You press the button and nothing happens.

Or something happens. Maybe.

I get a lot of computers in that "will not turn on". But there all lots of different things that might be happening.

No power. No light anywhere. No fan noise. No click. You press the button and the machine stays exactly as dead as it was.

No picture. Lights come on. A fan spins up. You can hear it working. The screen stays black and might say No Signal, or just have a cursor, or nothing at all.

No Operating System found. It powers up, you get the manufacturer logo, and then it stops. Or it loops. Or displays an inscrutable code. This could be a failing drive, a half-finished update, or a missing file.

Let's triage.

Does any light come on anywhere? Power button, keyboard, the little charging light on the side of a laptop. Any light at all?

Does anything move or make noise? A fan, a click, a whir, a beep. Put your ear near it in a quiet room.

Does the screen ever show anything? A logo, a cursor, a flash of grey. Even for half a second before it goes black again.

No to all three = nopower.

Yes to the first two and no to the third = picture.

Yes to all three = no OS found.

Next step.

Move to a different wall outlet, not a different socket on the same power strip. Power strips can die suddenly and silently, with no outward sign of failure. On a laptop, unplug the charger, hold the power button down for a full thirty seconds, then plug the charger back in and wait a whole minute before you press anything.

Check that your monitor is on the correct input. Just like your TV, most monitors in the last 10 years support multiple inputs. Luckily, they also support autoscan,, if the video source is already running. Unplug the monitor from power. Turn on the computer. Then plug in the monitor and turn it on.

Check the charger. Is it the one that came with the machine? A charger that fits is not the same as a charger that is right. More on that here: can you use any charger for any device?

Now the thing not to do. Don't pressing the power button over and over. It does not help. If the drive inside is already failing, every restart is more wear on the part you need to get your files off.

If you answered no to all three questions and a different outlet did not change anything, stop guessing. On a desktop that is usually the power supply, which is a replaceable part. On a laptop it is usually the board, which could be replaceable, but maybe shouldn't be.

Bring it in. The bench diagnostic is $49 and it buys you an actual answer instead of an afternoon of guessing. It is included if you have a membership.

Tomorrow: the machine that starts, tries to fix itself, and never finishes.

Mike
PCRescue | Portland, ME