In this post I’ll explain how to troubleshoot a dead laptop and find the problem. The following troubleshooting tips are not model and brand specific, they should work for most laptops.
Let’s take a look at two different scenarios.
Example 1. The laptop is absolutely dead.
When you plug in the power adapter and press on the power button, there is no signs of life at all. The laptop will not make usual noises, LEDs will not light up, the fan will not spin, the screen is blank and black, etc… In short, the laptop is dead.
What you can do in this case?
1. Make sure the wall outlet is working and the laptop DC adapter is getting power from the outlet. Try another wall outlet.
2. Test the laptop DC power adapter, make sure the voltage output is correct. You can test the DC power adapter with a voltmeter.
3. Let’s say the DC adapter is fine and the adapter outputs correct voltage. In this case unplug the power adapter from the laptop, remove the battery, wait for 1-2 minutes, plug in the adapter and try turning on the laptop again.
OK, you tested the adapter and it’s bad. If you decide to replace the original DC adapter with a generic one, you’ll have to follow this rule:
The voltage output on your new adapter has to be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The amperage on the new adapter could be the same or higher.
If nothing helps and the laptop is still dead, apparently the motherboard is fried or there is a problem with the DC power jack. It’s possible the DC power jack is broken and the motherboard is not getting any power from the adapter. In this case you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and replace the power jack. Check out this guide for fixing laptop power jack.
Example 2. When you plug the DC power adapter and press on the power button, the laptop starts making normal noises, the LEDs work properly but noting appears on the screen. The laptop will not start.
First of all, take a closer look at the LCD screen. Look at the screen under bright light. It’s possible that the image is still on the screen but it’s very faint. If that’s the case, check out these tips for troubleshooting laptop with backlight failure.
If there is no image on the laptop LCD screen, test the laptop with an external monitor. Connect an external monitor to the VGA port on your laptop and turn the laptop on. You can toggle video output between the internal LCD screen and external monitor by pressing Fn and F4 keys simultaneously on HP laptops, Fn and F5 keys on Toshiba laptops, Fn and F7 keys on IBM laptops. Other laptops may use different key combinations.
Let’s say the external monitor works fine but the internal LCD screen has no image at all. If that’s the case, your problem could be related to the LCD screen or the video cable. Also, make sure the video cable makes good connection with the motherboard and the LCD screen. Try reconnecting, reseating the cable.
In my case, both internal and external monitors were absolutely dead. Neither of them had image. That means the problem is not related to the LCD screen or the video cable. From my experience I know that this problem could be related to the laptop memory.
Try reseating the memory module, maybe it’s not making good connection with the memory slot. Try cleaning contacts on the memory module with pen eraser. Try moving the memory module into another slot. Try replacing the memory module with another known good module, it’s possible that your original module is dead.
If you have two memory modules installed you can try removing them one by one, it’s possible that one of the modules is bad. Try installing different memory modules into different memory slots.
In my case reseating, swapping the memory module didn’t help. I was pretty confident that my problem is not memory related and I moved on.
Try removing battery, hard drive and DVD drive and turning on the laptop without these components.
Also, try turning on the laptop with an external monitor when the video cable is unplugged from the motherboard. If the laptop start with video on the external monitor, apparently there is something wrong with the laptop display panel.
In my case removing the hard drive and DVD drive didn’t help. Unplugging the video cable didn’t help either.
I continued taking my laptop apart piece by piece and tested it after each step.
I removed wireless card, modem, disconnected the keyboard but it didn’t help.
I still wasn’t able to boot the laptop with video on the external monitor.
Finally, I disassembled the laptop and removed the motherboard.
On this picture you see my final test. The motherboard has been removed from the base and I assembled basic barebone system on my bench.
1. Motherboard. Like on most laptops, in my case the video card is integrated into the motherboard
2. CPU with heatsink and cooling fan.
3. Known good memory module.
4. The power button board witch I need to turn on the system.
5. Working DC power adapter.
Still cannot get any video on the external monitor. The system turns on, the cooling fan starts spinning but there is no video.
At this point I’m 95% sure that the motherboard is dead. CPU failures are not very common, so it must be bad motherboard.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
May 18th, 2009 at 4:49 am
I have a HP laptop and when I turn it on the power light comes on but it does not start up. There is no CPU activity. When a different CPU is connected it still does noy start up. Help me Please
May 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Sam,
It’s possible the noise is coming from the hard drive, not the fan. Here’s what you can try. Remove the hard drive and turn on the laptop. Do you still hear the same noise? Can you boot the laptop to Toshiba logo on the screen?
May 17th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Hello friend,
I have a Toshiba Sattelite A210for many years.
Recently when I turn on, I hear louder than normally noise coming from the bottom of the laptop, it doesn’t boot up. SOmetime the noise becomes hugh and I have to switch off the laptop.
I tried to open the bottom cover but unsuccessful even I did unscrew all I could see/reach.
I suspect the fan(s) are overheat and make so much noise.
Could you please show me how to repair or at least open the bottom cover?
Many thanks,
Sam
May 12th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Hi I need help with my dell inspiron 1501. Its dead, when I push the power button the power light glows for a sec then it goes dark and same thing happens when I press the home button and their is no noise or any thing from it and the screen is black the hole time. How can I fix it…. I don’t think the adapter is the problem because the adapter light glows when its pluged. I think and hope it might be the battery but I dont have a way of testing it and I was thinking if its ok to just plug the laptop to the outlet with out the battery… would that be ok or do i have to have the battery in the laptop to convert the power so it can use it…. please help what can i do other then buy new laptop or have some one do some thing simple as changing the battery for like $50-$100….. PLEASE HELP
May 11th, 2009 at 7:57 am
my dell laptop wont come up after restarting, it turns self on and off without booting at all.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hi there I’ve got a similar problem but I’ve managed to turn it on somehow but the fans are not working everything used to work fine but eventually it switches off cause of overheating and when I turned it on nothing on the screen however all the leds work fine as well as the hard drive and the dvd but nothing happens an there are no fans at all.
My laptop is CLEVO D470V any ideas.
Thanks in advance.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Hi, my Dell Latitude C840 will not boot. When I press the power button the indicator lights come on (but not the display)for about 5 seconds and then the lights go off. But if I hold down the f10, f11, or f12 key and press and hold the power button the fan runs and DVD drive runs but the laptop still will not boot up. When that happens I have to unplug the laptop and remove the battery to get the laptop to shut off. Do you have any idea why my laptop will not boot up?
April 30th, 2009 at 1:19 am
i have hp laptop compaqnc6000. for the last few days i m facing power related problem. when press the power button, two out of three blink indicators( for bluetooth and charging indicator) gets on for few seconds and then put off, but the main indicator for power on do not get on and system remains dead. what is the problem and its solution.?
This is a common problem with HP NC6000, you could try this to confirm a motherboard problem. Press quite hard on the silver strip bellow the right hinge cover and switch on the laptop if it powers up this would indicate that a chip on the motherboard needs the solder reflowing. This chip is what regulates the voltage to the CPU. Another test would involve removing the CPU then power on the laptop, you should get the same two indicators for a few seconds then the laptop will shut down this will show the CPU is not getting the correct voltage when its in the laptop.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Lain,
From your description it’s hard to guess what could be wrong. Could be just a faulty AC adapter, a problem with the DC-IN power jack or bad motherboard.
You’ll have to find another known good AC adapter and test the laptop. If the problem still exists, I would say it’s a bad motherboard.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Hi my Acer laptop is dead. It suddenly shut off, then when i connect the power, the light in the charger have a steady (green) light. then when i connect it to the laptop, i see the (green) light blinks. I cannot turn it on, no power on the laptop, nor not charging. The battery also don’t function. No power. Hope you could help me.