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.
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June 13th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
hi.. dear sir I have a 7year old laptop of hp compmaq(presario v 1000)I am facing very different kind of problume.My laptop did not start by pressing off/on button at one time- to start the laptop I have to press off/on button at list 15 to 20 times.while I am pressing off-on button- every time it shows all the light blinking and sound of fan,sound of dvd start run but did not start,then some time it get started.but if some time it does not get start I use a very funny trick by heating the laptop base/bottom for 20 second over oven or heater……..after doing so it get start by pressing one time off-on button. then it works smoothely for two three days to one week or 10 days.star smoothely and work smoothely.I dont have the batery at present,iam using it at home at fixed place,ihave repaced battery one year ago,this problume persist since decmber 2009.ealer it was working smoothely without battery.i have shown my laptop to many hardware service centre of hp bit they could not find the trouble.please help me.thaks.
June 12th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Hi, I have an HP Pavillion dv6000 which was working fine until some water got knocked over onto it overnight. It was off and not plugged in and the lid was closed, but the battery was connected. I pulled the battery off when I noticed it. There was some water noticeable on the keyboard, but very little. I tilted it and waited before trying to plug it in or turn it on. Now, with the battery removed, when I plug it in, the lights all flash and the fan starts spinning, but then everything goes quiet and it does nothing when I try to power it on. If the battery is attached, and I plug it in, it just starts charging the battery and nothing else. Do you think this is a motherboard problem, or a power problem? Thanks for your help.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:26 am
Lenovo Laptop internal display doesnt works, but external one works fine
May 31st, 2010 at 3:03 am
AKS,
Also please make sure to connect it to an external monitor to rule out the problem as you LCD screen.
May 31st, 2010 at 3:01 am
AKS,
I’d say try new RAM, have you tried that yet??? Here’s what you do.download memtest. its a program that tests your memory, burn it to a CD and boot from it. If it spots error then its your RAM. Most problems relate to RAM when you get no screen on boot. Also when you remove the RAM do you ground yourself to prevent ESD. When did you first notice the problem??? Please be specific for example…Did you remove any hardware, install and hardware, forgot to ground yourself, has is ever been dropped etc.When you clean out the system and it starts working again is that when yuo remove the RAM itself or do you remove other components at the same time???
May 26th, 2010 at 4:49 am
if the laptop does not boot, try the following troubleshooting steps:
Try to power on with the AC adapter connected.
• Disconnect the AC adapter and try to power on with the battery.
• Charge the battery
• Try a different battery and/or AC adapter
• If your laptop still will not power on:
1. Remove the power cord and battery.
2. Push and hold the power button for at least 15 seconds.
3. Plug the power cord in and turn your computer on. Note: leave the battery out.
4. If successful, shut the computer down, install the battery and reboot.
5. If not successful, try these steps using the battery and not the power cord
in step 3, or try it using both the power cord as well as the battery.
May 20th, 2010 at 7:13 am
Hi there,
You got any idea i can test out, or should i go and buy a new one ?
my Toshiba M30X doesnt boot anymore, i got a similar problem mentioned above already
“when i push the on button the led lights up for about a second then goes off, but there is no sound, no fan spinning or anything else, just the power on led for a second then off.”
I already tested another AC Adapter, doesn’t do anything, I also disassembled it down to only the Motherboard, the Power Button thing an the AC Adapter/Battery, didn’t change anything
Any help would be appreciated. (Sorry for my english, i’m not from an english speaking country.)
Greetings
May 16th, 2010 at 6:39 am
I watched a video clip on facebook then my screen went blannk would do nothing so I prssed the power button to shut it off then tried to turn it back on and nothing happens. please help
May 5th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Please try to check your laptop Rams, possibly the must be loosly connect/ pluged on the banks(slots). Unplug and replug them back again one by one while testing
April 30th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I tried everything friends.My system starts perfectly but i dont get any display.I have only one memory mudule.After I open it and clean it the system is back to normal.There is no time limit to switch it on. After a little workout the system starts and works perfectly. Please tell me what to do?