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My laptop has exactly the same problem as described in this video by another victim. Any reasoned ideas will be appreciated.

Description of the problem:
The laptop, when plugged in, appears to charge for a while, but then the charging light starts slowly blinking. When turned on, the laptop does little for a moment, then a single beep is emitted, and no POST screen appears. Before the beep, one of the lights on the side blinks on, and remains there until the beep. The same thing happens without the power cable attached, though obviously the power light is not on. Plugging the power cable back in causes the laptop to attempt to boot once more, but again fails before POST.

(by Phoshi (that video could REALLY have done with a higher definition!))

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  • Maybe you could describe a few details of the problem. Many contributors here would be more willing to read two sentences than view a 2 minute video.
    – outsideblasts
    Jan 4, 2010 at 20:32
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    I noticed it appeared when the hard drive was accessed the computer would shutdown. So, if this was a desktop, I would disconnect the hard drive to see if it would come up to POST. Also, I would try running it without the battery just to rule the battery and charging circuits out. This looks like a tough one. Good luck.
    – Scott McClenning
    Jan 7, 2010 at 7:30
  • @outsideblasts The laptop intermittently does not boot up, even though a few light buttons near the front keep blinking (as they usually do during boot up).
    – amit kumar
    Jan 8, 2010 at 15:12
  • Another thing: sometimes the laptop would shut down without any reason and suddenly.
    – amit kumar
    Jan 8, 2010 at 15:13
  • Yep, sounds like hardware failure! Will need more information to diagnose what's failing, however.
    – Phoshi
    Jan 14, 2010 at 16:30

2 Answers 2

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+50

Sounds very much like hardware failure. Can you open up the case and make sure every component is properly plugged in (The CPU coming loose, for example, could cause this).

If not, it's your motherboard making the beep, so if you can find out what model it is you can get a listing of what the beeps mean. Good luck :)

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Have you tried booting up from a separate plug? Some charging systems won't use 'dirty power' -- electricity that isn't a perfect waveform (low voltage, high freq. components, etc.). It may be that your charger hasn't actually been charging the battery and won't run the computer on its own because of cruddy* power. Are you able to verify whether or not the battery charges? If not, try it in a Starbucks or something.

*Many of these charging systems are very finicky, or may be damaged so that they become so!

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