Laptop problems

[Kori-Maru]

Here's the story. I was working on a video on my Dell laptop and I accidently hit my power cord switch. Right now, my laptop won't boot. Well... it kinda does but the mouse icon only shows up with a black screen. So I had my brother run a test on it and ends up working at his house. When I shut it down properly and turned it on in my house, it does the same problem again. What should I do without wiping my laptop out? I still have a lot of hard work on that laptop.

[mylifewithsega]

Hmmm. It works at your brother's house, but not yours? Is it possible your outlets aren't putting out enough current? Have you tried it on several different outlets, or through a surge-protector?

[Happy Cat]

Hmmm. It works at your brother's house, but not yours? Is it possible your outlets aren't putting out enough current? Have you tried it on several different outlets, or through a surge-protector?

heh, learn something new everyday.

I thought it was really strange that it would work at one house and not the other, and I was like WTF that makes no sense, but your reason makes sense. I would of never thought of that.

[Kori-Maru]

I'm going to have my brother look at it again when he gets out from work as long he doesn't get lazy.

[Randroid]

I read this topic title and thought "Oh no! A problem with the Sega laptops!"

Is it bad that I'm relieved?

Any ways in regards to your issue, are you able to see the POST screen (for Dell that usually is the Dell logo that appears when you first power on the laptop)?

If you're seeing that, then press Esc while that logo appears, it should provide you with the key to enter into the BIOS setup (usually F2 or F12). In the BIOS setup, you can change some options around. There maybe something related to power in there that might fix your issue.

The next trouble shooting step if you still can't get it to work would be to attempt to start windows in safe mode. Assuming you are using Windows, it is accessed by hitting and holding F8 on startup. From there you will see the option for Safe Mode. See if Safe Mode gets you in all the way to a usable version of Windows, from there a restart should fix all of your startup issues (if your original problem is not serious). If getting it to Safe Mode didn't work, then you might be looking at Power issues, Hardware Issues, or Software corruption. In which case your best bet would be to find a friend handy with computers, offer to share a six-pack and let them have at it.

Good luck to you.   

[mylifewithsega]

heh, learn something new everyday.

I thought it was really strange that it would work at one house and not the other, and I was like WTF that makes no sense, but your reason makes sense. I would of never thought of that.

That happened to me when I first set up my computer in my old apartment. It wouldn't power up, yet my lamp, which was plugged into the same outlet, worked fine. Before I performed seppuku, my ma' told me to switch outlets and BINGO! Worked just fine.

Also, when I became a projectionist, if we had an issue with a tree - the device that actually holds the 35mm film as it runs to the projector - we were taught to always check the cord/outlet first. Get the simple stuff outta' the way then, if that doesn't work, dig deeper.

Randroid offers great troubleshooting. Give it a shot.

[Kori-Maru]

Thank you Randriod. I was able to recover most of my stuff back and all I have to do is back it up to my mom's touch screen PC to finish my project. +1 for you Randriod and now to close this topic.