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.
Situation 2.
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.
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September 7th, 2010 at 7:25 am
danielle,
There could be a problem with the hard drive. I would definitely try running hard drive test first.
You can use SeaTools from Seagate, it’s a good test. Download this tool, burn it on a CD and boot your laptop from that CD. After that run a long test.
What is your laptop? Some laptops have hard drive test utility in the BIOS. You can enter the BIOS menu and run hard drive test from there.
Also, it could be software related problem and running the recovery process will fix the problem (but don’t forget to backup your data first).
September 6th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
hi, wondering if someone can help. my laptop froze and was frozen for quite some time. i tried ctrl alt del and that didn’t do anything. eventually i shut it down by the power button. when i started it back up the screen says launch start up repair or start windows normally. i have tried both of these options and each time it loads to the blue windows background, NOT a solid blue screen. it looks just like it would if you were at the username login but there is nothing on the screen. when it first reaches this screen a small windows box with black background, almost like the command propt window pops up for 1 second, then disappears. the mouse is visible, but is largerin size than normal and nothing happens after that. i’ve shut it down and tried a few times, worried that might effect it more. i did f10 at startup and i do not see a system restore option, but i am trying to avoid restoring. help?
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:05 am
Hello!
I have a dell laptop. When i turn it on it kind of boots, then it reboots and says that the computer could not start properly. Then it recommend doing a check. The computer checks for errors and do not find any. Then it gave me five options: to do a system recovery, what I did, but it couldn’t finish also. Said something about error code(i don’t remember the beginning)x8000ffff.other options ware memory recovery, something more- none of them worked the way they should’ve. Last one was a command prompt- that worked, but I actually do not know what to do with it. The thins I want to know that if this is a software malfunktion that I can fix with a windows disk(7), I dont have it with me yet, so i can not try right now, or is this some hardware error- short circuit maybe? or is there something wrong with a harddrive? Because if this is about hardware, then my warranty covers it. I would really appreciate it if you could answer via e-mail as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Mari-Liis
August 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Eros,
Can you boot in Safe Mode? Turn on the laptop and press F8 when Dell logo appears on the screen. Select Safe Mode from the boot menu. Also, you can try Last Known Good Configuration.
August 26th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Im having a problem with my dell lapto
p went i turn it on it loads windows xp then it restarts by it self.
August 18th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Hi again! I “fixed” the problem! I just didn’t know what “Authentication Using Biometric” meant…
August 18th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Hi!
Yesterday I was watching a film on my laptop near the fire when it suddenly shut down. I tried to turn it on and that message appeared:
“This computer system, #(the number), is protected by a pre-boot authetication system. You cannot access the data on this computer without proper authentication.
Authentication Using Biometric”
I’m affraid I was too close to the fire… Can it be fixed?
August 2nd, 2010 at 9:12 am
My system doesnt boot,when i press the power button it comes on, the led light and fan works. I can even eject the dvd drive, but the screen writes ” Hp invent” and write below “press ESC to change boot order. Press f2 to enter setup, f12 to boot from LAN.” I have tried all this but is still not working. Plz help me. Thanks.
July 31st, 2010 at 7:41 am
Thanks Man! you’re guide is amazing! thorough! It helped fixed my laptop!!! Thanks so much for posting this!!! God Bless!!!
July 30th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I am having the problem in my lenovo laptop,when power on the laptop the LED’s are lighting and the LCD screen also works, but the screen stand by starting windows . i can’t enter in to the main window