Laptop Problem!!!

[Xtreme2damax]

My father's having a problem with a laptop he owns, and I'd thought I'd post here to get an opinion on what the problem could be with it.

He really needs this laptop, as he doesn't have the money to replace it atm, it contains extremely important documents such as Resume's, Info for his occupation, or job , a book that he is writing, and tons of other personal info and documents of his.

The laptop is a hewlett Packard (hp) Laptop, he bought it brand new from walmart (the absolutely worst place to buy a computer) about 2-3 years ago.

I don't know the specs, however I know it has an amd64 Processor , a CD-RW/DVD-Rom combo Drive, and thats about all I know.

The problem is, that when you push the power button, it will come on, then shut off, and then come back on again. It does this about 3-4 times before finally staying on, however the problem is, that when it finally stays on, Nothing appears on the screen, and are not able to do anything.

My mother and father were thinking, that it was the hard drive, but I thought otherwise, because even if the hard-drive was shot, the bios would still appear on the screen right? But nothing appears on the screen at all in this case.

My father takes extremely great care of his things, so it wasn't banged against anything, or dropped. He also never drank or ate anything while he was doing work on it

I was hoping that someone could reply, and possibly let me know what could be wrong with it, that may has had a similar problem. If all else fails, he will probably try and have it repaired, at a repair shop, as it has too much important data, to just throw in the trash.

Thanks if anyone can help, or let me know

[darth sephiroth]

Has he been carrying it arround on one of those lap-top bags much? those tend to waste a laptop because you bang it more than you think that way.
And has he been having speekers withing 3 feets of the laptop? that can cause magnetising when the speakers create sound.

anyway, take a look under it and tell us the mark of the laptop (apart from that it's a hewlet packard).

also, my unprofessional diagnosis: Motherboard rust/aging or magnetising. Either one of those or a broken power supply (the one inside the lappy, not the power-wire). Contact a local computer hardware dealer and ask if they can backup the content of the harddrive.
always keep backups of important files (not just on a seperate harddrive, also have copies on artifacts like flash-drivers, external harddrives or cd/re-writables).

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks, but I know it couldn't be any of those things, as he never has had anything magnatised such as speakers near his laptop. He does bring it to work on the weekends with him, but he still is very careful with it.

From what it looked to me, is that the laptop motherboard shorted out somehow, would those problems relate to those of a motherboard that shorted out?

At least if the computer is no good, I guess we can salvage the hard drive out of it, and put it in a new laptop, if he ever gets one

[INCA]

I had to fix my uncle's Hp desktop recenty. He a similar problem where it would go to windows screen and then restart. I fixed it by booting up to safe mode and doing a system restore to a time before the problem arose.

So your fathers laptop just turnsoff soon after you push the power button?
If the documents are important you should think about gettting a harddrive enclosure for the laptop harddrive. Oh best bet is to see whats wrong with it and make decision from their whether its economical to fix it or replace it.

[darth sephiroth]

I wouldn't recommend opening up an playing mechanic on a laptop. I don't know if they are set-up in any way similar to a laptop. I'd call a computer vendor.
Inca, it turns off before the bios loads, do you think it's possible to figure anything about what's wrong?

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by darth sephiroth

I wouldn't recommend opening up an playing mechanic on a laptop. I'd call a computer vendor.

Well, if the primary concern before everything else is to recover AT LEAST the documents on that laptop, it's possible to remove the hard drive and:

1 - mount it inside another laptop
1' - use a Linux LiveCD (like Knoppix) or BartPE to boot a working system without altering the system already installed in that flackey laptop.


2 - mount it inside a mobile rack (2 inches something, for laptop hard drives), so that this HDD can be connected to a big PC via USB.
2' - just use that PC normally, laptop's HDD should be displayed as new HDD.

...and backup everything of importance on DVD's.

Once a backup is done, you'd be able to safely think about repairing that laptop.

Losing important data is just inacceptable, so backup it already, so that your father can sleep better

[Xtreme2damax]

Does anyone have a clue as to what could be wrong with it? I can't try booting a live distro of Linux, as nothing appears on the screen, to signify it's loading anything.

My father's already tried sticking in a system restore disc, which didn't work, because nothing loads, or appears on the screen.

Thank you though everyone for replying, I really appreciate it

[darth sephiroth]

computer hardware shop yet? They're the ones who'll help if any.
If it just wont work out, then make it a lesson to never go an entire week without backuping your important files.

[Hard core Rikki]

If you go to a shop, INSIST that no repair is done before a backup is done.

AGAIN. It's possible to remove the hard drive FIRST and THEN:

1 - mount it inside another laptop
1' - use a Linux LiveCD (like Knoppix) or BartPE to boot a working system without altering the system already installed in that flackey laptop.

OR

2 - mount it inside a mobile rack (2 inches something, for laptop hard drives), so that this HDD can be connected to any big PC via USB.
2' - just use that PC normally, laptop's HDD should be displayed as new HDD.

...AND backup everything of importance on DVD's.

ONLY AFTER a backup is done, you'd be able to safely think about repairing that laptop.

If you give that laptop to "technicians", just consider your father's data already lost, as they seemingly always format hard drives whenever problemes occur, and WITHOUT backuping anything of course.

[Xtreme2damax]

Anyways, thanks for replying I was hoping that someone would know what the problem was, but nevermind. He Just took his laptop to the college he works at, and dropped it off at thier computer repair center.

Btw, so you know, telling my mother or father to backup thier data, let alone them keeping thier Antivirus Up to date, or using any kind of Anti-Spyware, is Like teaching a grandmother or grandfather to build a computer or write and debug an entire program (No Offense to anyone here) Thier just not Knowledgeable in using Computers like thier son is

[Hard core Rikki]

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

Thier just not Knowledgeable in using Computers like thier son is

Surely, I didnt expect as much from the previous generation. We assumed you'd know about that or have a geek friend who could help.

Let's hope the data stays safe. Better insist on that than not...