It can be pretty frustrating when you go to use your laptop and it refuses to turn on. It usually happens at the most inopportune times too. While there can be a lot of reasons as to why your laptop isn’t powering on, this article will go through a few of the most common issues and how to troubleshoot them.
Connect the laptop to power
This might seem a little ridiculous, but running out of power is a common issue in laptops. Even if it had power before you closed it, certain functions are still active while the laptop “sleeps”. These functions will slowly whittle away at your battery and eventually it could use it all up if it isn’t plugged in.
After you plug your laptop in, confirm that it is receiving power by checking if the light near the power connection is on. The light should be on if your laptop is receiving power. You can also check the power adapter ‘brick’ to see if there are any lights on it.
If the lights aren’t turning on then you may have an issue with your power adaptor. Try searching for the exact model of the AC adaptor on a website like Amazon or Best Buy. You may be able to find a replacement that will allow you to power your computer back up.
Remove the battery
Removing the battery can help force a stuck laptop to shut down. If your laptop isn’t turning on while connected to power, try disconnecting the power and removing the battery. Let the laptop sit for about a minute before reinstalling the battery and plugging it back into the power adaptor.
Drain the laptop of power
This might seem counterproductive, but sometimes your laptop can get stuck in a power state where it can’t turn on or completely off. Draining the power will force the laptop to shut everything down and reset.
In order to drain your laptop of power completely, follow these steps:
- Disconnect the power adaptor and remove the battery
- Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds.
- Reconnect the power adaptor (Do not reinstall the battery)
- Press the power button to see if it boots normally.
- If your laptop powers on normally then you can shut it down and reinsert the battery.
- After inserting the battery, keep it plugged into the power adaptor and turn it on again.
If your laptop still doesn’t boot after going through these steps and draining it completely of power, then there might be some hardware issues that need to be resolved. Try contacting a professional computer repair company like Dave’s Computer. Computer repair companies can provide a wide range of services including troubleshooting your laptop and repairing it if possible.
Using a computer repair service can be much cheaper than just buying a new computer, and even if your computer is beyond repair, they can help transfer any data you had on your older laptop to a new one. So try contacting one before spending a ton of money on a brand new laptop. They might be able to save you a couple hundred dollars and keep your laptop working for a while longer.
If you’re more of a DIY person, then check out this article on recovering data from a dead hard drive. It can help save you time and money as well as preserve your important files and data.
