My laptop is either dead, screen cable is messed up, or the motherboard has gone bad

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560
First, the specs:
Laptop Brand: Asus K55A
Processor: Intel i5-3210m
Ram: Kingston 4GB (1x4GB)
Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics 4000
HDD/SSD (Forgot at the moment): Forgot the name as well but it was 500 GB
OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit

Currently, I have a situation with my laptop. Since yesterday morning, my laptop had nothing on its display. I don't know how that happened, all I did was, because of my curious mind, I took out the battery, drained any residual power by pressing the power button a few times, then I opened up the cover to see the ram, HDD/SSD, Wireless card, that type of stuff. I did take the ram module out but I put it back into its proper slot, and I did unscrew the two screws securing the HDD/SSD but I screwed them back together since I have no idea how to take out the HDD/SSD, and then screwed the cover back onto the bottom of the laptop. I then placed back the battery, and when I went to turn it on, nothing appeared on the screen. I left it alone for a few hours because I thought it was a calibration, but when I turned it back on, nothing was on the screen. The led lights were on, I even plugged in the charger, nothing on the screen. I couldn't access BIOS or the recovery partition at all. The screen was black. I could feel air coming out of the fan, so I knew the laptop was running but the screen was blank. I assumed it was a problem with the video cable, so I'm deciding whether or not if I should send my laptop to a technician or my uncle. I left my laptop alone overnight, hoping the video cable assumption was not really the problem of my laptop. Today, this morning, when I opened it up and powered it on, nothing happened, it was the same like yesterday. I decided to look through a few forums and each said to turn of my computer, take out the battery, hold the power button for 30-60 seconds, then put the battery back in and turn on the laptop. I did this, still nothing. I even took out the ram module and placed it in different slots and even not place it in a slot, still the same results. I was frustrated until I found out the led light that indicated whether or not if the hard drive was running was not blinking or even on at all - when I turned it on, the light was on for a few seconds, then shuts off. Just recently, I turned it on, and I put my ear to the HDD/SSD and heard the HDD/SSD running and then shutting off, within a 3-second timespan. When I listened to the fan, before the fan was running, now the fan seems to stop running. I can't even feel any sort of air coming out of the fan now. I'm becoming worried because I feel like the laptop is becoming dead, and I don't want it to be, since I can't organize a budget to build, buy, or get a new PC/Laptop right now. I don't want to send it to a computer technician since they cost a lot of money, and I didn't really ask if my uncle is a software or a hardware technician and he lives in California, so I have a tough choice.

Just, first things first; what's the problem, and what can I do to fix it? My warranty has expired, and I feel like I shouldn't let Asus help me fix this computer.

Update 4/10/14 - I forgot to mention that the laptop worked before I took of the cover yesterday morning. Before, everything was fine, but after, I lost the display.
 

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560


The problem is, I don't have a monitor, or a VGA Cable... I'm coming over a friend's house tomorrow and he has tons of extra VGA cables and monitors so I will let you know tomorrow.

Disregarding the external monitor, what do you think is the problem?
 

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560


Sorry if I happen to repost this, but the monitor does not display anything, and I used every key to turn on that monitor, still nothing. I pressed fn+f8, I pressed f8, I pressed every key, and still nothing. I was able to connect my hard drive to another PC since it's compatible with SATA ports, and the PC wouldn't recognize the hard drive, so he decided to boot the computer using the hard drive. When he did, the PC never booted at all, the screen only showed a blinking text cursor (forgot the name at the moment) for 10 solid seconds, and because of my apprentice level of technology, he said it wasn't supposed to do that. When he restarted his PC, the PC said the hard drive needs to be checked. I suppose the hard drive is the problem, however, I cannot conclude that, because there are many different possibilities of how a hard drive can fail, and I can't narrow it down with this type of information. My friend says the hard drive could be shot, or the Drive may contain an extremely powerful virus and has knocked off my hard drive.

What do you believe is the case?
 

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560


Even without the hard drive, the laptop still does not have anything displayed on the screen.
 

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560



The laptop didn't give a beep so it was a bad motherboard. Oh well looks like I'm buying a new laptop... Thanks for your answer.

Analyzing the problem, I think a virus could have caused the motherboard to become bad. Because I just remembered that the hard drive kept on jumping up to 100% when I play Garry's Mod on my laptop, and the hard drive jumped to 100% every once in a while when I was browsing.
 

TechnoTokyo

Estimable
Apr 10, 2014
10
0
4,560


Ah okay. I didn't know that.

Still, I've narrowed down the problem and I'm not sure if it is a bad motherboard. Because if I turn on the laptop and the screen remains blank, when I shut it down, I can hear a few beeps then it shuts off. I couldn't really hear anything when I started the computer with no ram or hdd installed, but it beeps when I shut it down.