Hollis Johnson
If your Dell laptop won’t turn on, there are a variety of hardware and software problems to troubleshoot.
You can check for beeps or flashing lights that could indicate a failed POST test and try to perform a hard reset.
Here are seven of the best ways to troubleshoot a Dell laptop that won’t turn on.
If your Dell laptop won’t turn on, it might not be immediately obvious what the problem is. Your laptop could be suffering from a power failure, a hard drive glitch, or some other internal hardware problem. The problem might even be software-related. No matter what’s keeping your laptop from powering on, here are seven of the most common ways to troubleshoot your Dell laptop and solve the problem as quickly as possible.
You see unusual flashing lights or hear beeps
If you try to turn on your laptop and hear a sequence of beeps or see a series of keyboard keys flashing (usually, the Scroll Lock, Caps Lock, and Num Lock), the system’s self-test (commonly called the POST) has failed. Usually, you’ll still hear the fan come on, but nothing will appear on the display. Unfortunately, this is often bad news — it generally points to defective hardware inside the laptop. Try performing a hard reset (see the next tip) and run Dell’s integrated diagnostic test (see below for that as well). But you will probably need to take your laptop to a repair shop to fix this issue.
Perform a hard reset to your Dell laptop
It’s possible that a hard reset, which drains the system of a residual electric current and forces the laptop to restart, will recover your Dell. To start, disconnect the AC adapter cable from your laptop and remove all USB cables and devices. Unplug it from the printer, remove USB flash drives and so on — in other words, the laptop shouldn’t be connected to anything. If the battery is removable (though most recent Dell laptops have an integrated battery that can’t be removed), remove it. Then press and hold the laptop’s power button for 20 seconds. Finally, plug the laptop back into the AC adapter and connect it to the wall. Try starting it again.
Press and hold the power button for 20 seconds to perform a hard reset.
Dave Johnson
Check the power supply
There are a lot of potential hardware problems that can cause the laptop to fail to turn on properly, but if the laptop does absolutely nothing when you press the power button, even after a hard reset, it’s a fair bet that the power supply has failed. Try plugging the laptop into the wall (don’t rely on the battery). If you press the power button and no lights come on and you hear no sound (not even the laptop’s cooling fan), it’s more likely than not that the power supply has failed. If you’re comfortable working inside your laptop, you can test it yourself using a multimeter; otherwise you should take it to a local laptop repair shop.
Run a diagnostic test
Dell ships all modern laptops with an integrated diagnostic test which can point you toward the root cause of major problems. To run it, press the power button and press F12 repeatedly when the Dell logo appears. After a few seconds, you should see the BIOS boot screen. Use the trackpad or arrow keys to choose Diagnostics and run the test. It will take a few minutes for the test to complete, and make a note of any issues that the test identifies.
You can find Dell’s built-in diagnostic tests on the BIOS boot screen.
Dave Johnson
Try booting into Windows Safe Mode
If your laptop powers on but then freezes after the Dell logo screen or crashes while trying to boot to Windows, software might be at fault. Try booting to safe mode, and if that stripped-down version of Windows starts, run antivirus software to see if your computer has been compromised. You can also disable software that runs at startup to see if there’s a conflict preventing your computer from booting properly.
Reinstall Windows or replace the hard drive
You might be able to partially start your laptop, but perhaps you get a serious error when Windows starts to load. If you see an error message like “no boot device found,” the laptop’s hard drive might be corrupted or has failed completely. If you suspect there’s a problem with your hard drive, turn your laptop off immediately and don’t repeatedly try to restart it, because continuing to use a damaged hard drive can make it more difficult to recover data from it later. Contact Dell customer service or a local computer service center for assistance recovering your hard drive.
Check to see if the display has failed
While not likely, it’s possible that your laptop’s display is no longer working. If the computer seems to start properly — you hear the startup beep and the fans come on, but you never see anything on screen — then you can test your laptop to see if it is only the display that is not working. Plug an HDMI cable into your laptop and connect it to a TV or your desktop monitor. If the display projects normally, then it might be the laptop’s display that’s at fault. Be sure to adjust the brightness and contrast using the keys on the keyboard, but if the display is still not working, contact Dell’s customer service to get your laptop repaired.