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My laptop was working fine last night but this morning I woke up and turned it on and nothing happened, just a series of 7 extremely loud beeps signaling something was wrong. Using a friend's computer now and researched to find that the series of 7 beeps means either a damaged CPU or damaged motherboard, something hardware (I think that is what it means based on a bit of research). Not sure if replacing whatever hardware is damaged would be more expensive than just buying a new laptop.
This particular computer death ever happened to anyone here? Does it sound well and truly dead? I do not know how it happened because it happened while I was asleep. Could have been a virus, could have been somehow damaged hardware, and there was a small storm last night and who knows, maybe that had something to do with it. Have no clue at this point.
I have a computer guy that is going to take a look at it tomorrow and fix anything if possible, if not then just retrieve things I need from the hard drive that I hadn't backed up and put it on a flash drive. Have all of my music and work stuff saved on an external hd, which was connected to my comatose/dead laptop, but I'm assuming that stuff is ok thank heavens.
A few things had not been backed up however...including the following:
Are Internet favorites/bookmarks saved on hard drive? Have a ton of saved pages that i do not want to lose. Salvageable? Where on the hard drive are those found, if at all?
Also want to try to save iTunes preferences -- song star ratings, adjusted song start and stop times, album artwork, etc. That stuff saved on hard drive? Salvageable?
If ANYONE has any useful info, tips, ideas or recommendations regarding my above issues PLEASE reply or post ASAP, I would be extremely grateful. As you can see, I'm a little bit f***ed right now and could use my fsm brethren's knowledgeable help.
I humbly and pleadingly ask for anyone's help during this stressful time...
Thanks in advance for anything and everything.
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The beeps you got on startup are an error code like you said, but it depends on your BIOS as to what those beeps mean. Seven beeps on a DELL may be a bad motherboard while seven beeps on a Compaq may be a heat issue. Without knowing more, it's hard to diagnose.
For right now, leave it off and unplugged from the wall until someone with some experience can look at it. It's *probably* a motherboard issue (as it was beeping during POST - the Power On Self Test) which can be expensive or inexpensive depending on the age of your system.
When you tried to start it up, was there anything of the screen? Black screen with white cursor? Anything?
Chances of it being a short from a storm is unlikely - electricity travels the shortest distance during a strike or surge, so odds are it wouldn't hit your computer, considering how many plugs the average person has used in their house. Did any of your breakers trip in the house? Any smell like ozone or something burnt?
Thanks for the info so far sirusjr and solium.
Lehah, I have a dell so then it would be the motherboard or CPU then, huh? That's what I gathered from my research.
My system is around 2 years old. Checking on warranty info, but warranty wouldn't cover virus damage would it? If that were the case. It's a young laptop but I'm not sure what could be done, although my trouble seems more hardware issue than what a virus could do, although I don't know much about that stuff.
Was nothing on my screen at all on startup. Made sounds for a few seconds like it was starting up, then that quickly fell away and the beeping started up.
And no smells, yeah does seem unlikely to be a storm.
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Depending on the age of the laptop, you will either replace the motherboard/CPU, or just get a new computer.
Either way, the hard drive should be preserved to save all of your info and files.
Fry's has laptops for a low as $400.
With a new computer, make a fresh install of the OS and all of your programs. Later, have someone use your existing HD to extract personal info and settings. Then put that old HD on a shelf in case you need something from it later.
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Interesting story zooba.
Thanks all for your comments and such, I am very grateful!!
Possibly more to come...
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