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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August 27th, 2011 at 3:48 am
i had,
a problem with the system booting on and off, after a few mins. I tried bios and run auto detect, tried a safe reboot, but the pc woudl just turn its self off, i tested dc adaptor, no probs there, tested for breaks in the lead, inspected the dc connector on the back of the pc, yep everything good, tested battery to power up the pc, but again the pc turned off. so i took a step back, and just thought about it for moment and studied the pc and thought out side the box so to speak, and started to exam the motherboard several minustes later, i discovered the burn in failure on the motherboard its self, looked like a dark burn mark to me and you, obivously it 99% sure it was this i checked the rest of the mother board,could,nt find anything else. I decided to replace the board, i sourced 1 online. And would,nt you know once i rebuilt the pc it booted up and was sweet, just goes to show guys, dont be afraid to explore a little. think about the hardware but also try to combine the motherboard in your thinking process.
Another motherboard problem i cam across, was the same problem the pc would boot up and then turn off after a few minutes, i got to the motherboard thinking level and after insection, had observed some capacitors on the mother board had a dark goo coming out the tops of them and looked to have exploded outwards ever so slightly after looking under a magnifying glass. So again i replaced the motherboard.
Hop this helps some guys.
August 26th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Hi,
I am using HCL laptop since three years.
Configuration is
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo 2.00
HD: 160GB
RAM: 2GB (1GB 667MHz X 2)
On Board Graphics, DVD writer, WiFi, Bluetooth.
Problem, After coming from my office I started my laptop noticing that my adapter pin is little tilted but the laptop started fine. Thereafter I turned it off. Same day in the evening when I tried to turn it on, LED come up but no display but the laptop was restarting on its own with an average time of 3-4 seconds but no display, no CPU working sound. I tried numerous times, yes It started late night. I thought the problem was resolved but next day again when turned the laptop on same things happened again. Then I decided to look for help online and found your article regarding this issue. I removed the two ram sticks and cleaned them up. Thereafter system booted and was working fine. Your website was very helpful but this was not the end, I noticed that system is only working on one ram stick displaying only 1GB and I concluded that I have not installed the second RAM stick properly. Next day I went to the market to buy a new adapter for the laptop, there I thought to upgrade the RAM to 4GB. I went to shop where the expert installed two new 2GB x 2 667 MHz but things were not my way. System booted up but once the operating system loaded after 5 seconds laptop gave the blue dead screen with memory error, we tried numerous times but same repeated. Thereafter we decided to remove one RAM stick and then check. Laptop was working fine with only one RAM stick installed (we tried both 2GB and 1GB)in either of the RAM slots both slots were working fine with one RAM. Were tried various combinations 2GB + 1GB, 2GB + 2GB, 1GB + 1GB but every time we got the blue screen error. We thought may be some problem with operating system. We decided to test all RAM combinations with BIOS, but same followed with two RAM sticks after few seconds even BIOS got stuck but was working fine with one RAM stick. Now I am working with one RAM stick of 1GB. I am worried because my Laptop is not working with two sticks which were originally included with it, I decided to give another shot. I again installed 1GB x 2 in both slots, laptop booted up and worked fine for another 15 – 20 minutes but got hang then. I again restarted the laptop same thing happened again, I followed that same for another 4 – 5 times but same results. Now I have removed the one stick and laptop if working fine. Please advise me a good solution to this problem. It would be Great.
Thank you and Regard’s
DK
August 25th, 2011 at 1:56 am
My dell Inspiron 2200 had died few days ago. i had used that baby for 6 yrs. i had gr8 affection with it.
the power pin was damaged so i got a new charger that woks that had same 19v voltage but slightly different Amperes (3.42A but origional charger had 3.14A). so problem starts from this point onwards
the first time i stated the PC after connecting new charge everything works fine, I used PC for two hours, then after restart i got following error at BIOS
“The Device in the system modular bay cannot be identified. It may not be completely inserted or may have some other problem. Please read and complete the following steps in order:
1) Press the device completely and firmly into the bay.
2) Power off the system.
3) Press the power button to retry detecting the device.
Press ESC to ignore error and continue.”
i just ignore the messeg and go to BIOS Setup and look for Had Drive, it says None for Primary HDD and no CD ROM is visible.
i tried to reinsert the drive, even connect it other PC and format complete. no luck
If any genius guy would help me
Thanks
Asim
August 24th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
One year ago I bought an used motherboard to replace the Sony vaio pcg-nv170’s dead MB, the older one was absolutely dead with ram slot failure (No any power signs, no fan spin, DVD driver HD also not work, after replace the MB, the power led sign on, the fan start spin for second then stop, DVD got click then stop, HD got running continually, but the screen was black, I tries many ways included without DVD driver; HD; keyboard: battery but with no lucky. Recently, I try it again and got first 3 times post on the screen. The first time, it was booting to display Sony post test results that all tests passed, RAM test passed, only CMOS battery test failure, ….F1 resume, F2, on the second time booting, the screen displayed…no OS found, than I put the HD back, on the third time booting, the screen displayed ……need recovery CD, than I put DVD, keyboard, everything back, then startup with no successful and it backs to the original symptoms. Thanks for your help and advices.
August 24th, 2011 at 5:54 am
I have what looks to be the EXACT same problem as Sarabjit Singh (Entry 370) This laptop was purchased by my son a year before he took his life so it is very special to me. Please help. My gut says mother board as I was able to remove the drive , access it, and recover information.
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:16 am
-Frixx
you should explain a little bit more about your problem does the whole computer dies after 2-5 seconds? or only the display will go black? if is only the display try on connecting a external monitor, if it works the it means your computer is set to identify a external monitor as the main one, if it doesn’t the your computer fans and heat sinks could be clogged and the CPU could be getting over heated that’s why its turning off to prevent more damage to itself.
if you have any more questions email me at:
omarsitto13 AT gmail.com
thanks
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:08 am
-Chris B Says
i think is not worth reparing it because that does means is the motherboard and it can be expensive but what you can do instead is go buy another laptop and buy a external hard disk drive enclosure (be sure to know if the hard disk drive on your old laptop is SATA or IDE)and select the right external enclousure for it and plug it in into the new one that way you can recover all the info saved on the old one
any more questions email me at:
omarsitto13 AT gmail.com
thanks
August 20th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Hi Sir,
i have a Acer 4736(running on vista) and seems that i have i battery problem because it won’t open unless its plug but here’s the main problem, when i open my laptop, Acer logo will appear, then it will load or about 2-5 seconds then it’ll die..i can’t open my laptop,this started like a month ago..please sir,your help will be very much appreciated..
Thanks in advance sir,
August 18th, 2011 at 6:00 am
My 12 and a half month old Lenovo has died (ironic just out of one year’s warranty). Charger seems to be working as battery LED on front of laptop lights up but NOTHING else works at all. It won’t turn on, DVD won’t open etc NOTHING. Does this mean it must be the motherboard? Is it worth repairing – it has all my daughter’s Uni worl on etc. Your help greatly appreciated.
August 17th, 2011 at 3:34 am
your laptop must of gone overheated at some point, this problem is the same thing that happens to the XBOX 360 (red rings of fire) and PS3
to fix this pull apart your laptop until you can have access to the cpu and gpu, since you already done this part let start by:
1.try to take off the heat sink identify which is the CPU and GPU
2.Get a factory heat gun like a craftsman heat gun (will not work with home hair heat gun) try to ask about them at homedepot.
3.buy some thermal compound for sale at radioshak or online.
4.once u have everything apply heat to the GPU only!! about 250 degrees for 5 to 10 min. and then allow to cool naturally and don’t move the motherboard for about 20 min.
5.clean all the dust from the motherboard and heat sink and fan.
6.apply thermal compound to both the CPU and GPU.
7.bare-bone assemble everything to see if you get image, hopefully u will.
8.put everything together and enjoy
9.if it worked try to share this info as it might be helpful for other people and save them hundreds of dollars
to avoid this happening again make sure you always sit you laptop on top of a flat, hard surface NOT on a sofa, your legs, or any other surface that can cover the airflow of the laptop
any other questions fell free to send me an email to
– omarsitto13 AT gmail.com
Hope it works