Can anyone solve this problem?

[natedog44]

I have an A20 that won't boot into BIOS.

About 95% of the time the machine will beep 7 times and not boot as far as the BIOS. The other 5% of the time it boots fine. The trick seems to be the angle that the LCD screen is positioned at.

I've pulled the machine apart and I can't seem to see anything wrong with it, although I haven't completley got the system board free of all the components.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nathan

[daeojkim]

How is the pattern of beep? Are each beeps same at same intervals? The beeping pattern tells you what is wrong with the system board / memory / graphics card etc.

[natedog44]

Thanks for the response.

The beep pattern is 3 short beeps, followed by 3 more short beeps, followed by one short beep... beep beep beep... beep beep beep... beep.

When it does this I know it isn't going to boot. The part that confuses me is that sometimes it won't beep, and it boot's up fine. I'm having trouble diagnosing the cause of the error.

Thanks
Nathan

[mysbca]

The beep pattern is 3 short beeps, followed by 3 more short beeps, followed by one short beep... beep beep beep... beep beep beep... beep.

According to the Hardware Maintenance Manual, you have a problem with either:
1) DIMM
2) System Board

Most likely, you'll need a system board replacement.

[daeojkim]

Like mysbca said it could be the memory slot, memory stick itself, or somewhere in the systemboard.

To rule out that it is the memory try the following:

Try to resit the memory sticks in the slots. i.e. remove memory sticks and reinsert them.

If you have only one memory stick, try to place it in another memory slot and try to boot. If it does not boot, it is possible that the memory stick itself is toast. If you can get hold of a compartible memory you can try it.


If you have two sticks, remove one of them and boot. Try it for both sticks and test each one of them on each memory bank one at a time. This way you can test whether it is the memory or the memory bank.

After all combinations fail to boot, then it is likely that you need a new systemboard.

[natedog44]

It was the memory chip =) I took it out, swapped it and it booted up like a charm!!

Onto my next strange problem... When I was pulling the laptop apart I busted the "Sleep" switch (the switch that turns the LCD off when the lid closes). Is there any way to bypass the switch so that the screen always stays on?

I managed to find the small copper contact, and as I move it around the screen alternates between "Sleep" and "Awake". The only problem is that it slides around and I can't manage to keep it fixed in one place.

Any thoughts??

Thanks,
Nathan