Laptop does not start. Fixing the problem.
If your laptop does not start at all or it starts but will not boot properly, it’s possible that you can fix the laptop at home without taking it to a repair center. Here are some troubleshooting tips for you. I’m not sure if I can cover all situation at once, so I will update this post as more examples come into my mind.
Situation 1.
The laptop appears to be dead. You plug the AC adapter but the LEDs (power light, hard drive light, battery charge light, etc…) do not light up and the laptop will not react at all if you press on the power button.
First of all in this situation check the AC adapter. You can test the output voltage with a voltmeter. If you cannot do that, find a known good AC adapter and use it for testing the laptop. It is possible the laptop appears to be dead because the AC adapter is bad (and the battery is discharged). If you know that the AC adapter is working properly and it outputs correct voltage but the laptop is still dead, most likely you have a power issue on the motherboard (or power board on some laptops) and it has to be replaced.
If you have to replace the AC adapter, make sure you use a correct one. The output voltage must be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The output amperage has to be the same as on the original adapter or higher, but not lower.
When you plug the AC adapter the power LED and the battery charge LED light up. When you press on the power button the laptop powers up but will not start. There is no video on LCD or external monitor.
If the power LED lights up it indicates that the laptop is getting power from the AC adapter. Most likely there is nothing wrong with the adapter but just in case test it with a voltmeter to make sure the output voltage is correct.
Also try this. Unplug the AC adapter, remove the battery and wait for 1-2 minutes. After that plug the AC adapter ans try starting the laptop again. Sometimes this trick helps.
It also could be a memory related problem. Try reseating the memory module, just remove it from the slot on the motherboard and install it back. Try installing the memory module into the other slot (if it’s available). If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one and start the laptop just with one memory module installed.
If the laptop starts fine with one memory module in both slots, but will not start with the second memory module in both slots, the second memory module is faulty. Replace the module.
If the laptop starts fine with both memory modules when they are installed in the slot A, but will not start with both memory modules installed in the slot B, the slot B is faulty and you’ll have to replace the motherboard or use only one memory slot.
Situation 3.
When you press on the power button, the laptop makes a series or short and long beeps and will not start up. There is no video on the screen.
In this situation test the memory module as I described in the situation2. Try installing a known good memory module. Most likely you are getting a beep error because of a faulty memory.
Situation 4.
You start the laptop. It sounds like the laptop is booting normally (hard drive LED is flashing) but there is no video on the screen
In this situation test the laptop with an external monitor. If the external screen works fine but there is no video on the laptop LCD, most likely there is a problem inside the laptop display assembly. Go to my previous post witch covers laptop video problems in more details.
Situation 5.
You start the laptop and it starts making repetitive clicking noise or grinding noise.
Most likely you hear this noise because of a faulty hard drive. You can remove the hard drive and start the laptop without it. If the noise is gone, the hard drive is your problem. Replace it.
If the laptop makes clicking or grinding noises and you still have video on the screen, you can run a hard drive test utility. I usually use Hitachi’s drive fitness test. This test is reliable and easy to use.
Situation 6.
The laptop boots into Windows ans works for a while, but after that it shuts down by itself without any reason or warning. You restart the laptop but the same problem appears again
Most likely it’s a heat related issue. Listen for the cooling fan, make sure it works.
Also this problem might appear because of a faulty memory module, try some tips from the situation 2.
The laptop still boots ans you still can see the screen, so you can run the memory test. I usually use Memtest86+. Run the memory test and if it fails, replace the faulty module.
Situation 6
The laptop starts normally but video on the screen has lines, some strange characters or other defects
It could indicate a problem with the laptop LCD screen, video cable, graphics card or motherboard. Here’s my previous post witch covers troubleshooting bad images on the screen in more details.
Related post: How to troubleshoot dead laptops.
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
190 Responses to “Laptop does not start. Fixing the problem.”
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Pages: « 19 … 15 14 13 12 11 [10] 9 8 7 6 5 … 1 » Show All
March 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
MjW,
I don’t think that this problem is related to the RTC (CMOS) battery because the system time stays the same and doesn’t reset to defaults.
To me it sounds like a possible problem with the motherboard. Take a look at the battery contacts on the motherboard, make sure they are clean. Check the BIOS version and update it to the latest version if needed, it may help.
Try discharging the battery. Run the laptop with the AC adapter unplugged until the battery dies and then plug it in and recharge the battery.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I am no a computer technician but I am familiar taking electronics apart, putting them together and still work.
My problem is with an Acer Travelmate 620.
The laptop would not start without the AC adaptor. It did 4 short beeps during post the led light comes up and it shuts down again.
If I start it with the AC adaptor then the laptop starts even though I pull out the AC power right the next second after I press the Power button.
I assumed it was the battery even though it lasted for an hour if I started the laptop with the AC.
So I got a new battery but the problem remains, 4 short beeps and it shuts down.
According to the service manual this message means “Battery Critical Low” but the new battery last for almost 3 hours after I use the AC adaptor to start up.
Is there a chance this message to refer to the RTS battery?
Although the time and other information stays on time and order.
Could it be a sensor that gone bad and wrongly reports “battery low” during the first second of startup?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
March 6th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Zach,
First of all, try swapping memory. It looks like you have a few different modules to paly with, try installing them one by one into different slots. Try this first.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Anthony,
Sorry for a late response, I was busy.
Man, I wouldn’t touch a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 with a 10-foot pole. A few years ago we had a customer with hundreds of these units and working on them was a nightmare. You take it apart and it never starts again.
First of all, the laptop couldn’t hold the user-set values including the system clocks and such and you would think that the CMOS (RTC) battery has to be replaced, but replacing this battery doesn’t help.
We think that all these startup problems, including the CMOS battery issue, are related to poor connectors between motherboard, power board, VGA board. Witch of them are failing? I don’t know. When we were “fixing” these laptop we just kept replacing all these parts until we find a good working combinations.
What you can do is try reseating all these parts and make sure they all making good connection between each other.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I have an HP Pavillion dv2000, thats almost a year old. Just yesterday I went to turn on the laptop and it seems that the hard drive tries to boot for about 3 seconds, then stops, the fan is running, the power light is on, as well as the charging light (if plugged in) but not the hard drive light… (there are 3 blue lights in the front to display these three things) Also, all of the media buttons above the keyboard are lightin up but the screen never comes on, and I dont think it ever boots at all.
Now I did recently, about a month ago, upgrade my RAM and installed a 1 gig chip that I bought from best buy (taking out the orignal 512… it came with two seperate 512’s, and now has the 1 gig and the 512.) I know that is has been stated to try to remove the new memory, which I will surely try as soon as I get home. If this does solve the problem, am I to just accept that my machine has to run on the slow 1 gig of RAM that it came with?) And more importantly, if it doesnt work, what am I to do??? I kinda remember this similar situation happening a few weeks back, but I just left it on without being plugged in until the battery died, then pluged it in and booted and it worked. But this time, I have tried that like 20 times, and I am getting sadder and sadder and going through laptop withdrawl. Thanks for the help, this site is really cool.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
My lovely daughter was takiing my laptop out of the car in the rain ( in it’s case ) , and sat it on the ground ( claims she didn’t drop it )!
After 30 minutes i was able to get it to boot, It didn’t get wet, I was able to use it that day, but i hae not been able to get it to boot since. I get the microsoft screen with the hourglass telling me to wait but, after about 15 minutes i get a totally black screen with a cursor at the top right hand side of the screen and that’s it!
February 24th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Hey, cj2600,
I’m working right now on a Toshiba Sallite Pro 6100 (manufactured in 2003). I have all-around two-decades of experience in the field of electronics (EE) and troubleshooting, however; right now I’m facing a really weird problem that is frustrating as hell. Any sort of assistance is much appreciated. Oh and by the way, your website is really helpful — keep it up, you’re doing a great job.
The laptop was brought to me because its CMOS battery was undercharged and as a result, the BIOS couldn’t hold the user-set values including the system clocks and such. Other than these, the laptop was in working condition. As soon as I’ve heard the symptoms of the problem I predicted that it’s a low battery. I’ve placed the laptop on my workbench and half-disassembled (did not take out the system board, CPU, and such because my goal was to only reach the CMOS battery) the notebook, ultimately I’ve located the battery and measured it with my multimeter. Indeed, it was barely showing off 300mV instead of 3V.
OK, I’ve taken out the battery, recharged, and placed it back in its place. I’ve assembled the laptop totally and when I pushed the “power” button, nothing happened. I was like - ‘what the heck?’ Hmm. The AC adapter LED lights up, so the circuitry gets powered up until that stage. At least I knew there’s nothing wrong the power jack. I thought I’ve made a mistake when I’ve assembled the notebook so I’ve taken apart again, totally and completely, and tried to power on - still nothing.
Then I’ve followed the approach of narrowing down the problems by minimizing the components (disconnected and taken out the HDD, wireless card, DVD-ROM, LCD screen, even the sound card, etc.) and still it didn’t show _any_ sign of aliveness. I’ve taken out the CMOS battery, re-seated, still nothing. I was becoming frustrated and I’ve measured the power on switch - its condition was fine.
As a last resort, I’ve totally disassembled the laptop. Of course, I’ve also considered the anti-ESD protections. Once I’ve taken out and thoroughly examined each little section of the system board, even with a magnifying glass, I haven’t noticed anything “weird.” So I’ve connected together the necessary components, once again, to create a bare-bone notebook only with the system board, CPU, memory module (it has only one), and the cooler. This setup was on an anti-static conductive material. I’ve hooked up to the AC adapter, the LED lights up, but pushing the “power” button is still worthless; it does nothing, shows no signs of being alive. Nada. Nothing. Zero.
I’ve cleaned the contacts of the memory modules (isopropyl alcohol). I’ve tried reseating at the another slot - nothing changed. I’ve tried reseating everything, every little connector and cable starting from the LCD screen to wireless antenna, anything that I could find - still nothing changed. I was running out of ideas, as you can imagine, so out of frustration I’ve taken my trusty multimeter and was starting to measure the resistances between components, but the system board was grounded (you know, those metalic rings underneath the screw holes).
At this point I have absolutely no idea on what to do anymore, what to try, etc. Like I said earlier, any kind of guidance or assistance is much appreciated. I’m curious what would you try if you were in my place. This scenario is pretty weird, especially since the laptop was in working condition and I have done nothing to it than disassembling it with care, taking out the CMOS battery (first I’ve disconnected its 2-pin connector and then taken out the whole battery with connector and cable), recharged, and assembled it again. From this point, no matter what I did, how many times, the laptop couldn’t be brought to life again. I wonder what happened… and how could I ressurect this system board, if possible, because due to all of the aforementioned, it’s pretty much nothing but the system board, though, everything can be.
Thanks in advance and I look forward to reading your knowledgeable and professional answer. Have a great week.
Regards,
–Anthony.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:56 am
Laura,
Memory is the first thing to test, could be faulty memory module. Try reseating it as I mentioned in the situation 2.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hello, I am about to give up on my Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149… A couple of days ago I tried turning it on and got nothing but a black screen. I thought that my screen died on me since the button’s blue light was on and all my led lights are on. But the fan only turns on for a few seconds and after several tries to turn it on it did boot up. It worked fine for hours like nothing was wrong. When I rebooted again the next day I had the same problem. Now it won’t boot up at all and when it does it shuts off before everything loads. Should I just give up on it? —–typing this on my Nintendo DS so ignore the typos. Thanks for any help.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I have a 3 years old ++ BENQ laptop (Joybook 2000E). I accidentally tripped over my AC adaptor, and my laptop completely turn off.
When i try to turn it back on, the only things that run is the cooling fan and DVD drive. Hard disk drive doesn’t run and the LCD screen is black. I tried to output it to an external monitor but no video as well.
What might be the problem? I tried the memory module method but it doesn’t work