Toshiba Satellite A60. Fell about 2 1/2 feet onto carpeted floor, landed on
front left corner. Didn't look or sound like that bad a fall, really. Now,
when attempting to power up, the little blue ring of light comes on, the fan
starts for a second, you hear the quick *slk* of the cd drive's eye move for
a split second, then it all just shuts off again. No hard drive activity
(that I can detect), no LCD lighting up; the whole process from touching the
power button to it all turning off again is about 2 seconds.

I tried re-seating the hard drive and unscrewing the majority of the covers
to check connections, etc., could see no problems. No sounds of little bits
and pieces being shaken around inside or anything.

So is there any list of things that the symptom might lead me to check in
succession? I'm in the process of taking the whole thing apart now, but I
was hoping that maybe a jarring impact and then this specific symptom might
enabe some kind soul to help me narrow things down a bit, ie. they recognize
the power-up-to-instant-power-down behavior and it was a whatever plug that
got de-saudered, etc. or even just a brief list of what COULD be the cause
of this specifically, because in about 6 hours all I'm going to have is a
mountain of tiny tiny screws and a big headache.

Any help, advice, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated, and thanks for reading.

"Newbie Supreme" <newbiesupreme******.com> wrote in message
news:C9idndaCzJwcmaHbnZ2dnUVZ_qWvnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Toshiba Satellite A60. Fell about 2 1/2 feet onto carpeted floor, landed
> on front left corner. Didn't look or sound like that bad a fall, really.
> Now, when attempting to power up, the little blue ring of light comes on,
> the fan starts for a second, you hear the quick *slk* of the cd drive's
> eye move for a split second, then it all just shuts off again. No hard
> drive activity (that I can detect), no LCD lighting up; the whole process
> from touching the power button to it all turning off again is about 2
> seconds.
>
> I tried re-seating the hard drive and unscrewing the majority of the
> covers to check connections, etc., could see no problems. No sounds of
> little bits and pieces being shaken around inside or anything.
>
> So is there any list of things that the symptom might lead me to check in
> succession? I'm in the process of taking the whole thing apart now, but I
> was hoping that maybe a jarring impact and then this specific symptom
> might enabe some kind soul to help me narrow things down a bit, ie. they
> recognize the power-up-to-instant-power-down behavior and it was a
> whatever plug that got de-saudered, etc. or even just a brief list of
> what COULD be the cause of this specifically, because in about 6 hours all
> I'm going to have is a mountain of tiny tiny screws and a big headache.
>
> Any help, advice, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated, and thanks for
> reading.
>
If it were me I'd find one of those USB to Laptop HD adaptors and see if the
drive is readable by another computer.

Some are just a complete enclosure that only handle laptop sized drives.
The one I use for diagnostic work like this is one of those adaptor cables
(no case) that handle the laptop, IDE, and SATA drives. If you get the
adaptor cable be sure to get one that includes an external power supply for
powering up IDE or SATA drives.

Thanks for the reply, Mist. But wouldn't a bad drive return a "invalid
disk" or "no dsk" or something error? I was thinking that since this thing
powers down immediately, it's not even looking at a motherboard bios first
or anything. Am I incorrect about that?

Thanks again.


"GlowingBlueMist" <nobody@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:463cabd6$0$97237$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net...
> "Newbie Supreme" <newbiesupreme******.com> wrote in message
> news:C9idndaCzJwcmaHbnZ2dnUVZ_qWvnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>> Toshiba Satellite A60. Fell about 2 1/2 feet onto carpeted floor, landed
>> on front left corner. Didn't look or sound like that bad a fall, really.
>> Now, when attempting to power up, the little blue ring of light comes on,
>> the fan starts for a second, you hear the quick *slk* of the cd drive's
>> eye move for a split second, then it all just shuts off again. No hard
>> drive activity (that I can detect), no LCD lighting up; the whole process
>> from touching the power button to it all turning off again is about 2
>> seconds.
>>
>> I tried re-seating the hard drive and unscrewing the majority of the
>> covers to check connections, etc., could see no problems. No sounds of
>> little bits and pieces being shaken around inside or anything.
>>
>> So is there any list of things that the symptom might lead me to check in
>> succession? I'm in the process of taking the whole thing apart now, but
>> I was hoping that maybe a jarring impact and then this specific symptom
>> might enabe some kind soul to help me narrow things down a bit, ie. they
>> recognize the power-up-to-instant-power-down behavior and it was a
>> whatever plug that got de-saudered, etc. or even just a brief list of
>> what COULD be the cause of this specifically, because in about 6 hours
>> all I'm going to have is a mountain of tiny tiny screws and a big
>> headache.
>>
>> Any help, advice, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated, and thanks for
>> reading.
>>
> If it were me I'd find one of those USB to Laptop HD adaptors and see if
> the drive is readable by another computer.
>
> Some are just a complete enclosure that only handle laptop sized drives.
> The one I use for diagnostic work like this is one of those adaptor cables
> (no case) that handle the laptop, IDE, and SATA drives. If you get the
> adaptor cable be sure to get one that includes an external power supply
> for powering up IDE or SATA drives.
>

Can't offer much help.

Re-seat everything.

I'd probably pull the hdd and plug (with appropriate adapter) it into
another running comp. Comp stores'll have an adapter US$15-19. I
think its a 40 pin to IDE.

I've got lots-a-stuff, but a Coolmax CD-350-Combo covers a bunch of
drives. USB interface.

On May 4, 9:10 pm, "Newbie Supreme" <newbiesupr...******.com> wrote:
> Toshiba Satellite A60. Fell about 2 1/2 feet onto carpeted floor, landed on
> front left corner. Didn't look or sound like that bad a fall, really. Now,
> when attempting to power up, the little blue ring of light comes on, the fan
> starts for a second, you hear the quick *slk* of the cd drive's eye move for
> a split second, then it all just shuts off again. No hard drive activity
> (that I can detect), no LCD lighting up; the whole process from touching the
> power button to it all turning off again is about 2 seconds.
>
> I tried re-seating the hard drive and unscrewing the majority of the covers
> to check connections, etc., could see no problems. No sounds of little bits
> and pieces being shaken around inside or anything.
>
> So is there any list of things that the symptom might lead me to check in
> succession? I'm in the process of taking the whole thing apart now, but I
> was hoping that maybe a jarring impact and then this specific symptom might
> enabe some kind soul to help me narrow things down a bit, ie. they recognize
> the power-up-to-instant-power-down behavior and it was a whatever plug that
> got de-saudered, etc. or even just a brief list of what COULD be the cause
> of this specifically, because in about 6 hours all I'm going to have is a
> mountain of tiny tiny screws and a big headache.
>
> Any help, advice, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated, and thanks for reading.

Most likely It was just the Ram that got bumped out of place.

A bad or disconnected hard drive, floppy, cd, or screen would not
cause instant death. (does'nt mean that they're not damaged, just that
if so, your laptop also has
other issues.)

Next thing that could be jarred out of place and cause those symptoms
is the processor.

Also seen the built in wireless card come loose, and the laptop would
not light up.



A disconnected DC jack is a possibility you can test by putting a pen,
or small screwdriver on the little pin and see if it wiggles. Gently.

After that, I regret to inform you that you're probably looking at a
motherboard replacement.