Common problems
Laptop will not turn on
You pressed the power button and nothing happened, or a light flickered and it died again. Before you assume the worst, a laptop showing no sign of life is usually not the disaster it looks like, and the cause is far more often the charger, the port or the battery than the machine itself. Tell us exactly what it does when you press the button and we will find the real fault for free, say plainly whether it is worth repairing, and give you one fixed quote before anything is opened. If we cannot fix it, you pay nothing.
- No fix, no fee
- We come to you
- The diagnosis is always free
- A real person who does the work, not a call centre
What it usually means
The likely causes, most common first
- No power is reaching it: a failed charger, a frayed cable, or a wall socket that is off, the cheapest thing to rule out first
- A worn or cracked charging port, so even a good charger cannot get power into the machine
- A battery that will no longer hold or pass power, so it will not start on its own
- A stuck power state, where the board has latched off and clears once it is properly drained and reset
- A blank screen on a laptop that is actually running, where the real fault is the display or the backlight, not the power
- Less often, a fault on the mainboard itself, which we prove before we ever conclude it
Not sure which is yours? That is what the free diagnosis is for. Call and describe it.
What we do
How we find the real fault
- You tell us on the phone exactly what happens when you press the button, whether there is a light, a fan, a beep or nothing at all, so we arrive ready for the right fault
- We come to you across Leeds, at home or at work, or you can drop the laptop to us if that is easier
- We settle the power question first: a known-good charger, the port, and whether any charge is actually reaching the board
- We work out whether the machine is truly off or running blind, because a laptop that powers up to a black screen is a display fault, not a power one, and the two are fixed very differently
- We drain and reset the power state properly, since a surprising number of dead-looking laptops come back to life at exactly this step
- We test the battery and the power delivery on the board before the mainboard is ever named as the cause
- You get a fixed quote before any work begins, and if it cannot be fixed, or it is not worth the money, we say so and you pay nothing
Is it worth fixing?
An honest answer, before you spend anything
Nearly always worth a free look before you write it off or buy a replacement. The causes we find most often, a charger, a port, a battery or a stuck power state, cost little next to a new machine, and a laptop that will not turn on is very often one of those rather than a genuine casualty. The honest exception is a failed mainboard on an older laptop, since the board is the most expensive part to put right, and at that point a replacement can be the wiser spend. If that is where yours has landed we will tell you plainly, at no charge, and we can still get your files off the old machine so nothing is lost in the move.
This is a laptop repair job. The diagnosis is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay.
Call 0113 460 2103 for a free diagnosisWhere we work
We come to you across Leeds
Home or work, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or you can arrange to drop it to us. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.
Questions
The things people ask
Why will my laptop not turn on?
There are only a handful of usual reasons, and most are not serious. The commonest are no power reaching the machine, a failed charger, a frayed cable or a worn charging port, then a battery that will no longer start it on its own, then a stuck power state that clears once the board is drained and reset. A truly dead mainboard does happen, but it is the least likely of the set, not the first thing to fear. We work through them in order of likelihood, so you are never paying to replace the wrong part.
Is it the battery or the screen?
Those are two different faults that look identical from the outside. If the laptop is completely silent, no light, no fan, no sound, the power side is the place to start, which usually means the charger, the port or the battery. If you can hear it running, a fan spinning or a light glowing, but the display stays black, then the laptop is turning on and the fault is the screen or its backlight, not the power at all. Telling us which of those you see when you press the button lets us point straight at the right part.
I press the power button, a light comes on, then it dies. What is that?
That flicker of life and then nothing is usually a power delivery problem rather than a dead machine: a battery that can no longer hold, a charger not supplying enough, or the board dropping into a protective shutdown. It is exactly the fault that a proper drain and reset, followed by a test of the battery and the power circuit, is meant to find. It is rarely the write-off it feels like in the moment.
Can you fix it today?
Sometimes, and we will be straight with you rather than promise a slot we cannot keep. A stuck power state, or a fault that a spare charger sorts, can often be dealt with on the visit. Anything that needs a specific part, a charging port or a battery for your exact model, depends on how quickly that part reaches us, which can take a few days. Tell us what it is doing when you call and we will give you a realistic answer, not an optimistic one.
Will I lose my files if it will not turn on?
A laptop that will not power up almost always still has your files sitting safely on its drive; the power fault and your data are separate things. In most repairs your files are never at risk. Even in the worst case, a machine we cannot bring back, the drive can usually be read on our own equipment and your photos and documents recovered from it, so a dead laptop does not have to mean lost files.
Is it worth fixing or should I just buy a new one?
It depends on what the free diagnosis finds and on the age of the laptop. If it is a charger, a port, a battery or a stuck power state, repair is almost always the cheaper and quicker choice. If it turns out to be the mainboard on an older machine, that is the point where a replacement can make more sense, and we will tell you so honestly rather than sell you a repair that is not worth it. Either way you decide with the real fault and a fixed quote in front of you.
Other problems
Sound more like one of these?
Tell us what is wrong.
Call and describe the fault. We will diagnose it for free, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.