Laptop Not Powering On Issues & Resolutions

There are quite a few different reasons why a laptop can have issues powering on. The most
common would be a faulty DC Jack. Though other things like a faulty GPU, or incorrectly seated
RAM, or a blown motherboard component, a bad battery, a damaged hard drive, a short in the ac
adapter, or even liquid damage can as well… So you see; it is not only the power area that can fail
rendering the laptop unable to power on and stay powered on it can be a variety of different issues,
and it will be up to you to do process of elimination testing to rule out all other possible problems
and pinpoint the exact component causing the issue.

I will go ahead and give you a few scenarios and then resolve the issues for you by showing
you how to do process of elimination testing.

1) Let’s Say… The laptop in front of you will power on when the power button/switch is pushed,
it will even splash the BIOS screen (the screen showing the Laptops manufacturers logo), then shuts

itself down.

Okay, Now for the process of elimination testing to determine the issue.

You will want to first check all the easiest things that you can, the easiest parts to access get looked at

first.

Start by removing the battery. Plug the AC Adapter in and try powering on… If the same,
continue on…

Next, remove the RAM cover on the underside of the laptop (some RAM slots are also situated under

the keyboard on the top side of the Motherboard; you will determine the location and reseat both

sticks. Then attempt to power back on after reseating the RAM. Reseating the RAM means that you

remove both RAM sticks and place them back into the DIMM slots again to ensure they are in straight and not at an angle or slightly ajar.

If you are still getting the same failure when powering on, then pull out both sticks of RAM again

and just use one stick, placing it in DIMM 1 first, then checking Power, then trying just DIMM 2, then trying to power on, then taking the 2nd stick of RAM and doing the same thing… trying DIMM1 then DIMM2… That will either rule out the RAM as being the issue if nothing changes, or it will correct the issue, which would also tell you that you have a faulty DIMM slot if the laptop Runs and Powers on good with 1 missing RAM stick…

Next you can move on to the Hard Drive by simply removing it. You want to remove/unplug it

from the port and set it aside, then try powering up the laptop because if the hard drive had any issues

with it that were stopping the laptop from powering on, removing the drive should bypass the issue

and allow the laptop to turn on. Liquid damage to the hard drive is a common reason this can

happen… Liquid damage to the internal components can cause power redirection where the contact

pads join and when this occurs, it will tell the motherboard to shut down to prevent further damage. If

the laptop is still not powering on, continue with process of elimination testing…

So you have now ruled out the Battery, the DC Jack, the RAM (memory) and the hard drive as being

the causing issue. Note here, that, you have ruled out the DC Jack simply because it is powering on

initially, then, shutting down. If the jack were faulty, you would get no power initially, or the

shutdowns would be more sporadic and only occur when the cord or plug were moved slightly.

Battery was ruled out simply for the fact that removing it didn’t change the fault.

So, now that you still have a laptop that won’t power on properly, and you have ruled out the
easier parts/components, you will now have to move on to disassembling the laptop to begin
troubleshooting and viewing all parts and components.

While disassembling the laptop, you will be looking for certain things along the way as the root of
the failure causing the laptop to not power up properly. You will basically be looking at everything.
Something as simple as crossing pins inside the Ethernet/cat5 cable input port that are bent and
touching one another, or possibly even crossed pins inside the USB port can cause the laptop to
power on then shut down. So you will need to closely look at all parts and components now to
determine where the failure has occurred.

Your mindset now will be… looking for signs of liquid damage, looking for motherboard damage,
looking for blown components.

Blown components you say? Yes, and quite common though nothing like a Desktop computer
component failure. The only similarity between a desktop motherboard and a laptop motherboard
when relating board failures…. Is the failure of Capacitors. The failing of capacitors is probably the
most common component that fails on either board. Remember here that the capacitors on a laptop
motherboard differ from those on a desktop computers motherboard. Though some laptop
motherboards will use electrolytic capacitors, the majority of capacitors on a laptop motherboard
will be tantalum capacitors (no gasses).

                                             Desktop computer component failure.

                                                 Laptop motherboard capacitors