How I solved this problem......
My laptop was not booting and the CAPS lock was blinking with blink code 1 (CPU not functional)
I disassembled the laptop and took out the motherboard. I removed the heat sink to expose the processor/graphics card.
I found that the thermal paste had, over time, dispersed itself from the centre of the processsor and worked its way to the outside. There was no thermal paste in the centre. Futhermore, the conductive thermal paste had covered the chips of the processor and I concluded that this is the problem, as the thermal paste would be shorting out the chips.
I got a brand new toothbrush and scrubbed lightly at the thermal paste until the chips were completely clean and free of the thermal paste. I then re-applied new thermal paste and re-assembled my laptop.
It started up 1st time and also doubled the speed of the laptop. Also, the fan is running completely silently (after cleaning chassis and fan area.
I hope this helps someone who is just about to give up on their trusty laptop, as I was!
Best of luck.
Tony.
PS - Donations accepted to tony1thai@gmail.com (it's worth a try)
:-D