Hello all. My 4880 is no longer booting and it didn't really show any signs of problems except that the screen would occassionally go out/flicker (it's 2+ years old now though), but I could get it to steady out with a little adjustment of the monitor angle.

Problem: When I power computer, HD activity LED goes solid for a while (a min. or so) then goes off. NUM/SCROLL/CAPS go on and off right after power up. I get nothing on the screen and I can't use an external monitor. I can't figure out what is wrong, any input would be appreciated.

I have tried using each RAM stick individually to see if one of them went bad. I know the hdd is working correctly because I used it in another computer. I think it may be a video card or mainboard issue.

Does anybody know if you can access the BIOS settings without memory or a hdd installed?

Does anybody know if it will boot windows without the video card installed? (Maybe I could remote desktop in to use it if this was the case.)

Another note, when I have the ethernet cable connected, my router does not show anything on the LED. Other devices are solid when connected and powered on and there is no activity.

Sorry to tell you this but your problem is most likely a bad motherboard i Fix and part out laptops for a living and we see this alot its a problem that i wish i could personally fix but cant when the board is dead you in trouble unless your a motherboard repair man PM me if you need more help i have a source for cheap parts also if you need a new motherboard we can try and get you one.

I have the same problem with same notebook and am hoping for a good solution.

Similarly, my screen would periodically go out in the past, but restarting it (either through windows or manual shutdown) usually sorted it. Sometimes I would have to keep starting it a few times or just wait a while and then start it and it'd come back. A few weeks ago it wouldn't come back after doing this repeatedly so I tried an external monitor, and miraculously both monitors worked. I noticed when it did go out again, neither would work though.

Unfortunately, this past week it seems to have gone down for good. I get the long HDD light that you mention, but it seems that Windows isn't actually booting without the screen as before. The CAPS lock, Num lock, and cam lights on the computer don't respond -- the wifi light does (though the wifi crapped out last summer).

I've opened it up and reconnected anything, hoping it was a loose vid card or something, but to no avail. My next step is going to be to take apart the screen and see if anything is loose there, though I doubt this could help much since the problem now seems to go beyond the screen.

I know the OP posted many about half a year ago, so I'm wondering if any solution was found.

If it is a motherboard problem (dread!), where would one be able to find a new one, and is it possible to replace/install it without sautering?

Without the video card, it's going to do nothing but beep at you and maybe reboot a lot. However, you should make sure your video card is properly seated. The pegs that held mine in place broke from the board which obviously kept my card from being help down so now I have goofy video problems (screen red, blue, striped, yellow, blank) when mine isn't seated correctly. Hopefully your video card didn't burn up because form what I can tell, they're ludicrously expensive.

Sorry, didn't see your post. Once again, recheck that your video card is pushed down the whole way. Oh, and if you need a montherboard, Ebay is your best (and probably only) bet unless you want to have Sager do it ($100 to ship to them, $100 for them to ship it back, like $80 for them to give you an estimate, $80 an hour to work on it, +parts). So like I was saying, you can only get it through Ebay to my knowledge and they seem to run around $500ish.

Hrm, well I've taken apart and reattached everything I possibly could to eliminate the faint hope that maybe something was loose, and am having no luck.
2.5 years is a decent amount of time for a laptop to last, I guess. It did just barely get me through the end of my undergrad career (dec07). Too bad I'm unemployed, in debt, and facing loan repayment soon though. And I just paid someone to sauter on the loose power connector >_< (the only time I've ever paid someone to do anything to any computer I've owned)

Alright, I'm off to ebay then to consider my options. But when I've looked for parts there in the past, the 4880 didn't seem to have much on offer. Guess the first step will be to figure out what motherboard it takes, since I can't seem to find my user manual.