Laptop won't power on?

If your laptop won't power on or stay on, check a few things:

1.Ensure your battery is holding power. Some laptops will auto shut-off if the battery won't hold a charge. In that case, replace your battery and retry. Check your charging lights or indicators to see if your laptop is getting power and charging.

2.Check your AC to DC converter (the little black adapter you plug in your AC outlet.) This converts AC power into DC power. Is it abnormally hot? If so, it is probably burned out. Replace it. Note- high heat is not a true indicator of malfunctioning. It can be dead and cold as well. No power indicators on your laptop could be a sign of a dead or bad converter also. Converters WILL get hot (this is normal.) If it is REAL hot (to touch), then this is not good.

3.Check your power cord. Are there nicks or cuts? If so, unplugg it from the AC power and repair with electrical tape- better yet, replace it. Many computer salvage stores carry power adapter cords. They're cheap.

4. Check your laptop lid switch. If it is broken, you may have power but your screen may not come on. This is usually a little button or mechanism located close to the lid hinge that turns on or off your screen when your lid is open or closed respectively. Normally the operator does not push this button. These are fragile and broken easily on some laptop models. Sometimes these can be fixed, more often they will require replacements. If you aren't an expert repair person, get a technician to repair/replace it for you. Opening up laptops is a very delicate operation and much more difficult to repair than desktops. It may be worth it to spend the money for repair.

5. If you have tried these easy solutions and it still won't power on, then your problem lies elswhere. You may have an internal power switch or voltage regulator problem.. Internal problems will require professional help.

Also, if your laptop powers on, but nothing is shown on the screen, it may be that the screen backlight or invert has gone bad. If you shine a light on the screen and are able to see something running (barely), then there's no reason to replace the entire screen (which is expensive), but with a little research you can figure out how to get the replacement parts for the backlight and inverter; there are also online guides for opening up the laptop and replacing these specific parts.

For example: http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_8.htm

This whole site has some good information, and links to purchasing the equipment: http://www.lcdpart.com/doc/ccflmeasure.html

This is a good company for laptop repair and for laptop parts. I highly recommend them:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/

Thanks for all that good information. I will do some investigation per your suggestions. It might take me a little time, but I will get back to you all and let you know.
Thanks again,
RPC

I have a Gateway MX8715 Notebook just over a year old and conveniently out of warranty. Not booting up. Can a boot disk help? I will follow suggestions above. But only one red light flashing with battery in and power chord in. W/O battery, red light does not flash. Any ideas?

I have not had any luck with my computer, so I can't give you any suggestions.
I am a novice stuff.
Sorry, RPC

Other than removing the CMOS battery then reinstalling it, The motherboard may be at fault

Guys:

I replaced the CMOS battery on this laptop and now it refuse to start. The orange power light appears on the front edge of the laptop. Touching the power-button does nothing.

Even tried the super-secret hard-reset button on the bottom of the device. The orange power light cycles when I do a hard-reset, which indicates to me that something is dead..... just not sure what, because all I did was swap the CMOS battery.

Sheesh, I am pulling my hair out and my GF is pissed. Please help.

-Marc

Pull out the Battery and disconnect the AC adapter... Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Put the battery back in and try powering up the laptop

Removed the battery and power supply cable, operned laptop, pressed and held power button for 30+ seconds, replaced battery and power cable, orange power light (e.g. it's plugged in appears, as normal) pressed power button, no reaction.

Ugh.... any other thoughts?

hey guys
im new to the forum and saw that you all know your stuff
i have my friends hp compaq nc6000 laptop to mend but im totally confused what the problem could be.
she told me that the entire system just shutdown on her, and wouldnt turn back on.
when i looked at it, the system turned on (well the cpu fan and hdd worked) but nothing came on screen, looking at the power lights the power light didnt turn on but the charger light did? then all shutdown again after around 5 seconds.
the charger wasnt even in and the battery was full. even plugging the charger in, it did the same
Ive checked the battery, charger, hdd, ram and screen and theyre all fine
reset the bios, still the same
which leads me to think its either the cpu or gpu
has anyone any ideas what it could be?
thanks for your time

Some other things to check:

check your ram and hard drive is fully seated. You may have to remove the respective covers. GROUND YOURSELF AGAINST STATIC!

also, if your laptop switches on then off again, it is most likely a bad ram stick...as was the case with me. I got adventurous and took them out and put them in 1 by 1 again, swapping slots (usually 2 slots) and found that 1 stick was knackered...still got to get round to replacing it, but my laptop works now - just very slowly

If the memory checks out, the motherboard is most likely fried

Bad motherboard if the memory checks out... Am I repeating myself?

Hello
With the battery in computer and the power cable connected my laptop is not powering up. The battery light shows that its charging and the light on the on button goes on for a few seconds goes on then stops.

I have tried pressing the on button for 30secs then removing battery and using only the power cable but the same thing happens. It won't go on.

My intial problem was the screen. It started fading to white. But when connected the laptop to a monitor it worked. Now nothing works.

What sshould I do. Please help.

For you too keshi, the motherboard is bad. It will have to be replaced or you can trash it and buy a new laptop

i kind of have the same problem with my asus, the battery is very faulty and when i take the charger out it will either turn of within 5 minutes of just turn of straight away, however even when my battery and charger is pluged in it usually works fine but sometimes it just turns off and doesn't turn on for a little while. its been doing this for many months now but this time it turned of and doesn't turn back on, is this becuase i need a new battery ? ? (its not the charger as its fairly new) or has the mother board fried ? im not sure iv done the hoid down for 30 secs etc trick but no luck, and last of all there are not lights when my charger and battery is plugged in but these turn on when my computer starts working from when it happend before. any info would be nice before i spend money on buying a new battery when this is not the case.
many thanks..

the reviews in google on impactcomputers.com aint real good :-/ I have never used them so I cant say for sure.

This is for tdpetunia re: Gateway red light, these pc's need to have a charge on the battery in order for them to boot. If the battery is dead the pc will not turn on and you will have a red light.
I am looking for lid switch symptons for lcd that looks like a bad backlight.