Laptop won't turn on? Check these six things first

You press the power button and nothing happens. No light, no fan, no logo. It is one of the most stressful calls we get, because most people's first thought is "everything on it is gone". Usually it isn't. A laptop that won't turn on is very often a power problem, not a dead computer — and your files are almost always still sitting safely on the drive.

Work through these in order. Each takes a minute or two.

1. Is power actually reaching it?

• Look at the charger. Many chargers have a light on the brick or the plug end. No light means no power — try a different wall socket before blaming the laptop.
• Check the cable end to end. Chargers fail most often where the cable bends at either end. Kinks, fraying or a loose barrel plug are all common.
• Look for the charging light on the laptop itself. If it lights up when you plug in, power is getting in and the problem is further along.

If you have a USB-C laptop, a phone charger will not usually be powerful enough to start it. A borrowed charger of the right wattage is the fastest test there is.

2. Do a hard reset

Laptops can get stuck in a state where they won't respond to the power button at all. Clearing it:

1. Unplug the charger and anything connected — USB drives, docks, mice.
2. Hold the power button down for 30 seconds. Nothing will appear to happen. That is fine.
3. Plug the charger back in (leave everything else out) and press power normally.

On a MacBook with Apple silicon, hold the power button for about 10 seconds, let go, then press it again. This fixes more "dead" laptops than you would believe.

3. Is it on, just with a black screen?

Put your ear near the keyboard and press power. Listen for a fan, and watch for the Caps Lock light, a keyboard backlight or a light near the power button. Then try pressing Caps Lock a few times — if the light toggles, the laptop is running.

If there are signs of life but a black screen, connect it to a TV or monitor with an HDMI cable. If a picture appears there, the laptop is fine and the fault is the screen or its cable — a very repairable problem, and your data is untouched.

4. Let a flat battery recover

A battery that has run completely flat, or has sat in a drawer for months, can need 30 minutes or more on the charger before it will even try to start. Plug it in, leave it alone for an hour, then try again.

5. Think about what happened last

• A drink nearby recently? Stop pressing the power button and read what to do after a spill. Repeated attempts to start a wet laptop are how a repairable spill becomes a dead motherboard.
• Did it shut down in the middle of an update? If it now starts but loops or shows an error, that is a software repair — no parts needed.
• Was it dropped? Internal connections can come loose, and the hard drive may be damaged. Do not keep trying if you hear clicking — see your hard drive is clicking.

6. Stop immediately if the case is bulging

If the keyboard or trackpad is lifting, the bottom panel has started to bow, or the laptop no longer sits flat on the desk, the battery is swelling. Unplug it, do not charge it, do not press on it, and keep it away from anything flammable. A swollen lithium battery can catch fire. This one is not a DIY job — call us and we will replace it safely.

What your files are doing through all this

Nothing. A laptop that won't power on has not erased its drive. Even when the laptop itself turns out not to be worth fixing, we can almost always take the drive out and move everything onto a new machine — part of our backup and data transfer work.

When to bring it in

If none of the above brings it back, the likely culprits are the charging port, the battery, or a board-level fault, and that needs the right tools to test. Our laptop repair service diagnoses it first and tells you what it will cost before any part is ordered — and if the honest answer is that the laptop isn't worth repairing, you will hear that too. Drop it at our Indooroopilly workshop or have us come to you. No callout fee, same flat rate.

Related guides

• Spilled something on your laptop? Do this in the next 60 seconds
• Is your old computer worth repairing?
• Your hard drive is clicking. Turn it off now.