Notebook turns on but nothing appears on screen

[The_Watcher_911]

I have an IBM thinkpad 800 celeron a22e.

When I turn on the power it powers up but nothing appears on the screen. After several attempts the laptop will turn on but can freeze during boot up or while I am surfing the net, playing music etc. Sometimes it just resets itself & every so often i could get the blue screen.

Sometimes the laptop turns on & can run for hours without any errors.

I like this laptop for basic chores so I would like to keep it so I was wondering if anyone has an idea what could be the problem (internal perhaps) just to save it. If nothing can be done I guess I'll sell it on ebay for parts.......

 

[Rick]

My best guess might be memory. You can use a utility like www.memtest.org to verify your memory. Please be aware that is not 100% correct and probably the best method will be to replace the memory with known, working, compatible memory and trying it out. The problem is... where would you find that at?

Other possible culprits include overheating, failing hard disk, CPU, board... Broken power jack and well, just about anything you can think of.

 

[The_Watcher_911]

I'd like to try that program but who knows when my laptop will boot up again, lol

I've heard people talk about memory as a problem but how does memory go bad? It wears out or something??

The hard disk is new and even when the hard disk isn't the the computer the screen will still be blank. The power Jack is fine. I was thinking maybe the board but memory could be somewhere to start.......

 

[Rick]

I can't remember if that laptop has onboard memory - I don't think it does. But it may have two memory slots (on the bottom).

If you're lucky, you have two memory modules. You can take one module out and run it with just one module at a time. This will help you troubleshoot if iti s the memory or not. The probability of both modules being fault is very, very slim. If it does not work with either stick of memory, then (unless the memory installed is not compatible with the laptop) we can rule out memory as the cause.

If there have been memory upgrades/replacements since the laptop was originally purchased, this could potientially be the issue. Older IBM laptops are particularly demanding about having high-quality memory.

 

[The_Watcher_911]

No I only have one 128mb module. I took it out & put it back in and the computer works but doing this only worked every so often so I was unsure if it was the RAM btu I was thinking something internal. I'm going to have to find RAM I guess & try it...