Busted laptop help.

Basically my laptop (it's a Dell! yeah shut up :)) crashed with a game CD still inside it, so I held the power button down and off it went. I've held down the power button to turn it off when it has crashed before and it's never been a problem.

Now when I turn it on, it makes the normal loading up sounds, but nothing appears on screen. Then the caps lock light starts flashing, and it makes a little "Bwee!" noise and then switches off. This whole process takes about 10 seconds.

So is this because the game disc is still in there and it's trying to load from that instead of Windows or something? I can't get the game out because apparently the laptop needs to be fully on to open the CD tray. If this is the case, any tips to pry open that CD tray would be appreciated.

If not then I guess I am well and truly smurfed. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything I could fix.

There is a small hole by the CD opening that you can put a pin (or something thin like it) to open the CD drive in an emergency. Try that

Other than that, press F1 to get to setup before the caps lock light starts flashing

PS: Call Dell if all fails

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

There is a small hole by the CD opening that you can put a pin (or something thin like it) to open the CD drive in an emergency. Try that

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Oh I had no idea about that! Thanks. Is there a button in the hole that needs to be pressed, or do I have to drag the entire thing out with a pin? (it sounds hard)

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Other than that, press F1 to get to setup before the caps lock light starts flashing

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Already tried mashing that and every other key known to man. The caps lock light is instantaneous though.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

There is a small hole by the CD opening that you can put a pin (or something thin like it) to open the CD drive in an emergency. Try that

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Oh I had no idea about that! Thanks. Is there a button in the hole that needs to be pressed, or do I have to drag the entire thing out with a pin? (it sounds hard)

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There is a button in the hole...I guess. It is easy. It just releases the lock. Think of it like pressing the button on the front. Same thing happens.

It is easy and you must truly be full of fail to screw doing this up. So don't worry :D

I tend to use paper clips for the record. They fit that hole perfectly.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Already tried mashing that and every other key known to man. The caps lock light is instantaneous though.

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Right after you reboot, there's a very short period of time that pressing F1 or F2 brings up the hardware setup screen. There you can change the boot order and make it boot from the hard drive, not the CD.

The better alternative is to use the paper clip and poke that hole next to the CD door, to unlock the CD drive and pop the game disk off. This way you don't have to mess with the hardware setup I mentioned above

Sounds more like your laptops not been charging and isn't drawing power from the power lead, meaning it's starting up, noticing a low battery, then making a noise to inform you and shutting down.

Try a different power lead, if that doesn't work ring HP or take it back to the store you bought it from for repairs as it's most likely a dodgy motherboard component.

And when ya push the paperclip in the little hole by the eject button it actually physically ejects the tray :D

Yeah thanks guys, I got the game out and it wasn't that.

I think you're onto something there, Baloki. I pushed the lead in really hard and the battery charge symbol started flashing, but then after a while it stopped. I am guessing the lead is indeed the problem. Either that or the battery.

But even if the battery isn't fully charged, shouldn't it work anyway with the lead plugged in?

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

But even if the battery isn't fully charged, shouldn't it work anyway with the lead plugged in?

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It should, yes.

I don't know that it would have anything to do with power supply. If the battery is that depleted, it shouldn't turn on at all.

The fact that it beeps like that could be an indicator that it's not making it right through POST. What is the actual sequence of beep(s) that you get?
Also, do you know what BIOS you have? If it's a normal Dell BIOS check here for what the beeps mean.

EDIT: While I'm on the subject, a series of beeps at POST could mean a power supply issue, but it would not be an indicator of the state of the AC adapter. It would be more likely that there is something wrong with the battery housing and/or connections.

I didn't understand the beep codes you posted, Face. :redface:

But fortunately, that does not matter anymore. My laptop is now working again! Dell sent an email telling us to take it apart and fiddle around with some stuff, and apparently the memory card or some such nonsense was loose. Thanks for all help offered, everybody. :)

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

I didn't understand the beep codes you posted, Face. :redface:

But fortunately, that does not matter anymore. My laptop is now working again! Dell sent an email telling us to take it apart and fiddle around with some stuff, and apparently the memory card or some such nonsense was loose. Thanks for all help offered, everybody. :)

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I'd never guess that.:eek:

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

I didn't understand the beep codes you posted, Face. :redface:

But fortunately, that does not matter anymore. My laptop is now working again! Dell sent an email telling us to take it apart and fiddle around with some stuff, and apparently the memory card or some such nonsense was loose. Thanks for all help offered, everybody. :)

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You mean one of the Random Access Memory circuit board(s) wasn't making a complete connection to the Mother Board? If so that is indeed a common issue with dell laptops(I had to check mine after every month or so or else it may become loose).

As a bit of more serious advice remember the actual beep code it was giving you; this way when/if it happens it again you'll immediately recognize it.

Most BIOSs have a system whereby if anything goes wrong in POST (Power On Self Test (basically just tests that the vital hardware is functional)) it will beep a few times. Most are 1 - 8 beeps long, but some BIOSs have stupidly long codes. Anyway, it will beep in some way if some piece of hardware isn't functional as expected, and by checking the BIOS documentation you can get a reasonable idea what the problem is.

I've never had to deal with a beep code that wasn't simply a piece of hardware like a GPU or a stick of RAM being bumped out of its housing. :p

My recommendation is to dine on the chips in your PC :D