Major Laptop Issue...ARRGGGHHHHH

[stevo68]

G'day all,

Thankfully we have another laptop. For whatever reason.....checked my laptop the other day...and the screen was just white....nothing else. So shut it down....rebooted it......started up ok....went out of office for a while...same thing. This morning....started it up.....booted fine....opened Outlook and the net....fine....then after about 15mins.....screen just went white. Luckily during that time I copied all the important files onto my server....but would love to know what might be the go with my laptop. Real pain as it is my work laptop....so have everything on it.

It is a Toshiba Satellite p100 and would be coming up for 3 yrs old. Don't know if this makes a difference....but generally it is in my office...I used it the other day in loungeroom and it went into Hibernate after a period...which I assume has to do with conserving battery power. Could this be a cause. ANy assistance would be greatly appreciated,

Regards

Stevo

[cal415]

Yes your power management may be causing it to crash, i have seen this a fair bit in the past and definetly seen this on toshiba's, but the white screen is a worry. There is a possibility that the LCD is the cause of the problem, next time it goes white hold the FN button and press the F5 key to scroll through the video output modes, if it blanks out that means the laptop is still running, press it a few times to get back to outputing video to the built in LCD, it may come good after that for a while.

[spudboy]

Try plugging in an external screen into the rear output D-sub. Get it so both screens are working (ie. laptop LCD + external monitor)

Wait 15 mins.

See if both screens go white, or just the laptop.

If both go white, then probably a driver/motherboard/Video card issue. Try disabling your screen saver and see if that makes a difference.

If the external monitor keeps on working, then probably a connector/witring issue with the laptop's screen, maybe from too much opening and closing breaking/fraying/fatiguing the wires to the screen perhaps.

[austastar]

Yep, I would follow spudboy's method for trouble shooting the problem.
cheers

[stevo68]

Try plugging in an external screen into the rear output D-sub. Get it so both screens are working (ie. laptop LCD + external monitor)

Wait 15 mins.

See if both screens go white, or just the laptop.

If both go white, then probably a driver/motherboard/Video card issue. Try disabling your screen saver and see if that makes a difference.

If the external monitor keeps on working, then probably a connector/witring issue with the laptop's screen, maybe from too much opening and closing breaking/fraying/fatiguing the wires to the screen perhaps.
Thanks for the feedback so far......have got the laptop screen and another external one happening.....will see what happens from here,

Regards

Stevo

[stevo68]

Arrrgghhh. Ok went for about and hr or so....then just completely shut down. Have noticed that the puter seems to be "working harder" maybe a fan or something. Whereas the current lappy Im working on hasn't made a sound. Have both screens going so will see what happens...but appears that once the white screen shows.......the laptop doesn't respond to anything. Have just left it for an hr and it is back up and running again. Looks like a trip to a repairer..damn it unless any other possible causes.

Also laptop has rarely been opened or closed...moved around etc. Generally has been in same spot yr in yr out. We have had a hot day today........first one out of the blue...could that cause issues?

Regards

Stevo

[incisor]

IMHO is either an inverter / mainboard problem or is overheating because of crap in the fan and airways.

my money is on the inverter / mainboard as we have many in the last few weeks with the same issue, mainly hp acer and toshiba units.

a new mainboard will come in around 500-600 bucks + labour i would think

[spudboy]

At that price, you'd have to be thinking of just buying a new one :(

[stevo68]

IMHO is either an inverter / mainboard problem or is overheating because of crap in the fan and airways.

my money is on the inverter / mainboard as we have many in the last few weeks with the same issue, mainly hp acer and toshiba units.

a new mainboard will come in around 500-600 bucks + labour i would think Crappp...hope it aint the latter....for that sort of coin would buy a new one. It hasnt flipped out yet......though I can hear the fan running again regularly. Is it easy to give the fan a clean. Never had a clean in almost 3 yrs.....

Regards

Stevo

[spudboy]

Might not be applicable to a Laptop, but I've had a few desktops behaving badly that went back to solid with a BIOS reset/update. They had a few performance tweaks set (RAM timings or something) and became unstable.

On most main boards there is a BIOS setting option that says "Safe defaults" (or something similar - maybe reset to factory specs). No idea if laptops let you do this though.

[austastar]

Does it behave the same if you place it in the draft of a normal domestic fan?
Just checking the possibility of an overheating problem.
cheers

[cal415]

Sounds like a MLB issue to me, but it could be heat related, if your feeling adventurous you could pull it apart, reseat the RAM and CPU, while your at it reapply the thermal grease on the heatsink and blast out any dust you find......

[cal415]

Also check the fans are actually operating

[stevo68]

Does it behave the same if you place it in the draft of a normal domestic fan?
Just checking the possibility of an overheating problem.
cheersOk fan is on it....hasnt wigged out in last hour or so.....I also think it is heat related. Been fine...then a couple of hot days here and whacko. Will see if it happens over night.


Sounds like a MLB issue to me, but it could be heat related, if your feeling adventurous you could pull it apart, reseat the RAM and CPU, while your at it reapply the thermal grease on the heatsink and blast out any dust you find...... Adventurous........me and anything like that..best done by a pro :D. Will take down to local IT folk for them to have a look anyway as need this puter working properly. Also thanks to all for feedback and info...will keep ya posted,

Regards

Stevo

[Chucaro]

My old Acer have the same problem and was on the contacts between the screen and the main part. The hinges are the main problem in the Acers.
It is hard to open and closing the laptop? If you moove the screen a bit what happens?

If it is insured just claim accident insurance on it, for sure you have hit it some were :)
Cheers

[incisor]

low voltage causes heat so it can come back to being the inverter not just a blocked airway...