NC10 won't Power Up

[Chelston]

Hi All, this is my fiorst request for help so here goes.

 

My wife has an 20 month old Samsung NC10 Netbook which she uses each weekend for emails etc. and the OS is XP Home. This weekend she pressed the Power Button and nothing happened, no blue light no indication of activity except for a quick flashing of the HDD activity light at the front. I tried it both on battery and on mains with the same result but then the HDD activity light did not always flash.

 

As background, a similar thing happened about 2 months ago and, to cut a long story short, we returned it to the retailer who said that they would return it to the agent for investigation. However, about 10 minutes after we arrived home we had a call saying it was fixed by one of their computer savvy supervisors. Unfortunately, when we picked it up the next day the guy wasn't there but we were told that he had noticed a flicker of life and pressed a couple of keys and gone from there.

 

Question: Does anyone have any idea what he did and can I copy it. Also what is the cause of a malfunction like this. I do security maintenance on our computers every weekend so it should be clean and free from virus etc.

 

Hope someone can help, Cheers

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

From your description and the fact that an unknown tech got it going by just pressing keys in an unknown fashion, it doesn't give us much to go on. However a good guess is that there is possibly a loose connection inside.

If you feel up to looking yourself, netbooks are extremely fiddly things to get into by the way, disconnect from the power and remove the battery first.

 

I am sorry but cannot find a service manual to assist you in dismantling it unfortunately, it seems it has been removed from the site I found.

 

However, there is a general laptop and notebook maintenance site which may have some useful information here-

Laptop Repair Help

 

Otherwise it may mean a trip back to the retailer.

 

Because of the difficult nature of opening and accessing netbooks, notebooks and laptops we do often recommend seeking professional help when confronted with what seem to be hardware faults.

Nev.

[KenB]

As Nev says - laptops of any kind are extremely difficult to work on.

 

You could try taking the hard drive out and putting it back again - making sure that the connections are good.

You could also try the same thing with the RAM module(s).

 

You should find both behind panels on the underside of the housing.

[Chelston]

Thanks a lot for the replies. Must admit I thought it was a duff connection from the beginning but was hoping someone had come across the problem just to confirm it. I'm not up to taking it apart, not bad with PCs - bigger bits and more space- but not confident of atempting this. Looks like a trip back to the retailer after all.

 

Cheers and thanks.

[Chelston]

Hi All,

 

Just for info - took the netbook back to the retailer and the guy at the desk took it to a techie in the workshop to check out the mains lead etc. The guy at the back plugged in and apparently pressed Alt/Delete and it powered up. Couldn't get to talk to him but it's now working fine. Don't know if anyone kinows this key combination and if it performs any other wonders.

 

Cheers

[Dalo Harkin]

Glad its all ok now.

 

Did they replace the power lead?

the power connector at the back where the power lead attaches often becomes loose on the MOBO and can cause shorts this is the most common reason for symptoms like you have said you had.

Its caused by moving the lappy around while its charging and bending the connector on the MOBO :)

 

As for the Alt-Del thing you got me and I deal with PCs everyday

[Chelston]

Hi Dalo,

 

No , everything is the same as it was with no replacements and no charge. As for the Alt/Del, I have been looking on the net and beginning to suspect it might have been Ctrl/Alt/Del that was used but as I got the info 2nd hand I can't be sure. Anyway I have written to Samsung about the problem and the apparent solution to see what they say about it.

 

Cheers

[Dalo Harkin]

Weird, let us know what they say, CTRL,ALT,DEL would only work if the PC was already on and gone into sleep/hebernation, this can happen if you close the lid before the lappy has actually shut down :)

 

May also explain the odd flicker of life from the HDD LED

[Plastic Nev]

To add to Dalo's comment regarding sleep/hibernate mode, which sometimes can be a pain to get a machine out of.

 

A final remedy would be to remove both the power cable, and the battery, for about ten minutes, then plug the battery back in, then the power cord and try again.

Nev.