Laptop Issues

[Punices9]

Hey guys, thanks for taking a look at my problem.

Long story short, I basically attempt to solve all my families technology problems but, I think I am in over my head this time. My sister's laptop(Compaq Presario CQ50) is having some major issues. She told my parents that her laptop was getting really hot when she would use it and now the screen will not turn on. I assume the heat is due to a fan failure or dust messing with the fan but what is the deal with the laptop not even turning on?

We had to buy her a new battery for her laptop but I am not sure if that is the problem or if the problem started before or after the new battery was put in. When I press the power button lights flash but the screen is doing nothing. Does anyone know what this could be? I have a feeling it is not good and that my parents will end up having to purchase a new one but any tips/suggestions would be great.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Isiolia]

Have you tried it with an external monitor? It's not that uncommon for the LCD/power converter to die, or the backlight to go out. Unless of course it's immediately shutting off.

[Punices9]

I have not tried the external monitor but thank you for the suggestion. Wouldn't the computer start up normally then if it was just a LCD/power converter? The reason I ask this is due to the fact that I am not hearing any of the start up noises that this computer used to make when it was turned on.

[Jefe]

So wait, there's no activity whatsoever? No hd spinning, status lights, etc. It sounds kinda old, but does it have an hdmi video port so you can plug it to your hd tv, or have a vga cable?

[Punices9]

I just tried the external monitor, no luck. And there is no hd spinning, or other noises that normally accompany the boot up. There are 3 status lights in the bottom corner that flash but they go off right away.

[Jefe]

Hmm, sounds like your mobo is fried. A faulty hd is usually accompanied by either a BSOD or some other notice. Do you have a live cd/dvd, something like BT4 to run it straight from the dvd rom or a flash drive? A friend had a similar issue w/ his gateway laptop, it'd get super hot and the POS wouldn't turn on. I used a live dvd and it turns out it was a dead hd. Still gets hot as hell after cleaning it tho.

Edit: I assume the power brick/connection is working properly.

[Punices9]

No live cd or dvd to run it unfortunately. I checked the power brick/connection and it is fine. I think you are right Meteora, probably a fried motherboard. Thanks for the help.

Any other suggestions or tests I could run to pinpoint a potential problem are welcome. Thanks!

[Isiolia]

Try reseating RAM and the like, or possibly taking out one stick at a time if there's more than one.

Is the machine actually staying on, or are the lights going out because it's cutting off? It's possible that if it was getting too warm due to dust/dead fan/etc that it became heat damaged over time. If it's cutting off, if you can rule out a bad AC adapter that'd be good - I've seen quite a lot of dead HP ones (particularly), and they've owned Compaq for a while.