Software Driver Causing Hardware Damage?

[Sidewinder]

Does anyone believe that this can happen?

I never did, but I have just recently seen two instances of a laptop which was discontinued before Windows 7 came out, having Win7 installed, and updates being done, a video driver update was done, then the video stopped working.

Easy you say, driver not compatible, roll back or summat.

No swap over the HDD to a Linux unit, no screen, don't even get the BIOS screen displayed any more!

Curious, Dell D630 BTW.

 

[steptoe]

is it possible the update updated the bios and changed settings there?

I have heard before that updating bios can be unsafe unless you are really sure that everything else is sync'd to it,

but, TBH, I dont really have a clue, 

:C

 

[NozSpark]

I tried to swap a HDD from one laptop to another,,,, just didn't work for some reason... even though the HDD is fine

 

[steptoe]

can you try an external monitor on it?

at least that way it will confirm if its the screen that isnt getting a signal,,, or something,,,

 

[Sidewinder]

It's not a BIOS issue, I'm convinced, as there was no BIOS update, external screen to be tried later, the HDD tried is a Linux disk.

However, even if I boot without a HDD fitted, there is no BIOS screen displayed!

I get BIOS error beeps but no display!

 

[Sidewinder]

Yes Canoe they are, they mean that there is no HDD fitted!

I took it out to force the thing to fault!

You should still get a BIOS screen displayed though.

It was fine yesterday before doing OS updates, yes Win, but it needs to run Win for the ABB software!

 

[NozSpark]

A lot of PCs will fail POST if there isn't a HDD installed

 

[Sidewinder]

Yes Noz, that was the idea!

I was forcing it to fail POST so that it would enter into a fault condition and enter the BIOS.

An old trick if you don't know the key sequence to enter the BIOS, I do on this one, and it does not work, as you can't tell when to press it as there is no display of the POST / BIOS screen to see when to press the key!

The display does light up a little when you power the machine up, so it seems that the back light & inverter are fine.

Anyway, it will boot off a bootable CD/DVD OK, with the HDD in, but, no display!

Also no BIOS beeps, then which I would expect.

Gonna try a rip it to bits and check connections and run it on an external monitor later.

 

[NozSpark]

I was under the impression that it wouldn't go to BIOS if it didn't pass POST first.... I thought that the beeps were a code that told you what part of the POST failed

 

[Sidewinder]

The idea is that if it fails POST then you should be able to access the BIOS to fix it!

 

[UK-Fire]

does it by chance have an nvidia graphics chip: certain ones are known to fail quite abruptly, and software can certainly break hardware, although ive never personally seen it happen.

it has been recorded on nvidia desktop cards however, that a software fault caused the fan to STOP, causing severe overheat, and in some cases failed cards (i had one that ALMOST died, luckily i caught it in time).

EDIT: just did a search, and that would be a no. have you tried reseating the RAM? its a very common fault that may produce symptoms like yours, and can have uncanny timing.