Why Your Laptop Is Not Starting ?

10 Reasons Why Your Laptop Is Not Starting & How to Fix It

A laptop taking forever to start up or not booting at all can be daunting, especially if it’s your peak working hours. A lot of reasons why your laptop is not starting can be responsible but it’s important to diagnose the main culprit. Only then, you can devise the right fix that might eradicate the potential issue and restore your laptop’s functionality.

Both hardware failure and software bugs can induce a not-booting state of a laptop. Fortunately, some basic troubleshooting tricks can revive your laptop without the need for expert intervention. Let’s check out why your laptop isn’t starting and how you can deal with it.

Laptop is Not Starting: Potential Causes & Solutions

It’s easy to jump to the worst-case scenario when your laptop refuses to start up even though you plug it in. Still, there’s a little hope that your laptop might wake up with some quick and easy fixes. As suggested by the Laptop Repair Dubai technicians, you can apply some fixes based on the reasons why your laptop refuses to boot up. 

So, let’s review the most probable reasons why your laptop won’t turn on and what you can do in those moments:

1. Drained-Out Battery

When was the last time you charged your laptop? If it has been a day or a few hours, then chances are that your laptop’s battery has been drained out already. As a consequence, your laptop won’t turn on or boot up no matter how many times you press its Power button.

Therefore, make sure that your laptop has enough battery runtime to afford a boot-up. First thing first, plug your laptop into a power outlet using the AC adapter. Let the laptop charge for a while and then, try to switch on your laptop.

2. Faulty Power Supply

Have you charged your laptop long enough and it still doesn’t start up? Check the power outlet in this situation by plugging in another device. If the power outlet works, the AC adapter of your laptop might be defective.

A faulty AC adapter won’t be able to charge your laptop and you must replace it. Ensure that you invest in a high-grade compatible AC adapter to feed power to your laptop. However, check if your laptop’s power light is on. It can be a battery issue if the laptop’s power light is on but the device still doesn’t turn on.

3. Damaged or Exhausted Battery

The presence of a damaged or faulty battery can lead to booting issues for your laptop. Regardless of how long you charge your laptop, the device may still refuse to start up due to a grave battery concern.

On the other hand, a faulty or damaged battery can ruin your laptop’s other components if you don’t take immediate action. Moreover, your laptop’s battery might have exhausted all of its charge cycles and may not serve your device anymore.

Whatever the condition is, it’s better to remove your laptop’s battery and plug your laptop into charging. Now, examine if your computer turns on. However, you can seek professional help to remove the laptop’s battery if it’s not detachable. Here’s another fix you can try if your laptop’s battery is not damaged or exhausted:

• Remove your laptop’s power adapter.
• Next, take out the laptop’s battery if it’s detachable. Otherwise, consider help from a professional repair expert.
• Let your device rest for a minute or two. Then, attach the battery back to its exact place.
• Now, plug your laptop’s power cable into the device.

Finally, try to turn on your laptop and check if it works.

4. Too Dim Screen

Do you own a keyboard-backlit laptop? If yes, then you can notice that your laptop has turned on even when the screen is very dim. Otherwise, it’s hard to tell whether your laptop has booted or not when the screen brightness is set to its lowest.

As a matter of fact, such brightness issues are quite common for old laptops or devices with broken brightness sensors. However, as a quick fix, you can check if the laptop’s fans are working. In case you hear that those fans are running, tap the brightness control key a few times and see if this hack works.

Moreover, move to a darker side of the room so that you can see whether your laptop’s brightness controls are working or not. If you can’t manage to see your laptop screen yet then it can be a serious monitor problem. In that case, you can connect your laptop to an external monitor and examine if the computer works except for its display.

5. Confusing External Drives and Accessories

Your computer’s hard drive plays an important role in booting up itself. So, your laptop might mess up the whole startup game if it gets confused and signals the operating system about retrieving data from another drive instead of the required one.

On the other hand, your computer may end up looking for the operating system in another drive and the device doesn’t turn on. To be on the safe side, you must unplug all external hard drives from your laptop. As a result, your computer will immediately know where to look for the operating system files.

Apart from external hard dives, you can consider removing the following accessories from your laptop:

• Flash drives
• External keyboard
• Memory cards
• Other suspicious hardware

In short, remove everything from your laptop except for the power cord. If your laptop couldn’t boot up due to a drive failure, the complication should melt away by now. Moreover, you can get back to work without any delay.

6. Excessive Left-Over Energy

Now, it might appear to be weird but extra leftover energy in your laptop’s battery can kill its functionality. No doubt, the presence of a laptop’s cell offers absolute portability but it can be a boomerang for being clogged. How can you get rid of this leftover energy, by the way?

Well, the fix dedicated to this issue is exclusive to those laptops that come with a detachable battery. Let’s go through the guidelines:

• Unplug the AC adapter or charger from your laptop.
• Then, safely remove the battery from your device.
• After you disconnect your device from all power sources, you need to press and hold the Power button for 30 seconds at most.
• Now, release the Power button and plug the adapter into your laptop.

Remember that you should not reinstall the laptop battery. Try to power on your laptop and check if it works. You might have to get the battery replaced in case your laptop turns on this time without any dilemma.

7. Overheating

Yes, overheating can ruin your laptop experience. Nowadays, most laptops come with processors with internal and dedicated thermal protection that safeguards your device if anything goes west. The processor won’t take a chance with the well-being of the overall system and it won’t allow the laptop to turn on.

So, you can’t start your laptop until the system cools down automatically. One thing that you can do is to make the cool-down process faster. Avoid using your laptop on a soft surface such as a pillow, bed, etc. Soft surfaces can block the vents of your laptop and make it harder for the device to breathe.

Thus, your laptop will overheat in no time. Hence, you should take care of laptop vents not being blocked. For quick dissipation of the heat, you can consider placing your laptop on a hard surface like a table, desk, etc. Once your laptop cools down and feels comfortable to touch, you can turn on the device.

Another reason for overeating can be your laptop’s broken fans. Listen carefully if you can sense a grinding noise from your laptop when it starts up. By the way, you must seek expert intervention if you feel that your laptop’s fan is broken.

8. Graphics Problems

Reportedly, the display adapter can be responsible for the malfunctioning laptop. An erratic display driver or graphics adapter can prevent your laptop from displaying anything on its monitor. 

According to Laptop Repair Dubai professionals, a quick restart of the display adapter can be helpful, especially for Windows laptops. Here’s how you can proceed with restarting the display adapter:

• Remove all accessories and drives from your laptop.
• After that, press the following keys at the same time: Windows, Ctrl, Shift, and B.

Release these keys after your laptop makes a beep. The beep indicates that the graphics adapter has been reset or restarted. If it’s a display adapter problem then the screen should be restored within 10 seconds. 

Continued…

Does the screen come and go immediately? Then, updating or reinstalling your display driver is a must. However, boot your Windows laptop in Safe Mode to carry out the procedure. Keep in mind that you will require the BitLocker key to access Safe Mode if your hard drive is encrypted. By the way, follow the guidelines below to fix the display driver on a Windows PC:

• Turn off your PC by holding the power button. Then, wait for 10 seconds.
• Next, turn on the system and hold the power button for another 10 seconds when the screen lights up. Release the power button once the laptop is on.
• Again, switch on the laptop and repeat the previous step. Keep repeating these steps until your laptop boots to the Automatic Repair window.
• Choose Advanced Options followed by Troubleshoot. After that, land on Advanced Options.
• Hit Startup Settings followed by Restart. Next, press 5 to continue with ‘Enable Safe Mode with Networking’.
• The machine enters the Safe Mode. Now, access the Device Manager and expand the Display adapter category.
• Right-click the driver in use and choose ‘Update driver’. Otherwise, you can utilise the Roll Back option under the Properties of the driver.

Finally, you can exit Safe Mode and restart your PC. Check if the problem persists.

9. RAM Issues

Have you replaced your laptop’s RAM recently? If yes, then misplaced or badly placed RAM components can prevent your laptop from booting successfully. If your system stops booting right after you turn on the device then the newly installed hardware can be faulty as well.

In that case, you need to get the laptop checked by a Laptop repair expert. Or else, you can disassemble your laptop and check whether the RAM or hardware is properly seated or not. In addition, you need to ensure that the RAM or hardware is compatible with your laptop brand and model.

On the other hand, laptops dealing with memory or RAM seating errors can make beeping sounds. For example, Dell laptops with RAM errors usually make 4 beeps to indicate the problem. So, look for such obvious signs and consider the re-seating of the RAM of your laptop or replace it if required. Otherwise, your precious laptop might not boot up.

10. Motherboard Failure

Beep code sounds can be common for motherboard-related problems, too. If you press your laptop’s Power button and it starts beeping in a definite pattern every time without booting up then motherboard components failure can be a probability.

Hence, you should pay attention to how many beep codes you can hear every time you try to turn on the laptop. After that, you can go to the manufacturer’s official website and investigate what the number of beeps signifies for your laptop model.

Depending on the number of beep codes, the internal problem can indicate a variety of issues starting from a memory problem to an erratic processor. Therefore, you should consult with a professional before you proceed with the next step to mitigate the booting menace along with a series of beep codes. 

Only an expert can tell you the required repair or motherboard component replacement to start up your computer again.

In Conclusion…

Your laptop should boot up and start working by now if it has been a minor glitch. Otherwise, you should contact a technician to look into the matter and fix your laptop.