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.
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.