Hardware Laptop doesn't output video

[SantaClaus]

I have an old laptop at home. Its barely been used for the last few years now. It worked perfectly well yesterday. Today I tried replacing the hard drive. I dismantled the laptop, removed the hard drive, then reassembled the laptop. It successfully booted Linux off a USB stick, but after a few minutes it crashed. Now whenever I try turning it on, I can hear the fan going but can't see any video. If the USB stick is plugged in, I can hear a few beeps from the speakers. I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting the screen, connecting it to TV via HDMI and disconnecting and reconnecting the RAM. It is plugged into a charger; it does not have a battery connected to it.

Is this laptop still salvageable? In its functional state it was still usable but not worth stealing. I was hoping to install an SSD and get a few more years of life out of the thing. I should have just put Linux on a micro SD card and changed the BIOS settings to boot from SD.

 

[Originality]

The beeps may indicate a code for failing to POST (power on self test) so you should take note of the beeping pattern (e.g. 4 short beeps) then google it against your laptop model.

It may be that when you dismantled the laptop, you didn't plug something in correctly (there are usually a bunch of fiddly ribbon cables) or maybe there just isn't a good connection between the CPU and the cooling solution that might require a little thermal paste to resolve.

 

[SantaClaus]

It seems to be inconsistent. Without RAM inserted it always gives the no RAM detected code. If there is RAM inserted then it will give the corrupt BIOS code, faulty RAM code or nothing at all. If I'm lucky then it will actually boot Linux.

At this stage I think it's probably damaged beyond repair.