Need help with E-machines laptop

Foebane72

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I have been asked by a friend to look at his laptop which has a problem in terms of starting up.

When it is turned on, it will go into the boot screen together with a clunk from the DVD drive, the emachines logo will come up on screen together with the "Press F2 to enter Setup" caption, but then go black after five seconds with a little "dink" noise, then repeat the entire process over and over again.

In fact, I haven't been able to turn it off! I tried holding down the power button on the top left of the keyboard for about ten seconds, but that doesn't stop it.

He's asking me if it can be saved - is it just a battery thing, or could it be a virus?
 
it's hard to tell but it sounds like a hardware issue; can you not get into setup at all?
 
it's hard to tell but it sounds like a hardware issue; can you not get into setup at all?

No, when I press F2 in time it's saying "please wait..." but once again it just shuts down, then turns back on a few seconds later.

It also turns out that holding down the power button will not shut it off, the battery has to be removed.
 
or could it be a virus?

No because it hasn't got far enough into the start up to be able to run a virus.

If you can't get into the BIOS then it sounds like a hardware\firmware problem. With a desktop I'd recommend resetting the BIOS using the jumper on the motherboard but I've no idea how\if that is possible with a Laptop.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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No because it hasn't got far enough into the start up to be able to run a virus.

If you can't get into the BIOS then it sounds like a hardware\firmware problem. With a desktop I'd recommend resetting the BIOS using the jumper on the motherboard but I've no idea how\if that is possible with a Laptop.

Cheers,

Nigel

Well, my Dad has also looked at the laptop and he says he tried resetting the BIOS, but I don't know what method he tried, but it didn't work anyway.
 
Are you sure the 'clunck' is coming from the DVD drive and not the hard drive? I've had a hard drive that failed once and it made a repeating 'clicky' noise.
 
Are you sure the 'clunck' is coming from the DVD drive and not the hard drive? I've had a hard drive that failed once and it made a repeating 'clicky' noise.

Well, the clunk sounds fairly strong and the sound is coming from where the DVD drive is, and the sound it makes when it suddenly powers off sounds much more feeble and tinny, a bit like a hard drive would. Maybe it IS a hard drive fault?

In any case, I'm getting my Chinese housemate to take a look at it, since he knows much more about laptop hardware than I do.
 
Well, the clunk sounds fairly strong and the sound is coming from where the DVD drive is, and the sound it makes when it suddenly powers off sounds much more feeble and tinny, a bit like a hard drive would. Maybe it IS a hard drive fault?

In any case, I'm getting my Chinese housemate to take a look at it, since he knows much more about laptop hardware than I do.

From the sounds of it, it does sound a like a HDD clunk (it can often sound like the optical drive) suggesting it's given up the ghost
 
From the sounds of it, it does sound a like a HDD clunk (it can often sound like the optical drive) suggesting it's given up the ghost

So a broken HDD would cause an immediate powerdown?
 
A hdd fault wouldnt mean you couldnt turn it off and it should still get past the bios then fail, if its the hdd, then theres something else wrong as well, remove the hdd, try booting, see what happens, if you have a spare, replace and try again.
 
A hdd fault wouldnt mean you couldnt turn it off and it should still get past the bios then fail, if its the hdd, then theres something else wrong as well, remove the hdd, try booting, see what happens, if you have a spare, replace and try again.

I don't want to start opening it up when I don't know what I'm doing; I don't even like poking around inside tower PCs neither.

I'll get my housemate to have a look, if he thinks that's what's needed.
 
Well, my housemate had a look, and he puts it down to either the BIOS or the HDD being faulty, or perhaps both. I'll write it down on a note with the laptop and return it to him so he can repair it.
 
did he take the hard drive out then boot the pc? if it will not post it means that there is a Hardware fault preventing it from happening.

First off remove both the dvd and hdd drives then power the pc up if it posts ok then try the hdd and dvd one at a time to find out of they are causing the problem.

If it still does not post then still with the dvd and hdd removed try the ram there are should be two sticks remove one and power up if you have no joy then try the other slot. Then try the second stick again in both slots it could be a faulty ram slot/stick or them ram is not seated correctly!
 

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