Today I wanted to clean up my work laptop because it is used in the back of a box van and lives in a very dusty and dirty environment.

To start out I powered it down, unplugged the wall power and then took out the battery.
Next I remover the hard drive and the DVD drive.
I then blew out the computer with an air can made for cleaning computers. I then put it all back together in reverse order and tried to boot it up.

The power comes on and I can here fans blowing but it will not boot up. The power lights are on but the hard drive light is not.
The laptop is a Panasonic toughbook CF-52
please help

 

Do you get any kind of BIOS screen or anything?
I would make sure the HDD is seated correctly.

If you think it is, go into the BIOS (usually a Function key at the first screen splash) and make sure it recognizes everything.

Does it beep at all when the BIOS screen comes up?

Fink

 

Doesn't sound like a problem but a blessing.

 

nothing at all comes up on the screen.
I double checked the HD seating and tried blowing it out again.

No this is not a blessing. I'm a field mechanic and I use the computer all the time for stuff like parts and wiring diagrams.
Also the company owns the computer not me.

 

Sounds like it's a display problem more than anything.
Does it beep when it tires to boot?
Can you hear the HDD winding up and trying to boot?

I was going to suggest trying to boot from a bootable CD (Windows XP, Norton, etc...) and see if that works.
That would narrow it down to either the HDD being friend or unreadable or if it's purely a display problem.

Fink

 

There are no beeps and the hd is not spooling up. The only noise is the cooling fan.
There is not even power to the DVD drive. It will not open unless I use the pin hole to mechanically open it.
I will see what happens when I put a disk in.

 

I put a disk in and nothing happens, the dvd drive is not even spinning.

 

Sounds like something is definitely fried, possibly the power supply.
Not sure how the cooling fan would be getting power while nothing else is.

Are you self-employed?
If not you may get with your company and see if they can have a tech look at it.

Fink

 

Thats what I did. I took it into work yesterday and my boss is sending it to our tech people.
Thanks for all the help Fink.

 

doesn't sound so tough to me

tell your tech department to send you a carrying bag too!

 

I sent it off to our tech dept, they did something to it. They never told me what was wrong with it, but it is now fixed.
I have a bag, I just never use it. My computer is on all day in the back of my work truck so it gets really dirty. There is not too much I can do about it. Every night I take it in the house so my wife and I can use it.