USB Ports Dead + Black Screen + continual flashing LED on 'Caps On' key

[Mr_Amalfi]

Greetiings,

I have a NW9440 laptop.

Many, many, ...., many years ago one of my colleagues crashed the computer and I let it sit for those many years. Way back, I ended up putting a copy of Ubuntu Linux on it, but I can't remember if I made it dual-boot, or, formatted the drive and Ubuntu is the only OS on the drive.

I decided to try to resurrect the laptop about a week ago. When I plugged it in and turned it on, it got to the black screen and no further. Many, many, frustrating hours later I finally found various snippets of information. I've tried *ALL* of the usual suspects, i.e., pulling batteries, reseating memory, BIOS Memory battery, 'Windows' + V key + Power (2-3 Sec.), 'Windows' + B Key + Power (2-3 Sec.), ..... Initially, I tried all of this with the 'original' HDD. Nothing (but again, this could be due to either being dual boot, or, the recovery section of the HDD being erased/written over). In my last attempt I made a bootable USB stick. When I plugged the stick in, I noticed that the stick's LED did not illuminate. I went away for a few hours and left everything running. When I returned, still no LED illuminated on the stick. On a whim, I put the stick into a different USB port. The LED illuminated. I then tried the 'Windows' + V key + Power (2-3 Sec.) and Presto ! the BIOS screen appeared.  In my excitement, instead of accepting 'Reset to Default Settings' I continued to experiment around. I then reinstalled the HDD, went through the same steps and this time I was able to get all the way to the Ubuntu log-in screen. I tried this several times and each time I made the same 'mistake', i.e., not accepting the 'Reset to....' option, then getting all the way to the Ubuntu log-in screen. I figured that was enough good news for the day and shut the machine down. The next day I figured it would be easy going, but I was unable to get any more USB port activity, i.e., no matter what port I tried I could no longer get the USB stick's LED to illuminate. The ports do have the correct voltage on them even with no LED illumination on the USB stick. I removed the HDD again, working backwards, and tried - nothing.

To summarize, at this point *IF* I can get life into the USB ports I should be able to boot from the USB stick, but not sure how to make that happen as I can not get to the BIOS to modify any of the USB settings at this point.

BTW, I also made a bootable CD, but all my CD/DVD drive does is provide a clunking sound about every10 seconds or so. I can hear the disc spin up, then stop, a clunk, ....'repeat until'. I actually ended up removing the CD/DVD drive also, shortly after I removed the HDD.

Any hints, tips, or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim