💻 Laptop Won't ⚡ Power On 🔌 ? (Story / Solutions)

Sharing a hardware story, in case anyone (on the internet) runs into this exact issue in the future.

I put many hours into working on a 💻 laptop, only to find out it would not ⚡ power on without the 🔌 charger (plugged in). Thankfully, only due to a minor mistake. For more, and tips on what to do if this happens to you, read on.

At the time, was disappointing to say the least (very).

🤦‍♂️ Spending 5 or more hours that day, working on this particular laptop... only to find this... "issue".

🔋 BATTERY?

First step to deciphering devices which no longer power on when unplugged, is...

check the dang battery.

No, it wasn't a 🪫 bad battery: battery is just as fine as ever (new).

Strange occurrence.

The laptop power button only worked: when plugged into the 🔌 charger.

I ruled out the battery as faulty, by checking another laptop.

The ⚡ power button itself: obviously working (powered on with ease when plugged in) - couldn't be this variable.

First time for everything.

One laptop forum mod claimed certain models have issue powering on with a dead CMOS.

I've never heard of such case - completely dead 100% by CMOS battery alone? No fan spin, nothing (well I thought, what's the harm in checking?).

Rooted out that possibility too (just in case).

Lastly, took the keyboard off. Reseated the keyboard cable.

🧙‍♂️ Wallah! 🪄💻

Finally: powered on without being plugged in! 😀

This ⌨️ keyboard cable was not quite fastened entirely, causing this strange occurrence.

And yet -- during the issue, it still turned on using keyboard power button -- only while plugged in. Strange.

⚡ CHECK ALL 💻 CABLES / HARDWARE CONNECTIONS

I knew this was a (good) possibility... Afterall, only moments before, I reassembled it.

Checking cables come with the territory.

At the same time, I knew this power button worked - it powered on, everytime, while plugged in.

Battery was confirmed fine (brand new). Thus, I was afraid something more serious may have happened (BIOS problem?).

In the end, the entire issue was due to this single keyboard cable not being properly seated.

Weird.

Reseating the keyboard cable immediately fixed the issue.

In this case, checking cables should have been the very 1st thing on my list (was feeling a bit lazy after fastening all those screws).

💡 SIMPLE LESSON: when a laptop won't power on, check hardware for proper seating (ram, cables, battery).

The only reason this wasn't my first check, was the fact this keyboard power button still appeared to work fine (entire time)... And screws were already fastened (hoping to avoid).

Causing me to initially rule this out.

ANOTHER TIP: sometimes when a laptop refuses to power up: try draining capacitors. Do so by hitting the power button several times / (with battery / power removed) 30 seconds (with no battery / charger attached).

Then place your battery back in, and attempt to power up again. In many cases, this does it.

Someone, somewhere will run into this... Hopefully they find this blog post.

Thanks for reading!

See you soon.