so now this is happening.

[dira]

This morning in the midst of my standard morning LJ-check, my laptop shut down. Just, went dark and stopped. It wasn't hot, there was no power disruption, and no error message. Now when I press the power button the power light and caps lock/number lock/other thing I can't identify that isn't wifi lights come on, stay on for two or three seconds (long enough for the external hard drive to detect the computer is turned on and start up) and then go out. Nothing else. I thought maybe the screen did the subtle flash from "turned off" to "turned on but showing black" and then back but it's pretty bright in my living room so it's kind of hard to tell.

ETA: Computer is three years and two months old and therefore, naturally, two months out of the longest-available warranty, which I dutifully bought so that this would not happen until right now.

Anybody have any ideas about what this might be and whether it might be fixable and, if fixable, how long it might take and oh god how much it might cost?

/o\

Comments

[mlyn]

After reading the post and then mrshamill's comments, I'm thinking it's your MOBO. :( IANAExpert, but it sounds like the known-glitch I have with my motherboard in my laptop.

You might look into some how-to tutorials online for replacing your motherboard. It's cheaper than taking it to an expert (plus you get to shop for your own hardware and find the best price), empowering to do it yourself, and with a PC, probably pretty easy. (I say this last because a friend helped me replace a hard drive in my Mac laptop, and when I tell computer nerds that, they look at me with awe. Macs are frigging difficult to disassemble.)

Let me reiterate: cheaper than taking it to an expert. Even if you know what the problem is and just tell some Geek Squad guy that you know what needs to be done, they'll charge you for the gas it takes them to drive back to the store with it.

[dira]

Well, the Geek Squad guy I took it to didn't charge me for diagnosing that, yep, that sure is a dead mobo, at least. And then he quoted me a possible repair price range of $300-900 and offered to recover my data, and I took my dead computer and fled.

And ... no. I know my limits, and I do not mess with hardware.

[mlyn]

Well, damn. At least you didn't lose any data. If you're replacing the computer, I would have Geek Squad remove the hard drive and either put it in the new computer or put it in an enclosure as an external drive, so you don't lose any of your shit.

Sorry to hear about it.

[dira]

My brother's actually going to do the data recovery for me, so that part's all right.