Laptop won't start up

Hello!

My HP Pavilion laptop (dv9700 Vista) has power but won't start up. The screen is flashing a little. What steps should I take? I took out the battery and plugged in, but still won't start. Seems like with the battery, no flashing, without the battery, screen flashing.

Thanks again...you've helped me in the past and I appreciate this website.

 

BTW, at one point I did get a small pop up window message saying that Windows can't start and do I want to try a restore (or was it recovery). I clicked yes and the window disappeared but nothing happened after that.

 

How far does the startup get? Does anything appear on screen?

By flashing, are you referring to one single colour or images and/or text?

 

The laptop powers on, but nothing appears on the screen. I can hear the fan and usual noises. Sometimes there's a flickering of light or a line on the screen. One time after a while, I got that popup message from Windows Repair (?) asking if I want to restore or whatever, but after I clicked yes, the window went away and then nothing but the blank screen again.

Thanks.

 

Turn the laptop on, and as soon as you turn it on start repeatedly pressing F10. This should get you into a BIOS screen. This will tell us where the problem is.

 

Ok I tried this a couple of times. After powering on I tapped the f10 key until it started beeping when I pressed it. The screen would start flashing, sometimes with a line, sometimes a band of some color...but no bios. Then it would eventually turn off.

 

It sounds to me like your video chip is going out.

 

If you aren't getting anything in BIOS then I would agree that it sounds like the video chip, which unfortunately means the laptop motherboard will be a write off unless you have microsoldering skills.

 

Ok, here's an update. This morning I tried the f10 thing again...same thing (flashing). I turned the laptop off.

I then turned it back on and did nothing. A message appeared (DOS type) asking if I wanted to try restoring again or just continue to system boot. So I selected the latter. Well guess what--windows started normally and installed 3 updates and things seem ok. I selected the user, and now seeing a small "Personalized Settings" window on upper left, which is a bit unusual...but now the desktop is back and normal.

Can you tell me what's going on here? In fact, this happened a couple of weeks before too. (The blank screen, flashing, then eventually after turning on, off, on, etc. coming back to normal).

Can dust have anything to do with this? When I upended the keyboard, a lot of stuff fell out (this was before I posted my question so my cleaning up didn't immediately remedy the problem).

And if it is a video card issue, as you suggested, what do you recommend: repair shop or just buy another laptop?

Thanks very much!

 

It might be an overheating issue due to dust. If you feel comfortable you could take the bottom off the laptop and clean the fan out.

 

I'll try that, thanks! Also, the battery needs to be replaced, as I just discovered that it lasts only a half hour or so. My daughter's been using this laptop and always has it plugged in.

 

My husband is taking the laptop apart to clean the fan. We are wondering what that disk type battery is for and is it possible that it needs to be changed? The rechargeable battery definitely needs to be changed, as it lasts less than a half hour.

Thanks!

 

My hub started to take the laptop apart, but gave up. I just watched a video on taking it apart and saw that first they took screws off the back then flipped it over and took off the part above the keyboard, then the keyboard, etc. Do we have to go through this just to clean the fan? Looks very complicated.

 

If you're patient enough, make sure you have containers for the screws and give it a go. On a side note, I know those laptops fairly well and when the video card overheats it causes the graphics chip to lose it's solid solder connection which makes for no display, some basic display or some garbled discolored display.

Cleaning the fan may do the trick but if not it's more than likely the graphics chip. Since paying for a new graphics card and installing it's worth more than the laptop most people would junk the laptop at this point. If nothing else helps, as an absolute last resort, you could reflow the graphics card by baking in your home oven for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

This is an extreme "well I was gonna throw it away anyway" procedure. You can look up videos on Youtube, search for something along the lines of "reflow dv9700 oven". Be warned though, if you wind up going this route it's not guaranteed to last and if it does work, it's important to not allow the laptop to heat up a great deal after the repair.

In other words, keep the fan and exhaust ports clean, use a laptop cooler pad and keep the laptop on a flat hard service. I have done several oven bake procedures before and out of the five that I have done only one failed again. The one that failed was used by a child and laid on the carpet and it overheated.

You can also download service manuals for laptops online, usually just search "service manual dv9700"

 

For those who are fearful of disassembling a laptop, I have successfully disassembled several models of laptops and, if you have a technical mind, you can do it, too. A few suggestions:
1) a digital camera is very handy... I suggest you take a photo of each and every item you take out, just before removing it. One technique I have used, but only once, was to point the screwdriver at the screw I'm about to remove. It helps find the specific hole that you need to put it in again.
2) Instead of pulling all of the screws and putting them in a container, i map the back of the laptop on a sheet of paper, marking each of the screws on the drawing. Then I tape the screw to the paper in that position. Sometimes, instead of photos, I number the screws in the order I removed them. Use a separate sheet of paper for each "layer" of the laptop you are disassembling.
3) Find the service and maintenance manual for the specific laptop, if you can. HP posts a manual describing the disassembly/replacement process for most of their laptops. The manuals tend to send you in a lot of different directions, but they are VERY helpful.
4) Before you begin, make sure you have all the tools you will need AND some thermal compound, if you are removing the CPU heatsink. The screws are VERY tiny and I needed to make a trip to Sears to get some tiny Philips and Torx drivers.

Good luck!