# Laptop powers on, but no display...Please HELP



## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

Hey there guys. Im having major problems with my cousin's laptop. He purchased it from some guy around his job for like $200 bucks (too good to be true). And turning it on for the first time he noticed he got scammed. The issue that he is having I just can't figure out. I'll explain the problem.........

The laptop is an Acer Aspire 5003WLMi with 512MB or RAM (256MB x 2), 100GB seagate hard drive, dvd burner, windows xp home.

Ok, the problem is the following: when you plug in the ac adapter the computer turns on automatically (without pressing the on/off button). After powering on, the hard drive light blinks twice only, and then doesnt blink again (but i do hear the hard drive spinning). Then in front of the laptop, the light that indicates that the laptop is ON blinks continuously with about 1 second in between each blink.

Now, while all this is happening, there is absolutely no display on the screen. No BIOS bootup screen, Acer logo, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!

Im very confused, as I have never come accross this problem again.

I dont know whether the following info helps, but here it is. I removed the hard drive from the laptop in question and inserted it on another laptop to test the hard drive (being that i was curious why the hard drive activity light only blinked twice). It turns out that on the other laptop it boots up fine, except for the part where it requests a password for the hard drive. It seems like who ever owned the laptop before my cousin put a password on the hard drive and I have no clue on how to get around it.

I included the above info because I don't know if it helps in determining what the issue is as far as it not even showing a display on the Acer.

Another thing i noticed is that, even if the hard drive was bad lets say, the Acer should still boot up at least to the BIOS, and its not even doing that.

Could it be the Motherboard? Im really confused; I would like to help out my cousin being that he got scammed, i feel bad. If anybody ahs any info regarding the issue explained above, I would greatly appreciate any feedback.


THANK YOU!


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

Forgot to add the following: Dont know if it matters or not but the laptop will not power on with battery;ac adapter has to be plugged in.

DVD rom opens and closes with no problem, green light on dvd rom blinks. CPU fan spins up


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## bhahar84 (Jan 7, 2008)

So, the hard drive is working fine? But the monitor stays black on this laptop. Can you see any backlight, such as the LCD light is powered on when you plug the AC adapter?

Try to hard reset, by pressing the power button on laptop, until the laptop shutdown, and then try to turn it on again. See if it can boot up properly


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

bhahar84, thanx for the quick reply. 

I can't see any back light at all. I also tried a hard reset and nothing. I have never come across this problem before with any laptop. 

I know is not the hard drive because as i stated before the hard drive worked on another laptop.

What im really confused about is the fact that the laptop would turn on automatically (on its own) by just plugging in the ac adapter to it (without me actually pressing the on/off button).


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

Could CPU be fried/ or Motherboard?

The cpu fan spins up as soon as i plug in the ac adapter. I mean, it doesn't even boot into the BIOS. Well, i don't know if it does really because i cant see anything on the screen.


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

bhahar84, I noticed that the laptop has a VGA video port on it, so i plugged in an external monitor to it to see if this would work, but it didn't work.

I'm really confused. What can it be?


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

I found the following info after doing a google search for "motherboard failure symptoms".

http://www.singapore-pc-servicing.com/motherboard_failure.php

My motherboard failed?
Most motherboard related failures are due to the "On-board" regulated supplies and component failure within those circuits.

We have seen similar capacitor failures on almost every brand and model of motherboard manufactured between 1998 ~ 2001.


The most common symptoms of capacitor failure are:

Fans spin up, power indicator / CDROM lights up and nothing else happens. No BIOS screen.


This is exactly what is happening with the laptop.


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## bhahar84 (Jan 7, 2008)

It might be the motherboard issue you're facing here. Try to see if any of the power light indicated on the laptop?


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

When i plug in the ac adapter the cpu fan spins up, and the hard drive activity light blinks twice and thats it. And the laptop power on light blinks continuously with about a one second pause in between each blink. And still no display on the screen.


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## bhahar84 (Jan 7, 2008)

And you don't even get a display using the external monitor? I'm afraid it might be the motherboard that already gone bad on this laptop :sigh:


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