Intermittent Laptop Power-On Problem

[netsurfer802]

I have this laptop that I'm working on that is being a pain. It intermittently doesn't boot up at all when you plug the AC Adapter to it...Only two power lights come on ...no display...then maybe after a few tries it starts into Windows. I've tried swapping out AC Adapters; taking out the battery and trying two different AC Adapters; hooking up an external monitor; and, the intermittent problem still presents itself. However, sometimes after hooking up an external monitor powering it on the display comes back up powering into Windows on the laptop display but not the external monitor...(I'm not sure if this is just coincidental or if there's a good reason this happens.) Earlier on I also noticed the system freezing even after it was able to boot into Windows 7 (Home Premium 64-bit). I had tested the voltage in both AC Adapters and they checked out OK. The Toshiba hard-drive was bad, so I tried putting in another one and once again it doesn't power on again.

I have two questions for intermittent power-on problem:

1: What should I do?

2: If there is something I can do to fix it, is there a YouTube video that I can watch and follow along with?

[Muhammad Farrukh]

When it shows the black screen, i.e. no display, does it boot into the windows? I mean, do you still hear the login sound, or no?

[neoraptor]

first thing i would do is to get a compressed air can and get the dust out, then replace the bios battery, then test memory.

If it is a gpu problem there isn't much you can do

[netsurfer802]

Muhammad Farrukh: NO SOUND (when it doesn't boot).

[hobblyhoy]

If you dont already have one I would invest in a post card. You can find them pretty cheap like this one.

That will at least give you some idea where the computer is hiccuping while it's attempting to boot.

Note: Make sure the laptop has a mini PCI-E interface before buying.