A few weeks ago I bought a new laptop, an Advent 7006:

  http://www.dixons.co.uk/store_doc/product.html?sku=555119

It runs Windows XP Home Edition.  Last night I shut it down cleanly
but this morning when I switched it on the hard disk light didn't come
on, neither did the CD light and neither did the screen.  The hard
disk and CD drive appear not to be spinning up.  The fan spins up and
stays on, the battery and/or power indicators work as they should, but
no other activity appears to happen.

What is the most likely cause of this?  Is there anything I can try
doing to fix it or to diagnose the problem?  Can I access the BIOS? 
Could it be a BIOS setting which is causing the problem?

I am a thousand miles from the shop I bought it in but need it to be
working.  Also, the hard disk contains (or at least, contained) some
valuable, not-backed-up software I have written and which I would
rather not have anyone taking copies of.  I imagine that removing the
hard disk would invalidate my guarantee.  Also, I have no backups of
said valuable software.

What do I do next?

opicak,

I hate to tell you, but there not much you can do asside from wiggling
the screen a little and hoping for the best. When the screen doesn't
light up, barring something silly like the brightness being turned
down, you have a hardware failure. Since you say the hard drive light
never fires either, it's most likely a motherboard/CPU problem (power
supply isn't a super common failure on new laptops). There's no reason
to suspect the BIOS and unless the system fires up with an external
monitor (unlikely, given the lack of HD activity), no way you can
access the BIOS either. Since the system is in warranty, you don't
want to rip through any warranty stickers or take any actions that
will make it look like you may have caused damage. Most notebook
hardrives are an easy out, single screw design, but if you haven't
done it before, I'd advise against it. You can try removing and
reinserting the battery, but it's just dumb luck if that bails you
out.

As a former professional PC technician, I can tell you that I've never
looked at customer data myself, nor have I ever caught a technician
working for me browsing a customer's hard drive. When you fix
computers for a job, you pretty much lose interest in anything but
getting them working. The main risk is that you'll just be given a new
unit in exchange, and your unit will be returned to the factory,
meaning you'll lose your work.

I currently have 2 advent laptops, and both suffer a screen problem
whereby I think it is the lamp illuminating the screen that is
failing. This makes it appear to be pretty dead, but works fine with
external monitor, or even woggling the screen can sometimes fix! The
weird thing is that the problem seems to be more so in Windows XP then
when running Win98 or Win2k... Why? I don't know!

I've also experience a problem several times with the laptops which
relates to the Function key, again though this seems to be possibly
linked to winXP? The function key is permanately "on" so in order to
type normally you must press the function key... and vice versa!

The problem you are describing unfortunately doesnt sound as simple
(though irritating) as these! You are right about losing the warranty
if you open it up, however if you send it for repairs they will be
breaking laws if they "snoop" around so dont worry too much about
that. In terms of your own efforts to fix; as previously mentioned try
external monitor, wobbling screen, the usual. Make sure you run a) off
Mains, b) Off Batt, c) off Mains with no battery in!

Hope reading has helped in some way, please let us know how you get
on!

Hiya,

All machines bought from the DSG chain ( Dixons Stores Group ) include
a one year on-site warranty which will entitle you to in-home repair
of your PC.  Can you be more specific as to your exact location now?
Are you still within the British Isles?

Also, I'm quite sure the sales rep will have talked to you about
extended warranty when you purchased your machine.  Did you purchase a
3 or a 5 year extended warranty package, or did you just stick with
the standard manufacturers guarantee?  The reason I ask this is
because the extended warranty offers worldwide cover, which means that
DSG will arrange to have your machine fixed by a suitable repairer
local to you.

They also offer a courier service for laptops, which under the
extended warranty would mean that your laptop would be collected from
your home and taken away for repair, again on a worldwide basis.  This
service still applies with the standard one year guarantee, but would
not apply if you now lived outside the UK.

If you have this extended warranty, I suggest you get in touch with
the store from which you purchased it and ask them to have your laptop
collected.

Good luck.

There are a few things that could be causing this. To answer one part
at a time:

To access the BIOS, press the Delete and or F8 key. These are the two
most common keys used to access the BIOS. If a splash screen is shown
when the PC starts up instead of a POST, then Escape should allow you
to exit out of this. However, if the screen isn't turning on, it is
going to be impossible to access the BIOS.

The problem is either with the battery or power supply. See if you can
either of these replaced or repaired locally.

It is doubtful this is a hardware problem.

Thanks for all the notes.

morris-ga: I've tried wiggling the screen and removing the battery but
neither helped.  Removing the battery stopped the fan noise, which was
good, 'cos it was getting annoying.

ltickett-ga: It sounds like I have a world of new problems to look
forward to with new laptop if/when I get it fixed.  Thanks for the
encouragement.  :o)

gringo306-ga: Thanks for that.  I didn't realise that the standard
warranty was good for in-home repairs.  I'm not in the UK at the
moment, but will be in a week or so.  I didn't purchase the extended
warranty.  Is it possible to do so retrospectively once this problem
has been fixed, or did I miss my chance?  The sales rep was being so
pushy in trying to sell me the extended warranty, almost refusing to
take 'no' for an answer, that I refused it just because I disliked the
pressure.

mboyle-ga: Thanks for the BIOS tips.  I tried them all, but as you say
none of them worked, since the screen isn't even on.  I found your
last 2 statements confusing:

> The problem is either with the battery or power supply.

Could it be the CPU or motherboard?

> It is doubtful this is a hardware problem. 

I would classify batteries and power supplies as hardware, wouldn't
you?  Did you mean something else?

Thanks again for all your help.  I guess I'll wait until I'm back in
the UK and use the warranty.

Mr. Opicak.

You could also try removing the battery and the power cable from the
laptop, then whilst you've got no source of power, press and keep in
the power button on the laptop for about 20 seconds.
when this has been done, put just the power cable back in and try and
boot the laptop up.  If it then boots, turn it off and try it with
just the battery in.

Mr Opicak

It is possible to purchase the warranty at a later date. This could be
done over the phone with a credit card, although there is a time limit
after which you must first pay for a healthcheck ( approx £40 ) for
your machine to allow DSG to determine that it is in a fit state.  I
think this limit is 28 days, and thus after this time you would need
to bring the machine to the store to have the healthcheck performed
before you purchased the extended warranty.

bcfctrev-ga: I don't have the broken laptop with me at the moment, but
will try your suggestion when I see it next.  What do you think
holding the power button for 20 seconds will achieve?  I'm willing to
try it, but would also like to understand why you think it might help.

Thanks.

Mr. Opicak.

bcfctrev-ga: I also meant to ask - is that Bristol City, Birmingham
City or some other Football Club in your Google nickname?

Do the num lock and/or caps lock keys work. i.e. do they make the
relevant LEDs come on?

If they do, it's likely to be the screen that's broken.

Vik :v)

windows XP has this special thing for LCD's its supppose to make the
text read more clearly on an LCD,
but some ttimes it works the other way
heres what u can do
put the CD in
boot
try to boot from CD
choose safe mode if possible
once u get it to boot
make sure u choose some CRT monitor driver as the driver
force it
but the problem will be u wont be able to switch resolutions
try that