If your laptop Screen is Blank and there is no POST, BIOS or boot, you can follow the steps mentioned here and there are chances that it will work if there is no hardware failure inside.

Step 1: Remove the power cord from the laptop
Step 2: Remove the battery from the laptop
Step 3: Hold power button (keep it pressed) for almost 60 seconds
Step 4: Plug power back in laptop
Step 5: Start computer and it should just start normally.
Step 6: Now shut down
Step 7: Insert the battery back in the laptop
Step 8: Start laptop again and it should work

Note 1: If your laptop does not work after inserting back the memory. Remove the memory and repeat above process. Do not insert the battery back as it is malfunctioning.
Note 2: If your screen is faulty or have issues with your hardware (motherboard, screen or anything else) this method will not fix your computer.

Those, who care about how I come up with this not SQL related blog post, here is the very funny true story.

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If you are a married man, you will know what I am going to describe next. May be you have faced the same situation or at least you feel and understand my situation.

My wife’s computer suddenly stops working when she was searching for my daughter’s mathematics worksheets online.

While the fatal accident happened with my wife’s computer (which was my loyal computer for over 4 years before she got it), I was working in my home office, fixing a high priority issue (live order’s database was corrupted) with one of the largest eCommerce websites.  While I was working on production server where I was fixing database corruption, my wife ran to my home office. Here is how the conversation went:

Wife: This computer does not work.

I: Restart it.

Wife: It does not start.

I: What did you do with it?

Wife: Nothing, it just stopped working.

I: Okey, I will look into it later, working on the very urgent issue.

Wife: I was printing my daughter’s worksheet.

I: Hm.. Okey.

Wife: It was the mathematics worksheet, which you promised you will teach but you never get around to do it, so I am doing it myself.

I: Thanks. I appreciate it. I am very busy with this issue as million dollar transaction are not happening as the database got corrupted and …

Wife: So what … umm… You mean to say that you care about this customer more than your daughter. You know she got A+ in every other class but in mathematics she got only A. She missed that extra credit question.

I: She is only 4, it is okay.

Wife: She is 4.5 years old not 4. So you are not going to fix this computer which does not start at all. I think our daughter next time will even get lower grades as her dad is busy fixing something.

I: Alright, I give up bring me that computer.

Our daughter who was listening everything so far she finally decided to speak up.

Daughter: Dad, it is a laptop not computer.

I: Yes, sweety get that laptop here and your dad is going to fix the this small issue of million dollar issue later on.

I decided to pay attention to my wife’s computer. She was right. No matter what I do, it will not boot up, it will not start, no BIOS, no POST screen. The computer starts for a second but nothing comes up on the screen. The light indicating hard drive comes up for a second and goes off. Nothing happens. I removed every single USB drive from the laptop but it still would not start. It was indeed no fun for me. Finally I remember my days when I was not married and used to study in University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

I remembered that I used to have very old second (or maybe third or fourth) hand computer with me. In polite words, I had pre-owned computer and it used to face very similar issues again and again. I had small routine I used to follow to fix my old computer and I had decided to follow the same steps again with this computer.

Step 1: Remove the power cord from the laptop
Step 2: Remove the battery from the laptop
Step 3: Hold power button (keep it pressed) for almost 60 seconds
Step 4: Plug power back in laptop
Step 5: Start computer and it should just start normally.
Step 6: Now shut down
Step 7: Insert the battery back in the laptop
Step 8: Start laptop again and it should work

Note 1: If your laptop does not work after inserting back the memory. Remove the memory and repeat above process. Do not insert the battery back as it is malfunctioning.
Note 2: If your screen is faulty or have issues with your hardware (motherboard, screen or anything else) this method will not fix your computer.

Once I followed above process, her computer worked. I was very delighted, that now I can go back to solving the problem where millions of transactions were waiting as I was fixing corrupted database and it the current state of the database was in emergency mode. Once I fixed the computer, I looked at my wife and asked.

I: Well, now this laptop is back online, can I get guaranteed that she will get A+ in mathematics in this week’s quiz?

Wife: Sure, I promise.

I: Fantastic.

After saying that I started to look at my database corruption and my wife interrupted me again.

Wife: Btw, I forgot to tell you. Our daughter had got A in mathematics last week but she had another quiz today and she already have received A+ there. I kept my promise.

I looked at her and she started to walk outside room, before I say anything my phone rang. DBA from eCommerce company had called me, as he was wondering why there is no activity from my side in last 10 minutes.

DBA: Hey bud, are you still connected. I see um… no activity in last 10 minutes.

I: Oh, well, I was just saving the world. I am back now.

After two hours I had fixed the database corruption and everything was normal.

I was outsmarted by my wife but honestly I still respect and love her the same as she is the one who spends countless hours with our daughter so she does not miss me and I can continue writing blogs and keep on doing technology evangelism.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

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