Pertinent information is in bold:
This is an oold laptop--I think it came out in 2009? Ironically, it's barely been used. My dad bought it as a spare or something, and it was forgotten in obscurity until like, 2011. My sister then decided she wanted to use it, so it was hers for a little more than half a year until it stopped turning on altogether. Since she's not particularly tech-savvy, it was never used for much other than social media and Netflix/Youtube/Hulu.
I believe (can't be certain, this was years ago) the laptop initially turned off for good, because it wouldn't charge (i.e. it was used until there was no power to keep it running). Thinking the issue was with the charger, we went ahead and purchased a new charger. Both the new and the old charger units turn on just fine (green LED's on them), but the laptop itself doesn't turn on. We put it aside and she inherited my mom's old laptop. The only reason I'm trying to fix it now, in 2013, is because my grandma's laptop is dead and I figured we could try to bring this one back to life.
Except for the blinking charging symbol (the lightning bolt), the laptop is completely lifeless; i.e., no noises to indicate any functioning internal processes. The pattern of blinks is as follow: 7 short blinks, followed by a semi-long pause, in an endlessly repeating cycle. If the room is dead-quiet, you can hear a little snapping noise in between each blink.
I read somewhere that a blinking charging light means the laptop doesn't have sufficient power to turn on. However, as stated before, the chargers themselves work flawlessly. I tried removing the battery, holding down the power button for 30 seconds, etc (as recommended in a similar post), but that didn't do anything. The thing's dead as a brick. other than that singular blinking light.
It should be noted that when the battery pack is removed, the charging LED ceases to blink. At this point, the device is 100% dead and does not respond. Also: the charging light around the charging port is NEVER on. Only the charging light located in the series of 3 LED lights (power, charging, DVD?) blinks.
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What happens when I try pressing the power button:
-If I hold longer than ~6 seconds, upon release of the power button, it'll light up for a milisecond. By power button, I am referring to the light located next to the charger light--not the light of the power button itself
-Occasionally, it'll *briefly* (~.5-1 seconds) begin to power on. I can hear the fan beginning to turn on, the media lights above the keyboard are illuminated, etc. And then it just... dies. The duration of this activity appears to be random, unaffected by how long I hold the power button. This started happening when I removed the charger/battery, and placed them back in after a minute.
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Can anyone offer and solutions or insight? I'm mainly interested in knowing the severity of the damage--i.e. if something integral like the CPU died, or if I simply need to buy a new battery or something. I want to know if this thing is worth salvaging. Since the model is so outdated, unless it costs less than $100 to repair, we're better off getting my grandma a new laptop. Thanks in advance!
I have a suspicion that the charging PORT itself is damaged internally--my sister used it on her bed, and doubtless had the charging wire bent out of place (which, over time, damaged the female receiver in the laptop). I notice that when I *remove* the charger, the light around the charging port flashes briefly. Looking inside, it seems a little beat up, and the charger never seems 100% secure in place (when it's plugged in, it jiggles a little).