Urgent - need help diagnosing dad's laptop

[g-unit1111]

Basically the machine performed a whole slew of Windows 7 updates. Upon shutting down and rebooting, the screen would not turn on and all the only thing going was the CPU's fan. I haven't had a chance to look at it personally but he said when it booted up the laptop would not show a POST screen - all that was going was the CPU's fan. I told him to hook up his computer to an external display to see if it was the display that was causing the trouble and if so he could go into Windows safe mode, but I have yet to hear back from him. What could be causing this and what can I tell him other than to call Toshiba's technical support and try to have the laptop serviced under warranty (I believe it's still covered, if not a replacement might be in line).

 

[o1die]

Not much. You can try replacing the hardrive and doing a fresh windows install, but you must have all your files backed up or a windows cd created for your toshiba keycode, which probably only works with toshiba motherboards. So I would send it in.

 

[Petrofsky]

There's a Toshiba laptop in this house. I've never seen any computer so loaded up with proprietary crap in my life. This is going to sound very stupid, but try holding down the power switch for a good long time when you turn it on. It might be in some sort of hibernate mode.

 

[g-unit1111]

Not much. You can try replacing the hardrive and doing a fresh windows install, but you must have all your files backed up or a windows cd created for your toshiba keycode, which probably only works with toshiba motherboards. So I would send it in.

That's kind of what I figured. It turns out the laptop started up on its' own after the battery was removed but it looks like that may be a fluke, but I'll be prepared the next time it comes around.

There's a Toshiba laptop in this house. I've never seen any computer so loaded up with proprietary crap in my life. This is going to sound very stupid, but try holding down the power switch for a good long time when you turn it on. It might be in some sort of hibernate mode.

I totally agree but the sad thing is you won't be able to buy a laptop that isn't loaded with garbage and still be able to get the full functionality of it. When I got mine I swapped the included, slow-ass HDD for a 7200 750GB Seagate, did a fresh install of Windows - been junk free ever since.