Help! Laptop emergency!

[CartoonFan]

My laptop won't start! I don't know why! It was working just fine last night but when I went to turn it on today nothing happened! I pressed power again and again but nothing! I tried taking the battery out and putting it back in, I checked the plug and it's getting power to it, I shook the laptop around in case something fell out of place on the inside, but it just won't turn on!

I can't afford to lose the data I've accumulated! I've got financial information on there, I'm going to lose MONEY if my files get deleted, so I can't send it into tech support because those incompetent idiot Ali-Babas just wipe all the data! And I can't ask those vampires at Best Buy to help me because they'll just charge me extortionist rates to back up my hard drive! I don't know what to do, I need help! I HAVE to get my laptop started! If I don't my life is over.

This is the worst birthday ever. Why the FUCK does this have to happen on my 18th!?

[Kokowam]

I shook the laptop around in case something fell out of place on the inside, but it just won't turn on!

This was a great idea. If it falls out of place, it's sure to get back into place by shaking it a couple times.

Now stop crying, get a grip, and get it checked out. If the money lost in the computer > the money spent on restoring it, obviously, it'd be better to just get it restored. Or find somewhere professional.

[CartoonFan]

We can't afford to pay anybody to help us though. Dad and I have like zero money right now.

[Sophist]

My laptop won't start! I don't know why! It was working just fine last night but when I went to turn it on today nothing happened! I pressed power again and again but nothing! I tried taking the battery out and putting it back in, I checked the plug and it's getting power to it, I shook the laptop around in case something fell out of place on the inside, but it just won't turn on!

I can't afford to lose the data I've accumulated! I've got financial information on there, I'm going to lose MONEY if my files get deleted, so I can't send it into tech support because those incompetent idiot Ali-Babas just wipe all the data! And I can't ask those vampires at Best Buy to help me because they'll just charge me extortionist rates to back up my hard drive! I don't know what to do, I need help! I HAVE to get my laptop started! If I don't my life is over.

This is the worst birthday ever. Why the FUCK does this have to happen on my 18th!?

Consider it a blessing, you racist bastard.

Edit: Suck it up and get it paid for, time has shown that you're incompetent with computers.

[Sophist]

And more useful information because i'm feeling some pity for you.

Get a job or other source of income, get a new laptop, take the harddrive out of your old one, put it in the new one.

Assuming you still can't get a job because you're disabling yourself then find someone else with a laptop, assuming that you actually know other people in your area, put your harddrive in their laptop, take everything to an external HDD and get your laptop fixed or get a new one.

[CartoonFan]

Alright... I can get a bit racist towards Indians at times, and I feel bad about that.

I have a job right now actually, but I need that money for something else...

I have a friend with a laptop, but his is an older one that runs XP.

[tSwitch]

I have a job right now actually, but I need that money for something else...

stop buying hentai and get your laptop fixed, seriously.

for all we know you could have thrown your hd out of alignment, causing it to not spin anymore, thus no computer startage.  The vampires at best buy tend to know what they are doing, I'd suggest taking it there if nowhere else seems reliable.

[Sophist]

Alright... I can get a bit racist towards Indians at times, and I feel bad about that.

I have a job right now actually, but I need that money for something else...

I have a friend with a laptop, but his is an older one that runs XP.

A few of my very good friends and martial artists are Indian.

Unless all of that money is going to your immediate survival or payments that must be made (such as car payments), i'm sure you can allot money out to a new laptop.

And it doesn't matter what they are running, as long as you can get a laptop and an external HDD.

[Sophist]

I have a job right now actually, but I need that money for something else...

stop buying hentai and get your laptop fixed, seriously.

for all we know you could have thrown your hd out of alignment, causing it to not spin anymore, thus no computer startage.  The vampires at best buy tend to know what they are doing, I'd suggest taking it there if nowhere else seems reliable.

If his hard drive was misaligned it would still boot the BIOS if I recall correctly.

[Tezuka]

I promised myself that I will not flame you and/or this thread, so here it goes...

In a way, you CAN consider this a blessing, as you can use it as an excuse to buy components for a desktop when you get the money. It is pretty easy to find parts for a very cheap price which also gives quite a bit in performance.

Black Steel Casing = $60
500W Power Supply = $55
AM2 Motherboard = $55
2.5Ghz Dual Core = $50
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 Video Card = $70
500GB Hard Drive = $50
2GB 800Mhz RAM = $34
"17 LCD Monitor = $100
Keyboard = $7
Mouse = $5

Total = $490 (excluding P&P)

A cheap but effective computer.  A computer like this should run most games out there at medium to medium-high settings easily.

[CartoonFan]

Sweet.

Well, my laptop started back up again. I pressed the power button once I got home from my restaurant birthday celebration, and it just decided to start up.

So I know now that this not starting up problem is not a permanent issue, but a random occurrence.

What would cause a laptop to not start up at random?

[Moss.]

Overheating.

If a laptop gets too hot, it will actually shut itself down.
If a laptop is already off, and still too hot, it will refuse to start up.

Ventilate.

[Sophist]

The internal battery could also be dying, causing the power supply that is routing through it to go as well.

[CartoonFan]

Oh, my laptop uses the kind of battery that you can eject.

[Jules]

Overheating.

If a laptop gets too hot, it will actually shut itself down.
If a laptop is already off, and still too hot, it will refuse to start up.

Ventilate.

I have no technical expertise at all and as such usually stay out of these threads.. but either you didn't see this or you didn't reply. I own a Dell laptop also, and it has shut down suddenly and refused to reboot for a bit.  A can of compressed air, a laptop cooling stand, and a little work and my random shut downs have been eliminated. 

[ahref]

knowing you you probably leave the battery plugged in even when its full and on charge. This nukes the battery to an early death. I myselft leave the battery out unless i leave the house with my laptop