HomeLet’s say your laptop does not start at all. You plug in the power adapter and press on the power button, but the laptop will not react. It’s dead and the power or battery charge LED will not light up.
What could be wrong? Is it bad power jack or the motherboard is dead?
By the way, the power jack aka DC-IN jack is the power socket on the side or back of your laptop where you plug the AC/DC power adapter.
I’ll explain how to perform basic troubleshooting and find out what is wrong. This is only for experienced people, who know how to disassemble laptops.
First of all, test the AC/DC power adapter with a multimeter. It’s very likely that there is noting wrong with the laptop and your problem is related to the power adapter.
If the adapter tests fine and output correct voltage, disassemble the laptop and remove the top cover.
As you see on the first picture, in my laptop the power adapter plugs into the DC-IN power jack which is connected to the motherboard via a harness.
In some models the DC-IN power jack is soldered directly to the motherboard.
Plug in the power adapter and measure voltage at the point where the DC-IN jack or DC harness (like in my case) connected to the motherboard.
If you are reading the same voltage as on the AC adapter, it means the power jack or harness works properly and the problem is related to the motherboard.
If there is no voltage, most likely there is a problem with the jack or hardness and it has to be replaced.
By the way, in some case the problem could be related to the fuse which is usually located somewhere very close to the power jack/harness connector. You can test the fuse with a multimeter.
If the fuse is bad, the motherboard will appear to be dead even if there is nothing wrong with the power jack and AC/DC adapter. If that’s the case, replacing the bad fuse should fix the problem.
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November 26th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
My acer aspire 5315 shows no light when power on. Only the battery light on when plugged to electricity. Occassionally, when power light on, the fan rolls for 5sec, with no sound and nothing on display. could it be the motherboard or processor?
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Hi. i have Acer tm 5520. im geting voltage throughout the mboard. slightly low when i check for ac. and corect with dc. i used another working tm 5520 for this test..
but im not geting any power indication and it wont start up. i have checked for bad conectors, loose wires, and almost everything i can think of, its been two days im checking it.. what do u suggest?
i did power restart by presing power buton for 30 seconds like explained on acer website.. but that didnt work. so i removed the mainboard cell and tried power restart again. but i only got a ticking sound inside the mboard…and it faded away… nothing after that…
November 19th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Danny,
Ohh, I didn’t know that. If the battery is charged, I guess replacing the adapter will not help.
I guess it’s the motherboard failure.
Sorry, cannot help you here. I don’t work on the component level. If the motherboard fails, I replace the whole unit.
Very unlikely.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Hello, I have a little gauge on my battery and its still at 4bars.. the battery should be able to start the laptop. Ill try another AC Adapter but I dont think its the problem since I can’t start it with the battery.
If its a motherboard failure, do you think its repairable? What would you check first to see where is the problem.
Does a bad power jack would make it unbootable with the battery?
Thank you!
November 18th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Danny,
It’s possible that your AC adapter failed and the battery doesn’t have enough charge to start the laptop.
Test your laptop with another known good AC adapter. If you still experiencing the same problem with another adapter, most likely this is the motherboard failure.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Hello, I have an Alienware m15X, he suddently sopped working. When I plug the ac adapter into the wall ac power outlet; the light on the ac adapter is solid green at that time. As soon as I connect the ac adapter’s plug into the laptop the light on the ac adapter blink and make a clicky noise until I unplug the ac adapter from the laptop. At the same time system does not power up from only the battery.
I tried with no battery, only the AC Adapter plugged in it and its don’t work…
What would be the cause of this problem?
I have remplaced the memory, Hard drive, removed the DVD Rom, its still dont work
November 16th, 2009 at 11:33 am
robb,
To me that sounds like a problem with the motherboard.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:24 am
i have acer extensa 5630 ez. It wont power on with battery or mains supply, At first it would power on after waiting 5 mins , this then extended to hours then days and now its weeks before i can power it up again. I have noticed that it will power on from sleep mode or if i press restart but if i close it down or put it into hibernation it will be weeks before it will power on again.pressing the power on button when its on mains power just causes the green light to go out. On battery only if i press power button on rapidly about 5 times an led orange light flickers I have tried the so called power reset and reseated the ram but these remedies have no effect. Have been on net and there is lot of people having this problem with this model…. i would appreciate any help.. Thanks
November 11th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Gordon Turibamwe,
Your problem description is very similar to Ben’s description (previous comment).
I think it’s either bad memory module or motherboard failure.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Ben,
Could be memory failure.
If the guy tried replacing the memory module already, probably he’s right. I would say most likely this is the motherboard failure. CPU failures are not common.
Again, play with memory first. Try reconnecting it. Try moving from one slot to another. Try removing modules one by one if you have two installed.
If nothing helps, most likely you have the motherboard problem.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
macris,
Any lights when you plug the AC adapter and push on the power button? If not, check the power adapter. It could be bad.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Iam Gordon from Uganda, East africa, i do have a tropix laptop, it doesnt show anything on screen when i start up. The power, and battery lights show, DVD rom runs but shows nothing, i have tried to observe it and it runs then stops, removes the power light then starts again but without displaying anything.. Please help and let me know What the problem could be?.
November 11th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Hi there!
I have an OKI laptop
This is my problem……. Yesterday all of a sudden it just cut off…. electric,screen everything…..
Now when i try to turn it on, the lights all come on and the fan starts up….but no screen or anything?? then the fan stops… but the power light stays on …… it lets me open the cd drive but wont let me switch off unless i take out the battery…..Plz help!!!!????
i took it to Pc repair shop and the guy says its the CPU (Motherboard) that is wasted…… i hope not?
Any second opinions would be greatly appreciated before I go and spend a smaLl fortune on another notebook…..
Ben
November 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
my compaq presario V6310US just “died” it seems. it won’t power up. it won’t turn on..
what is the problem?
November 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Crystal,
Could be memory module failure.
Do you have two memory modules installed? Pull them from the laptop one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. It’s very unlikely that both memory modules failed at the same time, and if your problem is memory related, the laptop will start properly when the bad module is removed.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I have a HP Pavilion dv6000, my laptop is having some issues. I turned it off 1 night and started it up like normal and it froze as soon as i opened a program, now when i turn it on there is no Bios screen and it just keeps restarting itself. Have you had a case like this? I been searching the internet for solutions, and i found this website.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Emily,
Try the following steps:
1. Turn off the laptop.
2. Unplug the AC power adapter.
3. Remove the battery.
4. Wait for a couple of minutes, than plug the AC adapter and try turning it on.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:17 am
I have a HP pavilion ze4600. My laptop worked fine last night. I shut it down, and it installed it’s updates and shut off like normal. This morning, I plugged it in and tried to turn it on, and NOTHING. The charging light blinked yellow/orange for a bit and then turned green, like it’s charging. That is the only sign of life though. No fans, no blue lights, nothing.
October 10th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Hi folk
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-BX297XP laptop which doesnt start up. When I connect the power lead the battery charging light starts to flash, If I press the on button the charge light stops flashing with nothing else happening.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
stephen,
Usually in laptops fuses are soldered to the motherboard. You’ll have to remove the motherboard and search for the damaged fuse. I think it’s soldered somewhere close to the power jack.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
latricia,
It’s hard to tell, but could be memory related problem. Do you have two memory modules installed? Remove them one by one. Test the laptop with each module separately. This way you can find the faulty module.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
i have a dell latitude d600. the power comes on and then shuts down, no fan comes on, no booting up, nothing. help!? what is wrong?!
October 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
hello, i have a d600 latitude. i didn’t have a power supply for it so i rigged one from an old laptop with the same power ratings. i ended up switching the polarity by mistake though. a small cloud of smoke came out next to the jack and now it doesn’t work at all im sure its a fuse but not sure where could some one help me out please?
September 12th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Hi Laptop Tech
Can you please answer to my post as well?
Thank you.
Regards
Stefan
September 10th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
АК,
It’s possible that your laptop doesn’t start because one of the memory modules is bad.
You have two memory modules installed, correct? Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. If one of the memory modules is bad, the laptop should start with video when only a good module is installed.
September 10th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
AK,
You’ll have to disassemble the display panel and take a look at the video cable. If it’s made by CMI, I would definitely try replacing the cable first.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hi folks,
I am having a Toshiba Satellite M305D-S4829, with Vista 64-bit. When I switch on the power on button, NOTHING happens. There is no display. I inserted the Recovery DVD to re-install Vista, and I could hear the DVD being ‘read’ by the laptop, but nothing happens. Tried pressing and holding “C”; tried FN key + F5, as well as F12.
I need help a.s.a.p.
Any input is helpful, as long as it does not involve using multimeters and tinkering with the motherboard.
Thanks,
AK.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Hi,
I have a sony TZ150N dropped on the floor which does not power on anymore. Either on battery or power cord it blinks the power led once and nothing happens. I was thinking to buy a new motherboard but what if that is not the problem. Any ideas? I have unplugged all cables from M/B except power button cables and power jack. Same…power led blinks once. Is that the ultimatum test to see if M/B is dead? Should at least the led stay ON if M/B was ok?
Thanks.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:34 am
i have no power when i try to start my gateway laptop.
at first, it would power up and then immediately power down.
now, i have nothing power light doesn’t light at all.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Sia,
Bad hard drive? Can you remove the hard drive and start the laptop without it?
Find out if video will stay on the screen when the hard drive is removed.