Laptop worked fine last night but will not power up today
My 5 years old Sony Vaio laptop worked fine last night, and I shut it down (vs. hibernating) when I was done. Today, it will not power up at all – no response when I hit the power button, no lights when connected to power. I’ve tried pressing power button for extended time, remove/reinsert battery, switching batteries, switching power cords – no result.
Suspect problem with the motherboard, or with the connection between the dc jack and the motherboard. Any advice on diagnostic &/or repair would be appreciated.
I don’t think that your problem is related to the DC power jack. Power jacks do not fail like that. Usually power jacks fail over an extended period of time and connection between the power adapter and jack gets worse day after day, but they do not die overnight.
First of all, check the AC power adapter. Test your adapter with a voltmeter and make sure it outputs correct voltage. Replace it with a new one if it’s dead.
If the power adapter works properly, most likely your motherboard has died.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Compaq Presario C500, will not power up. When you push the power button the light comes on steady and you here the fan start, then within 2 seconds the power light begins to rapidly flash and the computer stops loading, the fan turns off. I checked the power cord and it’s fine, the battery is dead so I always have it plugged in I think it may be the processor?
Thanks for your advise.
Tom
August 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I have a toshiba sattelite laptop model # PSLC8U-03701Q AND IT WILL NOT POWER ON. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
September 6th, 2009 at 5:37 am
This same exact thing happened to me last night, this morning nothing worked… only difference was it was a Sony VAIO.
One other thing would be that I am under warrenty and they just but a new hard drive in, lets say about a month ago or so (maybe a little longer)… do you think it’s still the hard drive??
Any suggestions? Thank you for your help!
September 14th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-7V2L and it has no power what-so-ever. The problem seemed to be something with the DC Power Jack because for a week or so, I could still get some lights to come on by wriggling the cord.
Now I get nothing… I decided to tear down the laptop (rather easy to do actually) and as I first suspected that the jack was becoming loose or cracked on the motherboard, I found that sony’s connections are done via cable from the jack and clip into a jack on the board (Quite cleaver actually if you ask me).
Anyway, I took out my voltage meter and tested the AC Power Cord, it reads correctly at 19.51 volts. I then tested the power while plugged in BEFORE the cable was plugged into the motherboard; it as well reads 19.51 and so then I plugged the cable into the motherboard and tested the leads coming through the motherboard onto the bottom (or top rather I guess) of the board… Again, 19.51. So, obviously all power connections are just fine.
I have unplugged everything from the motherboard looking for some sort of short from the board to the casing to no avail. I have tested just the power cord and just the battery, same results.
Again, to make sure there’s no confusion, the laptop is completely dead. No lights, fans, sounds, anything what-so-ever!
I’m searching my spare parts for another CPU as the one that I’ve already swapped and tested I was unsure as to it’s health anyway; so even though I swapped it with another CPU, I wasn’t entirely sure if that CPU worked for testing (meaning, it was same 667 1.6mhz but I wasn’t sure if IT actually worked).
Just to add more info, I did try a different power cord, but same results.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
My daughters compaq presario c502us just quit working, there is a small flashing light on the L Front edge of the computer that flashes rapidly when the power supply is plugged in and when you push the power on button you get a few seconds of flashing light in the center of power button but nothing else. A new battery and power supply did not help the problem.
I have removed all the screws that are visable and the hard drive, the cover over the memory, the screw under the battery and there is still something holding the case together in the area of the fan but cannot locate it. any ideas would be appreciated.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Hi there. I have an old Dell 8600 laptop which I recently replaced its motherboard (the old one had water spilled and didnt power after several attempts of cleaning and drying). All peripherals fitted to the new MB (video card, HD & wireless card). Working fine for maybe two months and on for at least 4 hours (or longer) a day. Last week while it’s on it suddenly turned off by itself. When I turned it on it just didnt start, just a blink of the leds and didn’t go on. Opened the unit and had a look at the MB checking for obvious burned or loose solder nothing. Then took of the nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 card and turned the unit on and heard that it’s booting properly, heard the usual XP logon sound, so I assumed that the motherboard works properly. But when I connected the unit to an external monitor fn f8 the monitor says no signal at all, but i can still hear the hard disk/fan/logon sound. I suspect that it’s the video card but before I get replacement I would appreciate if you can give me suggestions, other ways to check if my system still works fine or how to check the video card ( i have no other laptop to check this).
Thanks a lot…
October 24th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Roman,
You can hear the Windows logon sound with the video card removed from the laptop? That’s strange. I thought the laptop cannot start at all when the video card is removed.
Unfortunately, there is no way to test the video card if you don’t have another laptop like that.
Have you tried connecting the video card back to the motherboard and test the laptop again? Maybe it was just poor connection between the card and motherboard.
October 25th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Thanks for that. Yes, I connected the video card back to the board and same thing happened, not powering up (did that about three times just to make sure). So without the nvidia, the unit seemingly boots properly until that windows sound. Still I cannot confirm because it’s not showing display when connected to external monitor (is this normal when the card is not present?
Add to this, the laptop has battery level checker at the bottom so I can see that it’s charging when connected to mains and it’s discharging normally without the mains after being on for a day. Does this mean to say the dc socket is fine also?
Any suggestion would be much appreciated. Thanks again.
October 25th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Roman,
If the laptop does nothing when the video card is installed, but “booting” to the windows sound when the video card is removed, most likely the video card is causing the problem.
I assume the video card is bad and has to be replaced.
I cannot give you better advice without looking at the laptop.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Thanks very much. I’ll see if I can get a replacement and will let you know. Appreciate your time.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Just another thing before I get the video card, had a quick run again yesterday and noticed that if I turned on the laptop’s power switch (with video card fitted) while the charger connected to laptop IT CUTS OFF THE CHARGER’S POWER, I mean the charger LED light disappeared and I have to unplug and replug the charger from mains just to see the LED light again. Is it worthwhile replacing the dc jack first before the video card? Sorry for this again. Thanks.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Roman,
It’s hard to tell if the video card is causing this problem or not, but….
I’ve seen a few Toshiba Qosmio X205 (SLi) laptops with a very similar failure. When one of the video cards fails (the laptop has 2 cards), the laptop appears to be completely dead. I mean no LED lights at all when the power adapter is plugged in. As soon as you disconnect video cards, the power LED on the motherboard comes back on.
When I saw the problem for the first time I thought it’s a bad motherboard and ordered it, but the motherboard didn’t fix the problem. After that I replaced one of the video cards and the laptop started properly.
Is it possible that a failed video card kills power on the motherboard? Yes, it’s possible but again, I’m not sure 100%.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Hi.
I have a Vaio VGN Z555 DN and let it hibernate for a while. I went back and couldn’t wake it up. I took battery out and put back in, changed the AC power cord, the adapter, and the cord that goes from the adapter to the machine, took the little flap thing off the bottom and blew things out but I click the button and not even 1 blink from a light. It’s only a year and a half old and I don’t use it heavy.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Hi there. Sorry it took me a while before coming back here. I finally decided to get a new nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 card for my Dell 8600 laptop and after putting in the new card I have the display back and running again. Turned out that in my case the old card really kills the motherboard’s power.
Thanks for all the help. Appreciate all your time.
January 29th, 2010 at 7:13 am
I used muy Sony Vaio model PGN 8N 1L on battery and when the battery ran out it turned off. When I tried to charge the battery using the sony power adapter it would take some time before the power-on light and the battery charging lights(it has batter 2 and battery 2) come on, but the battery is not charged and the laptop does not power up even with the adapter connected. I checked the adapter for breaks in the cable but the output of 19.5 volts is there ok. I have not tried a new battery alone. Does Sony laptops have a device that locks up the computer when the battery runs down, and if so how does one reactivate the pc?
January 29th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
my grandson’s dell laptop displays boot manager when turned on. is it dead.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
hi
i have acer aspire one atom series 8gb 512mb ram
i was using my notebook last nite after completing my work i turned it off
on next morning when i turned it on green power led show me that notebook is on but display not coming
i tried to on off it several time but no result
after that i read a topic on a forum about this article in which they said to hold the power key for 30min then plug the charger while holding the power button for again 30 sec and then enter the battery i did that but still no result
my notebook show batery charging power led every thing but not displaying windows what happen i dont no but kindly you people help me out for this problem how can i make it in order as i am facing so much problem
regards
zaib malik
August 24th, 2010 at 8:00 am
My laptop has been having sound issues lately, then today when I tried to boot it up the screen went black and now won’t turn off. The power light is flashing at me and after removing the battery it’s still frozen. I’m not sure if it’s the power, a faulty button or the screen.
October 31st, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I have the same problem…only difference:when i plug in the AC Adapter,i hear a beep noise.
My laptop is Acer 6935.If the problem is at the motherboard,can i replace it?
December 5th, 2010 at 10:17 am
I have an acer aspire 3000 that was gifted to me. At the time I was told the laptop would only work while plugged into an outlet. I replaced the battery with a new one. The laptop was working for about two days then it just shut down completely and now it wont even power up.any advice would be greatly appreciated
June 29th, 2011 at 10:46 pm
I have A acer When I push the power button the light comes on but nothing happens I have to keep pushing power on and off to get to come on do you know why
December 5th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
I have Sony Vaio computer. i have had it for quite a while now and the warrenty has expired. I have had a few minor problems with this computer before but my tech friend has all ways fixed it. My computer was working fine last night untill i had to move my computer to the other room. When I was carrying the computer I droped the charger cord box that plugs into the wall on one end and plugs into the computer on the other end. I droped it from stomach and the charger box slamed on the ground. When i pluged every thing back in I tryed to turn the computer back on and the first time it came on for about five minutes and then it just off. Now my computer will not turn on completlly. No lites or fans will come on either. I think may be it is a problem with the power cord box. PLZ HELP ME!!!!!