Question : Problem: Dead Toshiba Qosmio F10

I have a 13 month old Qosmio. It was returned for a faulty cooling unit a month before the warranty expired. I went to turn it on the other day and am getting no response from it.

The power light kicks in immediately and spins the drives and fans but the display backlight does not appear to turn on.
Random keypresses will eventually make it start beeping if enough are pressed (could be at the BIOS password screen?)
Plugging in an external monitor yields no display either.
I have tried powering on and off.
Removed the battery and mains, pressed power button to cycle it then put it all back together with the same result. It makes no difference on mains or battery.
Pressing fn+F5 or whatever does not alter the displays.
Pressing fn+F3 or F4 does not make it suspend or hibernate.
Pressing the power button immediately shuts it off - it normally triggers a suspend.

I am at my wit's end. I have called Toshiba who reminded me that it is out of warranty but that it sounds like the mainboard is dead. I got a bit upset by this point and demanded to know if it is a common fault that makes their mainboards die after 13 months.

I reckon that if it is in fact a faulty mobo then it is either a design fault and Toshiba should fix it or it is related to the overheating I sat through for 2 months while awaiting a fan replacement. Again, surely Toshiba should have fixed the faulty mobo when they fixed the fans.


Thoughts anyone?

Answer : Problem: Dead Toshiba Qosmio F10

From your description of symptoms and what you've tried, I'd say it's a pretty good bet that your motherboard has failed.  For what it would cost you to replace the motherboard and still not have great confidence that you wouldn't be in the same situation in the not too distant future, I'd recommend biting the bullet, sell it on eBay for parts and get yourself a new laptop with an extended warranty.   My company does a lot of laptop work and the brands with the least hardware problems that pass through our shop are (1) Dell and (2) HP (not Compaq).   I'm guessing you probably won't buy another Toshiba.