Hello

I'm sorry if this is the wrong section to post at.

A few days ago my laptop has had this issue when turning on. There are a couple scenarios that happened. All scenarios have the power button light on and other lights saying that the computer turned on. It has to do with the black screen, possibly a overheat problem or graphics card?

1. I turn on power button and the (processor/CPU?) fan is running, about 2 secs later fan stops and screen stays black. I need to press the power button (it's just a press, not a press and hold) to turn it off.

2. Same as the first except the the fan still runs. Usually happens when I left it running for a while since the fan has been on for a while, too.

3. Starting up seems normal, fan is not running, up until I try logging into my account or when computer tries checking for errors on blue screen. It freezes and I have to turn it off again.
During this scenario, it freezes once once the fan starts up again. So I was able to log in once and have some toolbar popups show then it freezes.

I'm wondering if it is a graphics card problem or something else in the computer that isn't working. Normally I have a external fan cooling the surface of the laptop. I also use sometimes without a fan when I move the laptop to print. Usually nothing bad happens when I do that, but last time I didn't use the fan and it got hot. I shut it down then later I try turning it on and this problem occurs.

If anyone could give any advice on what to do or even diagnose what this problem is I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

Edit: When I did get through the start up the first, I got to the part that says "Safe Mode/Start Windows Normally." At first I did the "start from last good something" where it would start from a point where there was no error. And it froze. The second time I got through that I did the normal start up and it went through and I don't know how to get back to this screen.

Hello Tymoti and welcome to the PCHF.

It sounds like a heat problem,when you get these blue screen errors did you noticed the error codes and what were they? If you can get your laptop to run see if you can download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer and run it and repost the results please......thanks for your patience

Also please send some more of your computer spec's..

Thank you for reply vger

I'm at a school lab right now so I can't post exact computer specs, but the blue screen isn't the one with codes on it. It counts down from 10 secs waiting to verify files. And the percentage shows up showing how much has been checked. I've gone through this many times, but like I said before once the fan starts running again it freezes while the percentage is around 30%-40%. I'm pretty sure that I don't think I could download+run SpeedFan fast enough until the fan starts running.

I have an Acer Ferrari 3400. These specs are from information from an online source to get an idea.

CPU: Low power mobile AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1MB L2 1600mhz FSB
Memory: 512MB DDR333 (2x256)
GPU: Mobile ATI Radeon 9700Pro 128MB
HDD: 80GB HDD @ 4200rpm
CD: 4xDVD+-RW and x16 CD-RW
OS: Windows XP Professional
Network & Interface: Wireless 802.11b/g, bluetooth, Four USB2.0, DC in, S-video TV Out, Microphone/Line-in, Headphone/Speaker Line-out, FireWire
Display: 15.0' SXGA+ (1400x1050)

Hope this helps.

Well it sounds like a heat problem and it seems to be caused by your fan,it could be going bad.

Ok, thank you for the info.

Now, how bad is it, am I still able to recover any files or be able to replace something?

If you get it to work, pressing F5 repeatedly as its turning on will take you to the Choices Menu (where you can select Safe Mode etc). See if it does any better.

All I would suggest is that you turn the PC on with no USB or other external devices connected, which you are probably doing anyway.

As for recovering files, it is possible to take out the laptop hard drive and either connect it directly into a desktop PC (with an adapter cable) or put it in a USB enclosure which makes it work the same as any other external USB hard drive.

Not sure if you would want to open it up and take the hard drive out as it would void the warranty.

This is one more reason why desktops are better than laptops. Much easier to replace a desktop fan than a laptop fan (assuming that is the issue)

PS if it does start working (I recommend you press F5 repeatedly until it works), select Safe Mode (With Networking) then you can install SpeedFan from online or from a USB drive or CD and check the temperature of the laptop components.

Thank you for the instructions Amtech.

I'll try some of those options and update asap.