Sep 15, 2020
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TL;DR - Attempted a BIOS update, which appeared to be successful. Now, the computer will power on, the fans come on, but the screen stays dark.

The background: I have been trying to give this old laptop a bit of an overhaul since my son is doing Online Learning for school and really needs a laptop to get his work done. The system originally came with the Pentium P6100 proc and 2 GB of ram (2x1GB), and I've since upgraded it to an Intel Core i5-560M SLBTS 2.66GHz, and 6 GB of RAM (one 2GB stick, one 4GB - both same speed), and replaced the boot drive with an SSD (moving the HDD to an optical caddy as a storage drive).

All this was done, and really helped the system overall. Upgrading from Win7 to 10 went off without issue as well.

The problem I am running into now occurred after I flashed the BIOS. The update seemed to happen without issue, but after resetting the computer, the system would not boot. The system powers up, fan spins, and all lights on the system light up - but the screen is dark. I've tried plugging in an external monitor via the HDMI, but no signal is detected. I cracked the case open, and replaced the CMOS battery with a brand new one, but nothing seems to be working.

A new issue since replacing the CMOS is the system automatically powers on as soon as the power adapter is plugged in. I understand this may be due to a power setting on the system, but I can't see anything on the screen to know what's happening.

I can't tell if the system is posting, booting through to Windows, or somewhere in-between. Any recommendations how I should proceed is greatly appreciated. I'd hate to have invested the money I did to have this thing be dead before my son has a chance to use it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

- Keith
 
Solution
remove the main battery and press the power button for about 30seconds, try powering on again after that

remove all HDDs, only use one RAM stick (interchange slots and sticks if possible), eventually try the old CPU

Which BIOS version did you flash on it and how did you do so?
remove the main battery and press the power button for about 30seconds, try powering on again after that

remove all HDDs, only use one RAM stick (interchange slots and sticks if possible), eventually try the old CPU

Which BIOS version did you flash on it and how did you do so?
 
Solution