Laptop Broken

[Finner]

Hey guys,

Wonder if you can help me out. I'm pretty good with computers but need some help with this one.

I plugged my laptop into my printer and selected print. The page started printing out then WHAMMO, screen goes blank and printing stops.

Even after turning off laptop and turning it back on, screen still blank.

Thoughts:

Don't think its the LCD screen itself as printer stopped when screen went blank, which would mean hard drive, processor, motherboard, etc.

Nothing appears on screen when you start, ie. a boot disk wouldn't work ...which means it isn't the hard drive.

I think it must be motherboard or processor or both. When i turn it on it sounds like the hard drive is spinning, which may mean nothing.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Or some pricing amounts you might have? Would it be cheaper to buy a 400 laptop or replace parts?

The laptop in question was pretty pricey, over 1500, the screen is totally touchscreen and swivels around to become like a clipboard. Very small laptop.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Specs and picture : http://www.clearanceclub.com/product...avilion-tx1200

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Finner

Hey guys,

Wonder if you can help me out. I'm pretty good with computers but need some help with this one.

I plugged my laptop into my printer and selected print. The page started printing out then WHAMMO, screen goes blank and printing stops.

Even after turning off laptop and turning it back on, screen still blank.

Thoughts:

Don't think its the LCD screen itself as printer stopped when screen went blank, which would mean hard drive, processor, motherboard, etc.

Nothing appears on screen when you start, ie. a boot disk wouldn't work ...which means it isn't the hard drive.

I think it must be motherboard or processor or both. When i turn it on it sounds like the hard drive is spinning, which may mean nothing.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Or some pricing amounts you might have? Would it be cheaper to buy a 400 laptop or replace parts?

The laptop in question was pretty pricey, over 1500, the screen is totally touchscreen and swivels around to become like a clipboard. Very small laptop.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Specs and picture : http://www.clearanceclub.com/product...avilion-tx1200

Yikes do you have any sort of warranty? That's a refurbished laptop and it might just be old problems coming back to haunt it. It's not going to be easy to get parts or repair service for that unless you can find them on ebay or from HP. Plug an external monitor into it. It might be the backlight inverter or power supply.

[Finner]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Yikes do you have any sort of warranty? That's a refurbished laptop and it might just be old problems coming back to haunt it. It's not going to be easy to get parts or repair service for that unless you can find them on ebay or from HP. Plug an external monitor into it. It might be the backlight inverter or power supply.

No warranty. It was bought from futureshop 2 years ago. I guess I should have taken that 3 year plan they were offering for 280 bucks.

I don't think its the power supply because the computer still turns on in a sense. All the right lights turn on, the hard drive light flickers for a sec, then shuts off. Doesn't really maintain though.

I plugged into my monitor, didn't work.

It sounds "too quiet" if you get my drift. You turn it on, initial hard drive groan for half a sec, then nothing. All the lights are on, sounds like something is whirring really quietly inside.

So you probably think i'm outta luck. Any idea on what it could be?

[photon]

Yeah if it sounds too quiet and the hard drive doesn't do it's normal bootup grinding (i.e. you can hear it spin and that's it) then it's probably something serious, though it could still be something fairly inexpensive.

Try taking the hard drive out entirely, I've seen it when a drive failed and it stopped a machine from posting at all.

Do the same with the RAM, one stick at a time (or try to find a different stick if you have only one).

Even the battery, run it without that.

Basically remove anything that's removable and hopefully it'll be one of those things.

Beyond that, repairing a laptop isn't overly difficult if you are patient, but getting the parts for a decent price might be hit and miss.. you could luck out and find someone dumping theirs that still works but has a busted LCD. EDIT: Though repairing one with a swivel LCD might be more tricksy.

Too bad this wasn't a bit earlier, I think Lenovo had a sweet deal on one of their tablet laptops.

They do have a good deal on a x61s if you are still looking for small:

http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/ma...ranty_715_othe

Boxing day is the right time to be shopping for a new laptop though

http://boxingday.redflagdeals.com/

[Finner]

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah if it sounds too quiet and the hard drive doesn't do it's normal bootup grinding (i.e. you can hear it spin and that's it) then it's probably something serious, though it could still be something fairly inexpensive.

Try taking the hard drive out entirely, I've seen it when a drive failed and it stopped a machine from posting at all.

Do the same with the RAM, one stick at a time (or try to find a different stick if you have only one).

Even the battery, run it without that.

Basically remove anything that's removable and hopefully it'll be one of those things.

Beyond that, repairing a laptop isn't overly difficult if you are patient, but getting the parts for a decent price might be hit and miss.. you could luck out and find someone dumping theirs that still works but has a busted LCD. EDIT: Though repairing one with a swivel LCD might be more tricksy.

Too bad this wasn't a bit earlier, I think Lenovo had a sweet deal on one of their tablet laptops.

They do have a good deal on a x61s if you are still looking for small:

http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/ma...ranty_715_othe

Boxing day is the right time to be shopping for a new laptop though

http://boxingday.redflagdeals.com/

Its for school to take notes. I was looking at those acer aspire ones with windows XP. They are on for 300 at staples for boxing day. Or what do you think of them vs the Dell Inspiron Mini 12's with windows XP? Any ideas with these?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Finner

Its for school to take notes. I was looking at those acer aspire ones with windows XP. They are on for 300 at staples for boxing day. Any ideas with these.

Acer Aspire Ones? I have one. Beautiful system and super small. Perfect for school because you get like 5+ hours of battery life versus the 3 hours of normal size laptops. Small keyboard may take some getting used to. But the size is really also what makes it great for school. I also have an Asus EeePC and those are decent as well.

[photon]

Unless you're a 8 year old girl you might have problems typing fast enough to take notes on one of those, the keyboards are seriously small.

The Dell 12" netbook might be big enough keyboard, but at that price you could probably find a good 14" laptop, or maybe a 13" if it was a smoking deal or slightly used (Just got a Dell 14" used for my Mom, but it still has 2 years left on Dell's premium warranty, got it for $600).

[photon]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Acer Aspire Ones? I have one. Beautiful system and super small. Perfect for school because you get like 5+ hours of battery life versus the 3 hours of normal size laptops. Small keyboard may take some getting used to. But the size is really also what makes it great for school. I also have an Asus EeePC and those are decent as well.

Really, you can keep up with an instructor on that keyboard?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by photon

Really, you can keep up with an instructor on that keyboard?

EeePC - nope, not a chance. The Aspire One though is larger and I can manage an excellent WPM.

Small asian fingers. Good for tiny keyboards, bad for playing guitar

[photon]

Ah, short stubby whitey fingers, bad for both tiny keyboard and guitar! EDIT: Piano too, though I am very flexible so I can reach an octave plus 2

[McG]

i see that you have an hp. i just had major problems with my hp...and finally got that resolved 4 months after buying the thing.

one question...the hps usually come with one year warranty...if you bought it on a credit card with a double the warranty...you might come in under the 2 year from date of purchase window. check your credit card to see.

if you do...you will likely be in luck because it may cost more than the computer is worth to fix it...and you might find yourself with the loot to buy a new one.

[Finner]

Good call, I will look through to check the warranties.


Are the 13 inch laptops still pretty small? Easy to carry around?

[photon]

I think so, we had a few people have them in the office and they seem to like traveling with them. The good ones are more $$ of course. The one we had that I really liked was the Dell XPS 1330, though the new Studio one from Dell looks nice too.