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A1667G Dead ???

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A1667G Dead ???

Postby Felix_GR » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:29 am

Hello to every FSC co-user!!!

First of all I would like to apologize for writing in English, but I am afraid
that If do it in German, it will take you longer to understand my problem
than to fix it :lol: .

My name is George (oder "Georg" :wink: ), I live in Athens, Greece and
I am facing a "serious???" problem with my 1.5 year old Amilo 1667G

The Specs are
Athlon 4000+
100 GB HDD
1GB RAM
WinXP Home (Greek Unfortunately :cry: )

My Problem is the following:

For the last week or so the NB could not boot up. It would stay with the F-J
logo on and do nothing (or sometimes with an "underscore" in the top left
corner). I thought that it would just be a matter of reinstalling WinXP
Home. Sometimes it would help to press PWR button for 4 secs, remove
the battery and restart it after a "small reset" procedure and everything
would work ok....

..But....Tonight that was it!!!

After a system shutdown I performed in the afternoon, tonigh it will not
boot at all.

-The PWR Led is on
-The HDD Led blinks for 3-4 times
-The Fan rolls for about 3 secs
-And the system hangs (Black Screen Nothing appears there...)

I did the following:

0) I Removed the Battery module and pressed the PWR button to
discharge the system.

1) I "Lufted" the NB using a blower I have. (I do this every 2 months with
my PC systems (as the problem with dust here in Greece is terrible!!!)

2) I removed the 2 x 512MB RAM modules, reinserted them in alternate
locations

3) Removed HDD and reinserted it into location

4) Crossed my fingers

and

Nothing happens


Since this machine is of great help to me and it produces a lot of work,
before I send it to FSC for any "sad news" and before I have to wait for
X weeks period of time does anyone have any Ideas?

Any ideas would be welcome and of great assistance!!! :D

Should I start saving money for a motherboard replacement?
The strange thing is that I have never overstressed this machine with
games etc....

Thank you for your patience in reading this post

PS(1): Thank god I found this forum and you guys (and girls of course!!!)
PS(2): Sad thing what happened, I loved this great machine and I always had great confidence in FSC...
Felix_GR
 
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Postby hikaru » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:52 am

Your initial problem sound like a dying HDD. But in the end I get the impression that even more hardware may be defective.
One reason could be a damaged RAM (maybe due to ESD caused by your bricolage).

Please get some Linux-live-CD (Knoppix, Ubuntu, Kanotix...), remove the HDD and try to boot from the Live-CD.
If this is successful, take the chance and run memtest from the CD (can be found in the boot menu) for several hours (e.g. over night) and see if it reports any errors.
If you can't even boot from the CD, remove one of the RAM-modules and repeat the procedure (if it still doesn't work, try the other module).

If everything was successful up to now, you can be pretty sure, that the HDD (and/or one RAM-module) is defective and you can solve your problem by getting a new one.
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Postby Felix_GR » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:30 pm

First of all many thanks for your prompt answer! :D

I do hope it is "just" HDD or RAM, could this be why I get only a black screen and nothing else not even the FSC logo!!!

in order to boot from a CD I need to get into the BIOS to change the boot order, but I cannot see anything, could that be that this is due to defective RAM?

So I think need to get some new RAM first....in order to see something on the screen

Thanks very much again
Best Regards
Georgios



PS(1): By the way, just for your information, my BIOS was the latest 4 this model. I hope this info helps.
PS(2): What is a "Bricolage"?
Felix_GR
 
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Postby hikaru » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:32 am

Before you spend money for new RAM, first try to start the notebook completely without RAM and HDD.
Then you should either get an error message on screen or a beep-code indicating, that something is wrong with the RAM.

If you don't even get this error message, it has no sense to buy new RAM, because it would mean, that the mainboard is defective.


"Bricolage" translates to "Bastelei" in german and means some unprofessional or planless work.
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Postby Felix_GR » Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:14 am

Dear Hikaru

I think I will be getting a new motherboard since I don't get anything on the screen not even a beep with the RAM & HDD removed.

The HDD works ok, since I have connected it to my Desktop (using the appropriate IDE laptop-to-IDE Desktop cable) to get my files back. I don't know about the memory though. I have no way to test it...

Anyway I think the worse is here and I need to get to FSC Greece 4 a new MB....

Thanks again for the Help :!:
I will keep you informed of the findings from FSC...

Alles Bestens

PS: The system hardware changes I did, I did them using a ESD strap and took all the necessary precautions....due to the fact that I have seen that film (destroyed Hardware from static) in the past :lol: I am always very careful with these things :wink:

PS: My laptop belongs to the batch that have the 2/3rds of the fan grill covered with this black plastic, What would you advise me to do with this? tell the guys @ FSC Greece to remove it?
Felix_GR
 
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Postby hikaru » Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:47 am

Felix_GR wrote:PS: The system hardware changes I did, I did them using a ESD strap and took all the necessary precautions...
That's a good idea!

Felix_GR wrote:PS: My laptop belongs to the batch that have the 2/3rds of the fan grill covered with this black plastic, What would you advise me to do with this? tell the guys @ FSC Greece to remove it?
I don't know exactly, what the porpose of that plastic membrane is. I guess there is none.
If you send your notebook to FSC, ask them to remove it.

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