X32 won't boot to POST

[mini_g]

Welp, my father's X32 started to not boot to POST a couple of weeks ago, so I lent him mine until I could figure out as to what's going on.

I let it sit after trying the removal of all motherboard extensions and replacement of the RAM, as my X20 had once before started to work again after experiencing the same symptoms after a long period of unuse.

If I remember correctly, he sent it into hibernation and couldn't turn it back on afterwards.

The HDD and the CPU fan spin up, but the LCD backlight does not come on, nor is there HDD activity. No beep codes are to be heard.

I'm thinking that this is either corruption of the BIOS (I think that the no-1802 hack was used on this board) or the motherboard itself is now bad.

[sjthinkpader]

Why don't you try it without the WiFi card.

How about the external video? If no external video either, try this key stroke sequence after power on: F1, F9, F10.

[mini_g]

I tried it without the wifi card as well as the modem to no avail.

External video is a no-go. Same with the sequence.

However, as I was just flipping the notebook upside-down, I heard some rattling inside, so I'm going to investigate the source.

Also, I noted that I had left the CMOS battery hooked up, so I'm going to leave it detached and the battery left out while I go into town this afternoon.

[sjthinkpader]

Could be an inductor coming loose.

[mini_g]

The rattling was a false-positive. It was actually the CMOS connector that I had released moments before.

While I was in there, I gave the motherboard a visual inspection. It appeared that nothing was cracking, coming loose, etc.

So, I'm now off to town and shall see if the CMOS just needed to be refreshed when I get back in an hour.

[mini_g]

Welp, the notebook just exhibited the same symptoms as before.

Hrm...

[fasterbybike]

Capacitors ?

[mini_g]

All looked fine...

[fasterbybike]

Look for swelling in any electrolytic capacitors - they have a finite life, esp any near the power regulation circuitry.