Laptop dead

[EyonW]

Hi,

Sorry if this is a much asked question, but I've come to a spot of trouble with 2 year old Laptop.

Basically, I was clicking away in Photoshop last night, just finishing off some editing, and without warning, my laptop powered off. The only way I can describe the "powering off" is like when you pull the plug on a desktop. No warnings, no errors, no crashing or freezing, no BSOD, nothing.

Both the power light and the charge light went out. Checked battery the voltage is fine, check the PSU and the voltage is a stable 19.6v or there abouts. Opened the back of the laptop, no burnt out components or arid smell.

I've done some narrowing down and believe that it cannot be the obvious HDD (otherwise it would still power up), the screen (for the same reason), the PSU (as the voltage is fine and I didn't get a "out of battery" alert") or memory issue (surely it will still power on, just not do anything?). I have a horrible feeling this might be a slightly more fatal motherboard issue.

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 7736g, 2 years old, good condition, not dropped, not damaged, well looked after. I am no computer genius but I know my way around one well, just not at this level of broken-ness!

Very stumped! Think its time for a new Laptop?

Thanks

[rubberman]

Depending upon the laptop and cost to diagnose/repair, a new one may be in order. If you do get a new one, get one with an e-sata (external sata) port, so you can plug your old drive into a carrier and connect it to the system in order to save your data. That said, the file system may need to be repaired with chkdsk before you can access your data since it was in use when the laptop died.

[EyonW]

Thanks for the response Rubberman! Me and a pal who is a computer engineer by trade took the thing to bits the other day. Visibly there is zero wrong with it so I can only guess its pretty fatal!

Never mind, new one on route, perfect excuse for an upgrade!