Today my laptop suddenly powered down–not through windows shut down, rather, it just suddenly turned completely off. And now it is utterly non-responsive. When you push the power button, nothing happens at all.
I am not completely certain, but I think when it switched off I heard a very brief beeping sound. It was so brief, though, that I may simply be mistaking some mechanical noise for a beep.
So I could take this to a place that claims to repair computers. But is this probably futile? Or is it actually possible the thing could be made to start again, for less than, say, $400?
I don’t really do anything with laptops, but since the guts are basically the same as the stuff I do play with, my first guess would be something relating the PSU (power supply unit).
So take a look at the cord to be sure there is a good connection to the laptop. Check that the socket seems secure. After that, it could be the PSU itself or maybe the battery.
I don’t really know, but I have this vague recollection that laptops always run off of the battery even when it’s charging. If the battery can no longer be charged, that might the cause. And of course if the PSU is shot, that would mean no power at all.
There are other causes though so it’s hard to say and I’m not someone who does this enough with strange equipment to have good diagnostic skills. But for example, if a laptop’s CPU is overheating, the thermal protection circuit will kick in and turn it off like someone hitting a switch. However once the machine is cold, it should start up - at least temporarily. But that doesn’t seem to be your situation.
Aside from that, I can’t think of many system faults that would result in a sudden, disorderly shutdown.
Well, not knowing how old it is, or how much important stuff that might be on it.
You can get a very cheap laptop for around $400.00.
It would be under warranty for a year. You could remove the HDD from the first and use an external enclosure to retrieve your important stuff, if the HDD isn’t fried.
If you have a higher end laptop, just out of warranty, it might be reasonable to fix it.
I believe Asus has a laptop for $350.00 or they did around Christmas. I haven’t had the money to go see what the after holiday sales have been at Best Buy, or any place else.
Remove the battery, plug in the power supply, and try to start it with the battery out. Sometimes a defective battery can cause a laptop to not start at all.
Check the power supply leads too.
I have had a couple with internally severed leads, one inside the plug where it was invisible (bodged it and it is still in use but fairly static).
Sounds a lot like that. A completely discharged battery may take a long time to charge sufficiently to start a laptop, or it may not charge at all anymore. Find someone with a good battery to test it with. Don’t leave it with anyone for repairs if they won’t try this simple test for you, for free or some nominal charge.
You might try this:
Unplug the laptop from the wall. Remove the battery. Open the laptop, press the power button and hold it down for 15 seconds. Plug it back in.
This worked with my Dell 1501 laptop. I had a completely black screen just as if it wasn’t getting any power at all.
This is supposed to remove built-up static electricity. (Or something like that)
This came from Dell technical support. But it’s worth a try on your laptop, whatever brand.
What’s to loose?
I said $400 because I figured I could get a cheap new one for that much. For the record, though, the laptop is worth more than that since it has like an AMD HD5750 graphics card in it or something like that.
But anyway, it turns out I just didn’t check the basicis. Someone had switched off the power to that outlet without me realizing it and it simply had drained the battery. I didn’t see drained battery warnings because I just happened to sit down and start using it right when it was just about to finally go completely out.
In my experience, the thing that kills laptops is dust, animal hair and other debris being sucked in via the fan and collecting between the fan and the fins of the CPU and graphics chip cooling system. I’ve revived many laptops that would no longer boot, or would try to boot and shut down immediately by opening them and cleaning out a thick mat between the fan and the cooling radiator.
I am so happy with my new HP Elitebook laptop. The whole bottom slides off, and the fan can be pulled out very easily. My the fan in previous Sony Vaio was a nightmare to access.