Fix: No POST, No Display, No Beeps, No Boot, Just a Black Screen

You probably opened up your laptop/rig to clean it or add/remove hardware, and when you put everything back together and turned it on, you get nothing. No POST, no display backlight, no beeps, no boot, and no hard disk spin or LED blink. The only sign of life that you see is the LED indicator that tells you your machine is on, and a slight hum from the CPU fun running on its default RPM. Nothing else.

If this is the case, I have a couple of fixes you can try, and I am almost 100% sure by the end of this guide, you will be able to POST and boot successfully. So let’s get to it?

Navigation
Solution 1: Do a “flush” reset
Solution 2: Re-seat every single stick of RAM
Solution 3: Check your LCD’s flex cable
Solution 4: Reset/Clear the CMOS
Solution 5: Pray (or summon)

Solution 1: Do a “flush” reset

Laptop: Power off your system completely, remove the battery, and take the charging cable out. Keep it that way for about 60 seconds while keeping the “power on” button pressed. After 60 seconds are over, put the battery back in, plug the charging cable in, and press the “power on” button on your laptop. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess all the RAM it has connected.

Rig: Power off your system completely, disconnect the power cable, and keep it that way for about 60 seconds, while keeping the “power on” button pressed. After 60 seconds are over, plug the power cable in, and press the “power on” button on your rig. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess all the RAM it has connected.

NOTE: If this solution doesn’t work, repeat this method up to 3 times to completely establish that this solution is really not going to work.

Solution 2: Re-seat every single stick of RAM

Laptop: Power off your system completely, remove the battery, and take the charging cable out. Now, open up your laptop and carefully take out every single stick of RAM it holds. Make sure you also take the internal RAM too which is usually deeper in the laptop as opposed to the 1-2 sticks which are easily accessible from the back panel. After taking all the sticks out, wait for about 60 seconds. After 60 seconds are over, put all the RAM sticks back into their places, put the battery back in, plug the charging cable in, and press the “power on” button on your laptop. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess  all the RAM it has connected.

Rig: Power off your system completely and disconnect the power cable. Now, open up your rig and carefully take out every single stick of RAM it holds. After taking all the sticks out, wait for about 60 seconds. After 60 seconds are over, put all the RAM sticks back into their places, put the rig back together, plug the power cable back in, and press the “power on” button on your rig. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess  all the RAM it has connected.

NOTE: Keep your laptop/rig open in order to repeat the method without frustration. If this solution doesn’t work, repeat this method up to 3 times to completely establish that this solution is really not going to work.

Solution 3: Check your LCD’s flex cable

Laptop: Power off your system completely, remove the battery, and take the charging cable out. Now, open up your laptop and carefully examine the flex cable that goes from your LCD to the motherboard. There might be multiple wires for speakers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc., but the LCD flex cable will be distinguishable as it should be the only flex cable (not wire) coming out of your LCD. Now, if your flex cable is properly connected, reconnect it just to be sure, because opening the laptop again is a frustrating task. Now, put your laptop back together, put the battery back in, connect the charging cable, and power the laptop on. If this is to fix it, then you’ll see an instant outcome. If it did not work, no need to wait for 10-15 seconds, move on to the next solution.

Rig: Check your… Monitor’s power cable and if the monitor is properly connected to your rig, I guess?… This was supposed to be more of a laptop solution, I don’t have much to say here…

Solution 4: Reset/Clear the CMOS

Laptop: Power off your system completely, remove the battery, and take the charging cable out. Now, open up your laptop and look for a button cell on the motherboard (shown in the image below in), and carefully take it out of its slot. Wait for about 60 seconds. After 60 seconds are over, put the cell back into its place, put the laptop back together, put the battery back in, plug the charging cable in, and press the “power on” button on your laptop. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess  all the RAM it has connected.

Rig: Power off your system completely and disconnect the power cable. Now, open up your rig and look for a button cell on the motherboard (shown in the image below in), and carefully take it out of it’s slot. Wait for about 60 seconds. After 60 seconds are over, put the cell back into its place, put the rig back together, plug the power cable in, and press the “power on” button on your rig. Wait for about 10 seconds before you arrive to a conclusion, because the system sometimes takes 10-15 seconds to assess  all the RAM it has connected.

Solution 5: Pray (or summon)

Keep your laptop under your pillow before you go to sleep (not recommended in the case of a rig) and pray—to whatever God you believe in—that when you wake up, it is completely fixed and maybe even the RAM/GPU/CPU is upgraded if God is in a good mood. Shedding some tears helps, fake it if you have to, the guy up there likes that shit.

In case you don’t believe in a God, just do the same, but instead of praying to God, summon the demons from Salazar at 3AM sharp to help, they’ll do anything.