This document provides steps to troubleshoot a dead laptop. First, check that the wall outlet and AC adapter are working properly by testing the adapter voltage and trying a different outlet. If the adapter is good, remove and reconnect the battery. If the laptop still does not power on, test components like the motherboard and DC power jack. For a laptop that powers on but has no screen image, try an external monitor and toggling display modes. Issues could relate to the video cable, screen, or motherboard. Further troubleshooting involves checking memory modules, removing other internal components, and testing the motherboard on a workbench as a barebones system.

1. P R E S E N T E D B Y: V I S H N U
M A LV I YA
Laptop is dead. How to
troubleshoot
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2. THE LAPTOP IS ABSOLUTELY DEAD.
 Make sure the wall outlet is working and the AC adapter is getting
power from the outlet. Try another wall outlet.
 Test the AC adapter, make sure the voltage output is correct. You can
test the adapter with a voltmeter.
 If the adapter is good, try reconnecting the battery. Remove the
battery, wait for 1-2 minutes, plug in the adapter and try turning it on
again.
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3.  If the adapter doesn’t pass the test with a voltmeter, replace it
with a new one and test the computer.
 The voltage output on your new adapter must be exactly the
same as on the old one.
 If previous troubleshooting steps didn’t help, it’s possible your
computer has a problem with the motherboard or DC power jack.
In this case it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop and test the
DC jack.
THE LAPTOP IS ABSOLUTELY DEAD.
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4. THE COMPUTER TURNS ON AND MAKES NORMAL STARTUP NOISES, THE
LED LIGHTS TURN ON BUT NOTHING APPEARS ON THE SCREEN
LED Indicator is on but
screen doesn’t display.
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5. WHAT YOU CAN DO
 First of all, take a closer look at the screen under bright light. It’s
possible the screen shows the image but it’s very faint. In this case
you’ll have to troubleshoot the backlight failure.
 On the other hand, if the screen shows no image at all, test the
laptop with an external monitor, connected to the VGA port or DVI
port or HDMI port.
 You can toggle video output between internal and external modes
by using Fn keys:
Fn and F4 keys simultaneously on HP laptops
Fn and F5 keys on Toshiba laptops
Fn and F7 keys on IBM laptops.
• Other laptops may use different key combinations
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6. CHECK WITH EXTERNAL DISPLAY
If the external monitor works fine but the internal screen has no image at
all, the problem can be related to:
 Poor connection between the video cable and screen or motherboard.
Try reconnecting the video cable on both ends and check out if this
helps.
 The screen failed. Replace it with a new one.
 The video cable failed. Replace it with a new one.
 The motherboard failed.
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7. • Failed memory (RAM).
• Failed motherboard.
If both, the internal and external monitors show no image, the problem can be
related to:
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8.  Try reconnecting the memory module, maybe it’s not making good
connection with the slot.
Try cleaning contacts on the memory module.
Try moving the memory module into another slot.
Try replacing the memory module with another one.
 If you have two modules installed
you can try removing them one by
one, it’s possible that one of the
modules failed. Try moving
modules from one slot to another.
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9.  It’s possible one of them failed
and it’s preventing the entire
computer from starting up
properly.
 Removing the battery, hard
drive, DVD drive and other
components you can easily
access. Try turning on the laptop
without these components
installed.
If changing or reseating memory doesn’t help, you can try this:
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10. If external image appears after you disconnected the video cable,
apparently there is something wrong with the cable. Replace it with a
new one.
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11.  If the computer is still dead, try removing other internal components
(wireless card, modem, keyboard, etc…) and test it with an external
monitor after each removed part.
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12. On this picture you see my final test. The motherboard has been removed from the base
and I assembled a basic bare bone system on my bench.
The bare bone system includes:
1. Motherboard (like in most cases it has onboard graphics chip).
2. CPU with the cooling module.
3. Known good memory module.
4. The power button board.
5. Known good AC adapter.
If the system still doesn’t turn on,
it’s either bad motherboard or failed CPU.
The last step is testing the laptop as a bare bone system.
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Thank You