Troubleshoot A Computer Not Turning On

Basic Steps To Help Troubleshoot A Computer Not Turning On

Is your computer not turning on, or not fully booting up? Here are some basic steps to help you troubleshoot your computer before taking it to your local computer repair shop. We recommend these steps to help you troubleshoot computer startup problems only if you feel comfortable to do it yourself. Otherwise, we recommend that you get help if you don’t feel comfortable doing these steps.

  • Assuming that you have already tried to push the power button and nothing happened, the next thing you want to do is make sure your computer is plugged in. It sounds like a “no-brainer,” but it’s worth checking into just in case the power cable was yanked or something like that.
  • If it’s plugged in and nothing is happening, look at the back of your computer and see if it has a power supply switch. This should be a black little switch close to where you plug in the power cable to your computer. If it has a switch, check to make sure that it’s set to the “ON” position.
  • If it’s plugged in and you checked that the power supply switch is ON, but it’s still not turning on; check to make sure that whatever it’s plugged into is working. This could be a surge protector, or something of that nature. Check the switch on your surge protector or power adapter and make sure it’s on. Who knows, the cat might have gotten to it, so you just want to make sure that is not the case before making the trip to your local computer repair shop.
  • If nothing is happening still, make sure the adapter or surge protector is working. Are other things attached to it working? Does it have a fuse? Is the fuse working? Etc. If other things attached to your surge protector or power adapter are working, then you can eliminate that as the problem.
  • Next, check to make sure nothing was recently attached to your computer. This could be USB devices, or other devices. If your computer was trying to start up from an external drive, unplugging that device usually takes care of the problem. If your computer is turning on but then failing to start up all the way, make note of any error messages you might get.

If you are still having issues after doing these simple steps to troubleshoot your computer, I would say it’s time to take it to your local computer repair shop. Let them know about any error messages you saw (if any). That will help them narrow things down, therefore saving you time and money.