriver and a lot of effort - yet I had to excersize extreme caution not to strip those.

I hope your issue is a minor one and you will be able to fix it with ease. Good luck!

 

Ok, i managed to go all the way in, i took the dimms out. The case is still open, and now im trying to figure out how exactly am i to take the bios battery out, cause i dont see any lever mecahnism on the battery holder.

Any hints on that ?

Later edit:
Ok, taking the dimms out didnt fix anything.
One thing to note, the caps lock, and num lock button dont light their respective lights. Does that mean i didnt reconnect the keyboard correctly ?

I will later try taking out the cmos battery, and using an external display to see if i manage to get more info out of the situation.

 

I would never let my laptop out my hands even for a moment on such a trip, be it by bus or by airplane. Why would you want to gamble and depend on the bus driver or the road conditions?
I don't have time to test it myself, but if the HDD is dead because its plates have been shaken during the trip would that be a possible reason for the OP's trouble? Maybe he should put another (healthy) HDD and try from there.

 

Point noted; will take into consideration. Right now im tight on time, but when i'll have enough time to fiddle ill do all the above stuff to see what happens

 

Judging by his signature he uses an SSD - no plates to be shaken whatsoever. He also reseated the drive as well, which rules out bad connection, so I guess the problem is anything else.

 

If the video card is not properly in the slot nothing will be posted on the screen. I saw this happening a few times in some computers.

 

Try the good old power drain:
1) unplug the power cord
2) remove the battery pack
3) press&hold the power button for 20-30sec

See if it helps

 

Hmmm I wonder if I should have asked Mythlogic for a set of screws for the computer... I tend to like taking them apart and screws eventually strip... Is that part of warranty?

I have lotsa Dell screws, can I use any of those?

 

I tend to believe its a problem with the video cards.
I think it doesnt boot because of a loose sli cable(could a loose sli cable cause such simptoms ?) or of a loose video card (very unlikely)

However, i need a good screwdriver, gonna get it tommorow, to be able to unscrew the radiators from the gpus.

And i will unscrew the cpu radiators as well, because they gathered a TON of dust.

 

Did you try the power drain?

 

Yup, still nothing.

 

Ok, took the video cards out, put them back on, and also tried to start laptop without battery.
It acts the same.
All i have to do now is try to get the bios battery out, and use external monitor.

However for now i dont have a dvi monitor around.

The problem is now, i dont know how to get the bios battery out.
Is there anyone who managed to take their x7200 bios battery out ?
Maybe can post some hints as to how to do it.

If everything else fails, i will eventualy ship the laptop to mysn, maybe they can tell me what is wrong with it.

 

Managed to get the battery out.
Left it out for a couple minutes, then placed it back in.

Still nothing.

 

In the old time we were when we were take out the BIOS battery out we also touched the metal contacts on the board in order to reset the BIOS.

I read you r original post, but could describe what happens when you try to start. Are there anyLEDs going on (power, hdd)? Are there any beeps? Is there any hdd activity?

 

I press the power button.
The laptop starts.
There is one "hdd" activity once. Then nothing happenes.
Tha laptop is on, all the leds on the touch menu are on, and there is no image on the LCD.
All the coolers are on as if the laptop is normally running.

Its like the laptop is on, but it is not working.
I also tried to start it without the battery, and it acts the same.

I think tommorow i will take the cpu out and put it back again, see if that fixes something.

 

did you ever try using an external monitor to see if that worked? double check the connection from the screen to the mobo?

is there a way to test the screen to see if it's getting power/signal/whatever? maybe from the ribbon cable? bad ribbon cable?

 

My guess is that the screen, even if its broken, is not the issue.
To me it seems the computer draws power but even if it does so, it does not start.
Is this the ribbon from the LCD ?


Here is a youtube video showing its starting behaviour.
Now, more than ever, i am very curious as to what the cause may be.
Because i have dissasembled everything that can be dissasambled, and still nothing.

I have even tried to start it without any hdd. Behaviour is the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6J0dep5ewQ

 

so many finger prints! prolly gonna wanna resize the pic too. some mod is likely to get after you..

if you can figure out if the video cards will put out signal to an external monitor then you'll be able to tell (hopefully) if it's vid card or monitor. everything else sounds to be operating ok..

maybe try going to MYTHLOGIC :: Computers | Service | Support and going to their live chat. they're a builder for Clevo's, and have been helpful with technical questions before. ask them if there's a way to test the screen to see if it's getting power. maybe he'll have a more technical response that can get you going

also, have you tried using just one vid card? switching them out to see if maybe one of them is bad? (not sure how SLI works exactly, so idk if this can be done. something about a master and slave card? idk....?)

 

I wanted to try one card, but the sli cable seem tight, and im not sure if i can re attached it.
It kinda seems like its built in.

By the looks of it, i thing im gonna send it back to mysn. Maybe they will figure it out.
I will try an external monitor before that though.

 

Just to be sure, if you let be on for a 5-10 minutes does it play the windows sound?

 

built in? i'm pretty positive that you should be able to remove the SLI cable..

 

Hi I am having the same issue as well. I have tried the power drain method and others but still no change. Is there a fix at all?

 

No, i never let it on for so long, but i will try as well.
Wow, another one with the same issue.

I wonder, what could it be ???

 

Did you try the external monitor?

 

This saturday im leaving for good to germany, and monday or tuesday ill be calling mysn.de to let them know about the issue.
I will try before that an external monitor, and the 5 minute on thingy.

By the looks of it, it could be something with the mainboard. But i just cannot be sure.