Compaq Netbook Help

Hi all, i have my cousins Compaq Netbook in front of me after he asked me to help him with a problem he has.

Basically the laptop will boot, log in to windows (7 Started Edition) and seem to work fine but that's when the problem occurs.

It basically might be after 5 minutes or 20 minutes.
The screen will go black, the power light and charging light are still on, the hdd light shows no activity but the fan is still running.

If i switch the machine off and then back on it starts to boot again but tells me windows failed to boot and offers me safe mode, repair windows or boot normally.

I chose repair windows, it started checking for problems but the screen went off again with no hdd activity displaying, upon reboot again shows the safe mode, repair or boot normally.

I tried leaving the laptop on in the bios screen and again the screen goes black.

I've tried replacing the ram.. same thing.

I've tried replacing the hdd.. same thing.

I've tried running a restore.. same thing.

I've tried booting a windows 7 dvd.. same thing.

I thought about bios upgrade but didn't want to risk it in case the black screen occurs and the upgrade fails.

Anyone know anything else i can try or should i tell him it's dead and see if its still in warranty?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by scrappysphinx

Hi all, i have my cousins Compaq Netbook in front of me after he asked me to help him with a problem he has.
<snip snippy snip snip/>
Anyone know anything else i can try or should i tell him it's dead and see if its still in warranty?

Thanks

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I've had an issue with some cheapo laptop that decided upon boot to output to the external VGA, even though it wasn't connected. Is there an FN/F key combination to switch between displays?

Don't know about Compaqs but eeePCs suffer from the same fault if you install windows 7 and don't upgrade the Intel graphics drivers to the latest version.

@Chinners, Hi mate, sorry missed that one, i tried connecting an external vga screen to laptop and again booted then after a few minutes.. black screen.

@thecellartroll, that's thing mate, it even switches off the screen in the bios before windows even boots. Also switches the screen off while booting an installation dvd.

could it be a dogey backlite on screen

Try a different PSU.

Also check the power switch to make sure it's working properly.

@johnim, could be a backlight problem i suppose but surely an external vga screen wouldn't suffer the same problem.

@britishgeek, i suppose psu could be a problem but it also does the same thing while running on battery. I also don't have another psu to try so will probably have to return the netbook to him.

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Originally Posted by johnim

could it be a dogey backlite on screen

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Second to this.
When the screen goes black, if you can get a bright light source (led torch) and hold it against the screen, you may be able to see if the screen is still active.

I had a telly that would appear to turn itself off every now and again - it was one of the back lights failing, which triggered the whole lighting circuit to shut down.

Could be backlight but as i said all activity on the netbook apart from fans ceases to exist.
For example, i started the laptop installing windows 7 onto a blank hdd and the hdd activity light was going crazy and was about 20% installed when the screen went off. As soon as the screen went black the hdd activity light stopped, i could no longer hear hdd activity.

Also with an external display connected to the vga port, again the screen goes black and all activity stops which leads me to believe that its not the backlight.

I had the exact same problem with my tower when i built it last year. All the troubleshooting and returning every part. Turns out it was a faulty reset switch on the tower itself. That's why I suggested the power switch.

the symptoms I was having are 100% as you describe but then with a tower.

It is pretty evident it is a hardware problem in your netbook, could be that a component like the video chip is overheating and the system is automatically shutting down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scrappysphinx

Could be backlight but as i said all activity on the netbook apart from fans ceases to exist.
For example, i started the laptop installing windows 7 onto a blank hdd and the hdd activity light was going crazy and was about 20% installed when the screen went off. As soon as the screen went black the hdd activity light stopped, i could no longer hear hdd activity.

Also with an external display connected to the vga port, again the screen goes black and all activity stops which leads me to believe that its not the backlight.

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