Blank Screen

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

On Tue, 3 May 2005 20:19:03 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Many times it's the del key or F1 or F10 to get into the BIOS.
Hold down the ctrl key when booting, do you get the boot menu?
Hold down the F5 key to try to get into Safe mode.

Remove the CD and boot with a Win98 Startup diskette, do you get to
the A:\ prompt? If so enter C: to get to the root. If that works
from C:\ enter DIR do you see the files and folders?

Let us know.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

Laptop is a sony pcg-f540. I looked on their website to see what the bios
key was which was F2. I tried all your suggestions but did not work. I do
not even get a cursor on startup, just a blank screen. Could it be the LCD
panel went? Can I somehow hook the laptop up to a monitor without a docking
station? Thanks for your help. Again it will access the CD-Rom drive but I
cannot see anything happening on the screen.

Summer

"Bill Watt" wrote:

On Tue, 3 May 2005 20:19:03 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Many times it's the del key or F1 or F10 to get into the BIOS.
Hold down the ctrl key when booting, do you get the boot menu?
Hold down the F5 key to try to get into Safe mode.

Remove the CD and boot with a Win98 Startup diskette, do you get to
the A:\ prompt? If so enter C: to get to the root. If that works
from C:\ enter DIR do you see the files and folders?

Let us know.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

Summer,

Actually it sounds like the BIOS battery is dead or everything in
the BIOS is set to "none". Did you have any problems with the date
and time prior to this happening? What was the name of virus that
hit it? We can find out what it does and perhaps a cure.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
______________________________________

On Wed, 4 May 2005 06:20:05 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop is a sony pcg-f540. I looked on their website to see what the bios
key was which was F2. I tried all your suggestions but did not work. I do
not even get a cursor on startup, just a blank screen. Could it be the LCD
panel went? Can I somehow hook the laptop up to a monitor without a docking
station? Thanks for your help. Again it will access the CD-Rom drive but I
cannot see anything happening on the screen.

Summer

"Bill Watt" wrote:

On Tue, 3 May 2005 20:19:03 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Many times it's the del key or F1 or F10 to get into the BIOS.
Hold down the ctrl key when booting, do you get the boot menu?
Hold down the F5 key to try to get into Safe mode.

Remove the CD and boot with a Win98 Startup diskette, do you get to
the A:\ prompt? If so enter C: to get to the root. If that works
from C:\ enter DIR do you see the files and folders?

Let us know.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

I have a notebook but not familiar with LCD panels or the docking
station. Seems that it might have a standard video jack. Hooking it
up to another monitor would tell you something. The manual should
show you that or call a local repair shop and ask them. Perhaps the
specs on the mfgr's site would tell you. If it has a standard video
jack it should be safe to try it but I suggest you make sure first.

The name of the virus may be very helpful.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
_______________________________________________

On Wed, 04 May 2005 17:02:12 -0400, Bill Watt
wrote:


Summer,

Actually it sounds like the BIOS battery is dead or everything in
the BIOS is set to "none". Did you have any problems with the date
and time prior to this happening? What was the name of virus that
hit it? We can find out what it does and perhaps a cure.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
______________________________________

On Wed, 4 May 2005 06:20:05 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop is a sony pcg-f540. I looked on their website to see what the bios
key was which was F2. I tried all your suggestions but did not work. I do
not even get a cursor on startup, just a blank screen. Could it be the LCD
panel went? Can I somehow hook the laptop up to a monitor without a docking
station? Thanks for your help. Again it will access the CD-Rom drive but I
cannot see anything happening on the screen.

Summer

"Bill Watt" wrote:

On Tue, 3 May 2005 20:19:03 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Many times it's the del key or F1 or F10 to get into the BIOS.
Hold down the ctrl key when booting, do you get the boot menu?
Hold down the F5 key to try to get into Safe mode.

Remove the CD and boot with a Win98 Startup diskette, do you get to
the A:\ prompt? If so enter C: to get to the root. If that works
from C:\ enter DIR do you see the files and folders?

Let us know.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

What was the virus? Some viruses can corrupt the CMOS.

Are you sure it was a virus, rather than a hardware failure?

Does the machine beep at all during the startup? Do any of the indicators
around the keyboard flash or light up?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Summer" wrote in message
...
Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black
screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Bill,

Thanks for your response. Yes, the time has been off by an hour or two for
a couple of months. So it could be the Bios. Originally, I was told second
hand it was a virus. After talking with my nephew, he said he received an
email from the university, upon opening the email the computer froze. He
then tried to restart the computer, it would get to the windows screen and
then would shut itself off. After a few tries, it would not boot up at all.
There were some other professors there who received emails from the
university and had some computer problems but it might not have been the same
problem. The computer did not display any virus names. He will ask around
the campus to see if there was a specific virus. Virus software was not up
to date. Also, there was spyware and adware on computer.

Summer




"Bill Watt" wrote:


Summer,

Actually it sounds like the BIOS battery is dead or everything in
the BIOS is set to "none". Did you have any problems with the date
and time prior to this happening? What was the name of virus that
hit it? We can find out what it does and perhaps a cure.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/
______________________________________

On Wed, 4 May 2005 06:20:05 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop is a sony pcg-f540. I looked on their website to see what the bios
key was which was F2. I tried all your suggestions but did not work. I do
not even get a cursor on startup, just a blank screen. Could it be the LCD
panel went? Can I somehow hook the laptop up to a monitor without a docking
station? Thanks for your help. Again it will access the CD-Rom drive but I
cannot see anything happening on the screen.

Summer

"Bill Watt" wrote:

On Tue, 3 May 2005 20:19:03 -0700, Summer
wrote:

Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?

Many times it's the del key or F1 or F10 to get into the BIOS.
Hold down the ctrl key when booting, do you get the boot menu?
Hold down the F5 key to try to get into Safe mode.

Remove the CD and boot with a Win98 Startup diskette, do you get to
the A:\ prompt? If so enter C: to get to the root. If that works
from C:\ enter DIR do you see the files and folders?

Let us know.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

Jeff,

Thanks for your response. I'm not sure it was a virus now. I heard this
second hand. After talking with my nephew, he received a email from the
university and upon opening it, his computer froze. He rebooted the
computer, the computer would get to the windows screen and then shut itself
off. After several attempts at a reboot, the computer then would just show
the blank screen. There were other computers at this campus that had some
problems after emails were sent but we don't know if it was the same problem.
My newphew will try to find out if it was a virus and the name of it. His
computer did not display a virus name. The virus definitions were out of
date and the computer did contain spyware and adware.

When I press the power button, lights that come on are the power, battery 1
and battery 2 and a faint hard drive light. When I release the power button,
the lights that come one is the power and a faint battery 1 light. There are
no beeps on startup, but then my Dell Laptop which is working fine does not
beep on startup. It could be a hardware failure. Someone else is
suggesting it could be the bios. The time was off and hour or two for the
last couple of months.

Summer


"Jeff Richards" wrote:

What was the virus? Some viruses can corrupt the CMOS.

Are you sure it was a virus, rather than a hardware failure?

Does the machine beep at all during the startup? Do any of the indicators
around the keyboard flash or light up?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Summer" wrote in message
...
Laptop was hit with a virus and died. Now computer only shows black
screen
on startup. When I put a startup disk in drive a and cd-rom drive, the
cd-rom drive is accessed but then nothing happens. I have tried to access
the bios using F2 key but no luck. Any ideas on how I can get the laptop
working again?