Laptop won't start?!?!

I had an interesting call from a friend last week in a panic. She works in the accounting department at a large organization, and the computer that houses their GL wouldn't start. The kicker? It was stored on a laptop!! (we won't even get into their backup procedure, or lack thereof).

This was late at night so their IT staff had gone home (they had an early session of WoW back at their parent's house). The laptop wasn't in good shape. No bootup screen. No memory check. No chance to enter BIOS. Nothing. She told me that they had already taken the battery out and put it back in, but it wasn't responding. They missed one step.

I've seen this work in more than one situation...With the battery removed, hold down the power button for about 10-15 seconds. This drains any residual charges (I'm no electrical engineer) and seems to clear up alot of those startup issues. Hope this can help some other people in that situation.

(as for the folks who put a million dollar organization's GL on a laptop, and back it up to USB flash drives... they're beyond helping)


PS - sometimes it really is a battery, in which case go buy a new one :) Tigerdirect might carry some - try the search screen on the right. Or Mr. Battery carries a wide range as well.