ahansol

I have just had my hard drive upgraded on the laptop and worked fine for a couple of days, i have now gone to turn it on and i get nothing, when you press the power button the power light flickers and thats it, i am suspecting a bios problem, can anyone help?

TriggerFinger

Hi,

power light flickers but does not start booting at all (no post whatsoever)? can you still recall if how this all started (did you update BIOS)?

well you can try several things example:
1. remove battery (only AC power) and try to power ON
2. remove/replace RAM
3. remove/replace WiFi card
4. remove CMOS battery and all source of power (AC and battery) and press power ON button for 30seconds to one minute then reconnect everything and try a normal power ON.

ahansol

hi thankyou for your reply, i have tried all that you have suggested as a lot of other people say the same, but none of these seem to work,

i havent uprgaded the bios , but was thinking to do so, but the only problem is , as the machine wont go to post i can not get any power to the floppy or cd drive ( i have a usb floppy drive) any ideas , is there any way of doing this?

TriggerFinger

Hi,

power ON light flickering? no beeps at all? sure smells like a corrupted BIOS to me. the problem with thinkpads is that their BIOS chips are soldered on the board. so unless you can do micro soldering stuff... then may be you can replace the chip and have it reprogrammed. if not, you are looking into a possible motherboard replacement.

last hail mary here on my part... when you switch it ON, the LEDs will light up (not only the power LED). i think they will blink two times then it will POST. does it do anything at all other than blink? i am trying to look at it in another perspective like a busted screen but if you are sure that when switched ON only the power LED blinks and nothing more then i believe it is the motherboard.

you may also want to consider bringing it to a repair shop and have their opinion.

ahansol

hi , thanx for your reply.

with out the battery inserted and only the ac plugged in when you press the power button the hard drive led flickers each time u press the power button and thats it.

when batt is replaced and ac together the charding light comes on and again when you press the power the hd led and the charging led blinks and thats it no post what so ever, had a acer with simalar problems and it was the corrupted bios, has the bios chip changed on the that but made know differrence, as the imb in not mine im looking at it for a friend i only know what she has told me , she says it was working fine then suddenly started the problems , as you say it curtainly looks like bios corruption, i want to try flashing the bios but cant as theres no post for power.

TriggerFinger

i suggest you take that to a repair shop and have it looked at... get their opinion on the matter. as for now, you might want to tell your friend to prepare big bucks just in case a mobo replacement is needed.

ahansol

hi thankyou very much for your help, i will pass all your info on, and will let you know the outcome .

thanks again!!

TriggerFinger

explain to them that if it is indeed the BIOS, unless you are an expert in fine soldering you will still end up with replacing the motherboard. AFAIK the bios chip for thinkpads is soldered on the board. to add to the complication, you also need to reprogram the chip as you cannot flash it anymore in your system. at first glance this may look like a cheaper solution but i do not think it is still 'cheap' once you consider all the work goes with it.

given that, i would consider mobo replacement as the easy way out.

ahansol

hi i also have a Packard Bell K5 285 PC Notebook

plugged into the ac all i get is a red light under the screen , and when the power is pressed nothing happens.

after about 5 mins of the power being left on, it appears to be charging as the light flashes . but that is it? can you help?

TriggerFinger

ahansol,

pls post another for packard bell. it can get very convoluted if you append it to this post.