Member Avatar for topstunes

Hi, Please could you help me with this problem. I have purchased a laptop for my son from (wish i'd bought new) Ebay (my advise, don't collect an item offering shipping it voids your paypal protection, apparently). Originally we were experiencing a problem with the battery not taking the charge and dying within moments of the power supply being removed. Then within a few hours any reboots were causing the laptop to stall on boot, with a series of beeps that meant media failure. We overcame this by rebooting resitting the battery and power wire and all was fine again for a day. Now we are experiencing what looks like it might be a gpu soldering problem

Power light on as soon as power adapter is connected without actually being switched on
charging light on
2-3 seconds of fan movement
couple of clicks from the dvd drive
black screen
no response from keyboard except to power down

but what concerns me is we have no beeps of any kind the power pack has been replaced so unless i'm really unlucky and bought a bad replacement i doubt it has anything to do with power. I have stripped it and checked for lose connection but i'm a bit of a pc person not really sure what im doing inside a laptop. Removed ram and tried booting. Replaced ram with good ram. removed all other components reseated and replaced and all have the same result. Frustrated i may have to pay for reballing if it is the gpu but being sure before i send it off would help loads.

Not sure if theres anything else I should have included here but tia for your help

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by david cashin

Dani AI

Generated

Following the troubleshooting already done by and 's follow-up about boot/thermal behavior, here are concise, practical diagnostics and realistic repair notes to help separate a power/BIOS problem from a true GPU/BGA failure.

Non‑destructive checks to try first:

  • Power‑drain cycle: remove battery and AC, hold the power button ~30 seconds, then connect AC (no battery) and attempt a boot. This clears residual power and can reveal whether an embedded controller or battery circuit is at fault.
  • External display: attach a VGA/HDMI monitor and use the laptop's display‑switch key (look for the monitor icon) to check for any output. If external shows BIOS or POST, the internal panel or its cable may be at fault.
  • Minimal POST: remove HDD/optical drive and all but one known‑good RAM stick (test each slot). A system that posts only in minimal configuration points to a peripheral or short.
  • CMOS reset and speaker check: remove the coin cell for 10+ minutes to reset BIOS, and if comfortable locate the motherboard speaker header (often labelled SPK) and connect a simple PC speaker to capture beep codes—many laptops won't beep if the speaker is disconnected.

Deeper checks and cautions:

  • Visual inspection for bulging capacitors, burn marks or cracked solder around the GPU area is informative. Gently wiggle the DC jack and test the adapter output with a meter if experienced—intermittent jack or bad power rails cause odd boot behaviour. Avoid invasive solder work unless qualified; ESD precautions are important.

Repair realities (GPU/BGA): intermittent boots that improve after reseating often point at BGA cracks. Reflow can be a low‑cost, short‑lived fix; reballing (full BGA rework) is the reliable repair but can approach or exceed the laptop's value. A motherboard swap or replacement laptop is often the most economical long‑term option. Seek a reputable shop that provides a written warranty on BGA work and a flat diagnostic fee so the fault can be confirmed before committing to expensive repairs.

Member Avatar for david cashin

wait so you can boot into windows? how hot does it get before shutting down?

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