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.
March 14th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
@ Rita,
I really cannot tell what’s going on without looking at the laptop.
You can try this troubleshooting technique.
March 14th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
@ bhushan,
I’m afraid the laptop doesn’t turn on because the BIOS got corrupted. If that’s the case, there is not much you can do besides replacing the motherboard.
March 14th, 2012 at 11:26 am
@ steve O,
This could be one of the following:
1. The laptop wasn’t assembled correctly and there is a short somewhere inside the case. Maybe the motherboard (or other internal component) touching the laptop case.
2. There is a crack somewhere on the motherboard. It means the motherboard has to be replaced.
In order to troubleshoot this problem it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop and assemble it outside the laptop case. Just basic components: motherboard, CPU, memory and test it with an external monitor. If you can make this system work only after twisting the motherboard, most likely this is motherboard related problem.
On the other hand, if the system works fine outside the case, probably it wasn’t assembled correctly in the first place. Start installing components into the case and test after each step.
March 14th, 2012 at 11:22 am
@ steve O,
I don’t think so.
The laptop should start even if you have no thermal compound applied. Running without thermal compound can damage the CPU but at lease the laptop should start with video for a while.
March 14th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Hi hope you can help? I have replaced the jack socket on my sony viao and now for some reason the laptop will not boot up. The power light is on and the hard-drive light comes on very briefly. Then thats it… No screen at all! Not even a blue screen? Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.
I have reseated the memory and hard-drive to make sure they are connected properly which they are so im a bit stuck now as to what the proplem is?
Many thanks
Rita
March 13th, 2012 at 9:29 am
I have download updated BIOS
from the dell site for my Inspiron
15R N and run it but the laptop
gets hang, neither allowed to get
responce on pressing any key nor
shutdown then i remove the
battery then it get switch off.
Then i put the battery and press
key to turn on, it fails to turn on.
Now its not getting turn on.
Please someone provide solution
to this problem.
March 12th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
also how i got it to work today was unusual…I actually slightly tweaked/twisted the whole laptop and now the light stays on and the laptop runs…its seems like a solder issue …i dont know hehe
March 12th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
well i am back, the dc jack wires seem to be slightly worn(new harness) it seems as if the heat sink is causing the damage. The heatsink and board seem to be hotter than normal… ac adaptor works perfect/proper voltage [x] dc harness w/ ac plug attached /fine[x] well it did it again this morning ..turned off at 2am woke up around 8am to power on …and nothing. Is it possible the solder could be heating and cracking or is it possible i need to reapply thermal compound to cpu? aside from that the fan is working properly on cpu heatsink, I believe when the dc jack went bad , i believe it may be part of a bigger issue ..i mean the laptop is 4 years old lol
March 12th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
@ steve O,
Did you test the AC adapter? It’s possible the laptop started with “Startup Repair Option” because it shut down improperly at night (because of AC adapter failure).
March 12th, 2012 at 11:56 am
@ liz,
Do you see any video on the laptop screen while it’s being on?
How can you run restore on a different laptop? By the way, it sounds like hardware related problem so running restore will not fix anything.