Hi Daniweb people,
Hopefully someone can help me here! :-)
Having a strange problem with a Packard Bell Easynote A8 laptop. A family member has asked me to fix it, but i'm clueless as to what the problem could be.
Basically, this laptop has sat unused for about a year, but previously was working fine. The battery had been completely powered down, and the owner had lost their AC adapter. So she bought a new one (non-OEM) and plugged it in, and all looked good. The charging light came on, and when she clicked the power button on the laptop all the lights came on (HDD, CD Drive, etc) and the fans started whirring.
Problem is that there's no screen, and that, after a second or two of getting the fans whirring, they stop. But all the lights stay on as they should, and the CD drive still works (it'll open and close, anyway).
I've tried using an external monitor to pick up a picture, but there's nothing. Likewise, a boot CD doesn't work either. There's no BIOS beeps, no sounds at all even!
Does anyone have any ideas? I've heard that it might be a RAM issue caused by the complete power down of the battery, but i can't say i've ever heard that one before. The only other things that occur to me are that it's a motherboard issue, either with a capictor becoming bloated, or a power issue, though the latter seems unlikely if the lights and CD Drive are working ok. Couldn't possibly be a dead CMOS battery, could it?
I really am stumped, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.