Computer question...

[Pissin' Poonani]

Yay! Yay for interesting topic titles!

I haven't been able to use my computer (a Compaq laptop) since Monday-basically, I could turn it on, the three power lights would come on (the 'ON' light, the light that shows I'm running off of the mains, and the one that shows the battery is charging, although that one has been dodgy since I've had this computer, as the battery doesn't hold it's charge), but that was all-it would make some noises and the screen would just stay dark.

This has happened once or twice before, and it was usually a case of turn it on and off a few times, or leave it for a day or three and it would sort itself out-on this occassion I got fed up, took it apart and reassembled it-it didn't work straight away, but I only had to turn it on/off a couple of times.

My question is, any idea what could be causing this? It's mildly annoying (I'm just glad it's working at the mo), but I'm curious as to what makes this happen.

Cheers muchly, tech-dudes.

[Guest]

Could be any number of things, really.

Dodgy display connection (excessive and forced hinging is usually the only cause of this), faulty HDD controller, dodgy power supply port, dodgy interface connections (keyboard, touchpad), cooler failure (resulting in cpu/cmos overheating), and various other things.

Have you tried (if you;ve got one!) plugging a monitor into the vdu port and seeing if that stays dark? Similarly with keyboard and mouse.

The problem with most older laptops (especially with compaq/hp) is that practically everything's integrated with the mainboard, so if something does go, the whole thing's junk.

[Pissin' Poonani]

Cheers dude.

Seems ok at the mo, so I'll try to avoid fiddling with it any further!