Laptop not booting

[MrMew]

So, got this Acer Aspire 5536 that won't boot. It starts, fans go, hard drive spins, power light is on, black screen. When this first happened after a few goes of turning it on and off it would start up.



Tried the following:
-power reset
-running on mains
-changing the thermal paste (problem known for this make with overheating issues)
-changing the lithium 3V battery on the motherboard
-trying the RAM one at a time (its got 4gb of RAM)
-trying the hard drive in another computer, it has the BIOS come on and Vista begins to start but then it wants to go into repair. All the stuff was on there though, and it had a problem not too long before with malware. I've scanned the hard drive with two different security softwares and all problems appear to be resolved.
-using another hard drive that does work

Any ideas?

[T*AnTi-V!RuZz]

Well you've tried a lot, but with a black screen one the first thing I'd do is try another graphics card, and I don't see that on your list.

Or:
- Does the screen still work?
- Change cables?

[Esthlos]

Well you've tried a lot, but with a black screen one the first thing I'd do is try another graphics card, and I don't see that on your list.

Or:
- Does the screen still work?
- Change cables?

Well, he mentions

-using another hard drive that does work

which if I understood correctly means that the screen and the graphics card are ok.

Maybe it's the video driver files that are damaged?
Or did I understand incorrectly, and what he meant is that the other hard drive works on other machines but using it with this laptop doesn't fix the problem?

[sado1]

Esthlos: I think the latter; if he mentions he can't boot the laptop, why would he say "I can boot it with another HDD"? He would have to be really blind to not notice that he just answered his own question, then

One possible idea, which I've seen on multiple laptops already: the laptop is fine, but the tiny part which tells the computer whether the lid is open or closed, is broken and makes the laptop believe it is closed for 100% of the time. Did your laptop go dark when you closed the lid while at BIOS screen before? I mainly see this after the operating system (Windows) is launched, but it's possible your BIOS also notices the closed lid then darkens screen...

Vista going to autorepair when you put your HDD into another computer is standard, Windows family systems don't really like being put into another PCs.

Most important info you provided:
-"When this first happened after a few goes of turning it on and off it would start up." - this imo indicates a hardware issue the most. Something mechanical might'd got broken and worked worse and worse until it finally stopped.
-power, fans, hard drive seem to be working
-the problem is screen related - this means either my lid idea is correct, or it would be either graphic card failing, screen failing, or either of those having cabling problems (more likely the screen)

Things you could try:
-connecting an external screen by HDMI/DVI/whatever ports you have at your disposal
-trying if the Windows starts at all, by observing the behaviour of the HDD (roughly, how long does it work for?)
-trying to move/push/etc. the screen in weird ways to make the lid "open"

[MrMew]

Don't have a spare screen or cable, however the laptop has a light that indicates that the hdd is running, it's not illuminating. Interesting about the opening thing though, might try that. To clear up the hdd thing, I tried putting an xp hdd in the acer aspire 5536, which works normally in this dell vostro 1000. Also tried the vista hdd in the dell, but it always attempts to repair. And I think the graphics card is built into the motherboard.

[Rockster]

Try to turn it on and listen to the HDD because it isn't an SSD you will hear him run if you don't hear anything than I'm sorry you HDD has dieded

Just a thing to mention
Sata-III is reverse compatible to Sata-II and I so you don't have to watch for that if you buy a new HDD or SSD