Toshiba Satellite 350 laptop won'tturn on

[Schmoo1959]

I have a new Toshiba Satellite 350 laptop that was working fine. For no apparent reason it shut down and I can't get it to start again. I've checked the obvious things like battery & and power supply and they check out ok. Any ideas on what to do? I have a rescue disk but obviously can't use it because the laptop won't even go through the boot sequence. I push the power button the lights flash once and thats it? I have to close the lid, unplud the power supply before trying again; otherwise there is no response at all when I push the power on button.

[gatzaraki]

I've seen this problem in other sites, my advise is try hitting the FN key when powering on, it works for many people.

[Schmoo1959]

but it didn't work! (insert big sigh here)
Thank you for trying to help me out.
- Rob

[gatzaraki]

A friend of mine asked me to fix two toshibas and i fixed one with that tip the other one just wont budge :P good luck!

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi and welcome to Daniweb,
You said you checked out the battery, but did you try booting your laptop without the battery? This sometimes works as well.

[Schmoo1959]

Yes, I took the battery out and tried to turn the laptop on with just the power supply on. I also tried turning on the laptop with only the battery. I also tried both of these methods while holding down the Function key and the same response. (actually, lack of response).

I've never done this whole forum thing and think its pretty cool. Thanx again.

- Rob

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
As you have tried all suggested above, and your laptop will not boot (even to a CD) I think you need to take it to a service tech to advise you what is wrong and what it will require to repair.

[Schmoo1959]

I've taken laptop to a specialist this afternoon. He informed me that it will be far cheaper to replace the whole mainboard rather than pay for the required time to identify the specific problem, the cost of labour to remove the old/install the new component. All of that is worse case scenario. Now for the good news...

I was running my laptop 24/7 with the power cord plugged into the laptop while the battery was in. When I put the laptop to sleep I closed the lid before it actually went to sleep and may have caught it midway through the sleep process. I have my computer set to turn off when I close the lid so with any luck, it will be something as simple as resetting the defaults back to their original state.

Phew. Hope that makes some kind of sense cuz that's sorta-kinda how I understood it as it was explained to me. I will post what the technician does to get me back up and running. This has given me the opportunity to use my very first forum (and I'm quite impressed with the response) and also to get reacquainted with my desktop that's been missing me for a while.

- Rob

[Schmoo1959]

The repair shop replaced the main board and the problem persisted. After banging their heads for a while, they discovered that a wire was being pinched and that was the problem! Its all covered under warrenty as well. Phew.

Thanx for you help & support to everyone.

- Rob