Laptop won't POST

I have an MSI Megabook M677 that has stopped booting up. Nothing of significance that I am aware of caused the problem, just one day it wouldn't turn back on. Here's what's happening:

Laptop powers up, you can hear the HDD and fan going, but no beeps etc.. and no POST screen.

Tried disconnecting the CMOS battery for 5 minutes (with the laptop battery removed) to reset, but still the same thing

Tried booting with both Parted Magic and Memtest seperately via DVD, heard the DVD working, lights flashing, but nothing.

Tried connecting the laptop to external video source, nothing

Removed the RAM (it has two 1 GB sticks), and tried them individually in both slots, no dice

Removed the HDD and tried booting like that (to see if I could get a POST screen up). Nope.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

What do you think about flashing the BIOS?

 

Unfortunately the warranty is expired..... Yeah I did try to switch it from monitor to CRT but still nothing. I'm not convinced it's the attached monitor though, because I'm not hearing anything at startup. No windows sounds, no beeps, etc... Also, I tried holding down the F8 key continually when it starts and I don't hear the streaming beep I usually would. If my BIOS was corrupt would that not kill my POST?

 

Laptops hmmm, can be troublesome beasties.

There is one common theme with laptops.. they tend to have a very thin ribbon like connector from the unit to the display, usually held down by some sort of locking device into its socket.. this may have edged out over time...or the kids knocked it off the table when you werent around...!

Pain to access this thin cable though, have to get into the internals - involving undoing a multiple amount of screws.

Hmm external monitor no good? Is there a cut out switch of some discription.

Could try removing the battery and pressing power on and off for 30- to 40 secs. Of Course not having a battery to remove.. but the method works on some random desktop P.C issues.

Also some laptops (at least in my experience) for what ever reason didnt like turning off via the ALT+F4, several I have would boot to the good old B.S.O.D when powering back up the first time.

Is there a brightness, contrast or some other form of lighting or power enhancement option with this model? verify if this hasnt been turned down. Any LED lights displaying other than power?

G. luck let us know how you get on:wave

 

Aside from taking the laptop apart, I have tried pretty much all that stuff. Enabling the external monitor didn't work, but I really don't think that's the problem anyway..... Nobody thinks this is a BIOS issue huh? Cause I have heard of scenarios where BIOS updates have killed any kind of boot/POST. This one wasn't updated (to my knowledge), but maybe it got corrupted somehow....

 

Do you get any beeps with no RAM installed?

 

Negative. No beeps.

 

It sure sounds like you have tried just about everything. Resetting the CMOS should have eliminated a corrupt BIOS. I've never heard of BIOS getting totally corrupted on a chip and needing flashing to correct.

Del key doesn't bring up a setup screen?

 

Nope. Can't get anything up on video. I don't know why I'm hooked on this BIOS thing, but I've heard of BIOS updates having this exact effect on machines.... Can it be flashed without being able to get into setup?

 

The thing is to flash BIOS you have to be able to boot the machine from either a floppy disc or a CD. You are not able to boot the machine. Even after being able to boot you want to be able to read the screen to make sure the machine will accept the update.

I can't think of anything you haven't tried and haven't found too many threads about msi notebooks that suddenly wouldn't boot that didn't end with sending in to MSI for repair.

 

I'm kind of thinking the same thing.... Oh well. Thanks for the help either way dude!

 

Hey there,

Have had a laptop seemingly die and was about to throw it out several months later tried everything possible to recover it but similar issue...just a brick. funny though and lucky i decided to test it one last time despite everything as it worked... on a compaq 700M i think it was... that one baffles me to this day.

There are were or used to be some bios's that were on laptops harddrives so if you formatted it and tried to reinstall, everything was toast...that one doesnt seem like the answer tho not sure if they still do this..

hope you find a solution guy, it doesnt have connections for a docking station does it?

L8r:wave

 

Not for a docking station no.... So the BIOS was on the HDD itself? That's different... How did you end up getting the BIOS loaded? Did you have to integrate it into your Windows install?

 

think it was part of a partition, it was eons ago now so cant recall the details.

I do remember it was a right pain in the *** tho.

L8r

 

Got it worked out. What I ended up doing was getting a POST code reader that installed in the minipci slot. It have me the error 'F1 -- The AMIBOOT.ROM file is not in the root directory' I then went to the MSI website and got these instructions:

1.Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a floppy disk. e.g. Rename A569MS23.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM

2.Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system and press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. It will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.

3.When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk and restart the computer.

I used a USB flash stick instead of a floppy, and I didn't hear any beeps... I didn't have any video so I just let it run for about half an hour, to make sure it had time to get the reflash done. Reboopted, and it came right to life.