I have a Toshiba A40 laptop, 2.8ghz processor, 1gb ram (upgraded),
etc..

Suddenly today it won't start up. When the power button is pressed,
the power light will come on for approx 1 sec and the CD drive will
spin (as normal), then it'll shut down. No image at all appears on the
screen, the screen doesn't even turn on.

I've tried reseating the heatsink to no avail - I'm about to try
reseating the RAM. I considered that it might be the HDD, but surely
it'd manage to boot into the BIOS at least?

I've read somewhere it could be the video card - is that possible?

Other than that, it could be the motherboard (ack) - any way to tell?
Or is it just a case of testing every other part?

Not done much troubleshooting with laptops so I'm a bit
apprehensive...!

Thanks for any help.
R

That should be Toshiba Satellite Pro A40, sorry about that.
R

Tried reseating RAM, and swapping them round etc to no avail.

Had a look around the various bits while I was there, can anyone
identify this part? Sorry for the rubbish pic: http://i14.tinypic.com/6apgz7m.jpg
- It looks like an expansion slot of some kind.

Next stage is to try the video cable, but I can't figure out how to
get to it, and the user manual doesn't say. Can anyone advise?

Thanks
R

rachey@gmail.com wrote:

You might try a Google search by laptop model and see if you can match
symptoms. Sounds like it might be the motherboard since you have checked
the RAM. At least for me laptops or difficult service items. One possiblity
might also be your power cord plug in having a short. Though that would
typically cause it to just go down later if you have a bad battery and move
the laptop around.

Either the mother board, or the power supply has failed. Call Toshiba
support and ask where you can take the computer for a service estimate.
This would be cheaper than buying spare parts to try.

--

JANA
_____


<rachey@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1189935301.157850.184710@57g2000hsv.googlegro ups.com...
I have a Toshiba A40 laptop, 2.8ghz processor, 1gb ram (upgraded),
etc..

Suddenly today it won't start up. When the power button is pressed,
the power light will come on for approx 1 sec and the CD drive will
spin (as normal), then it'll shut down. No image at all appears on the
screen, the screen doesn't even turn on.

I've tried reseating the heatsink to no avail - I'm about to try
reseating the RAM. I considered that it might be the HDD, but surely
it'd manage to boot into the BIOS at least?

I've read somewhere it could be the video card - is that possible?

Other than that, it could be the motherboard (ack) - any way to tell?
Or is it just a case of testing every other part?

Not done much troubleshooting with laptops so I'm a bit
apprehensive...!

Thanks for any help.
R

JANA wrote:
I will post here as I do not see the original poster's message.

http://home.att.net/~ronkar/toshiba....roubleshooting



--

When people are engaged in something they are not proud of, they do
not welcome witnesses. In fact, they come to believe the witness causes
the trouble. ___John Steinbeck

Ellis_Jay

rachey@gmail.com wrote:
It looks like an empty memory slot to me