Computer won't turn on after overheating

2 nights ago my fiance got offered to do this overnight job looking at security cameras and he decided to take my laptop with him to play some music while he was doing this. When he came back he told me that he'd set it on a soft surface and it had overheated, giving him a blue screen. He left it off for a few hours after that and then turned it back on, and it worked fine except that my wireless wasn't working (which is nothing strange, it's had problems for a while). So he restarted my computer 2 times to try and get it to work, but one of those times it would no longer turn on. It has not turned on since... it starts out totally off and then gets this dull blue illumination, but never loads windows or does anything else past that. It seems like maybe when it overheated something else got damaged... but I'm really not sure. I've never overheated my computer before so I don't know much about it myself, and I only THINK this is a hardware problem. Sorry if this is in the wrong section... either way, I really hope someone can give me some advice on how to fix this... thanks.

 

It probably is a hardware problem but to double check you could run a Live CD of Puppy Linux or xPUD. Burn the iso file and boot. If you can run the Live CD you probably have a software problem instead.

 

Well I ended up trying to turn it on again and I actually was able to hear the vista boot up sound where you can type in your log-in password, but the screen is still dark. Perhaps there's something wrong with the monitor or graphics card? My knowledge of physical computer problems is very limited so unless I can get some detailed directions on a possible fix, I'll probably have to take it in to get fixed somewhere when I have some money... but this does sound like a hardware issue. I will try that boot CD suggestion sometime soon though.

 

Greetings, TrippNessa.

Along with the Linux suggestion, you might also try connecting a discrete monitor to the laptop's VGA port (if you've got a monitor handy) - this would show whether the laptop's display is bad, or if the onboard graphics is the problem.

 

I tried your guys' alternate monitor suggestion last night and it was able to display the screen on it, but everything was extremely pixelated. It loaded up to the screen that said the computer had been shut off due to an error and I had the choice to load windows normally or one of the other ways, and I selected normally. After about 10 minutes of blank screen it gave me the blue screen error page and rebooted. I tried safe mode after that and it loaded just fine, but was still so pixelated I was barely able to back up my files (at least I was able to do that much). It appears to be unable to load regular windows now but can just barely handle safe mode. A friend of mine suggested trying to reformat the computer, but I was not able to do that because it said it couldn't load the restore program and once again rebooted the computer. I gave up after that and just shut it off... I'm really not sure what to do with it. Does this still sound like a physical / motherboard problem?

 

Affirmative: sure looks like a graphics and/or mobo problem - and, as plodr pointed out, the cost ineffectiveness of trying to replace a laptop board may point toward a new machine, unfortunately.

 

Yeah... *sigh* well thank you very much everyone, I guess I'll start saving up money. You're right about it being more cost efficient to just buy a whole new computer at this point. My laptop is pretty old now anyway and can't handle new games or programs anymore. So yeah, maybe I can talk my friends and family into just giving me cash in a card for Christmas this year to go towards a new machine lol. Thanks again!

 

Well, the good news is that prices are dropping all the time - you should be able to get a very decent new machine now for what it would cost to repair the old one.
An added plus: if you do get a new machine, you'll have the old one to experiment with. You might stumble upon a fix, or find a cheap replacement mobo.

Good luck, and keep us posted. :major