The Dell latitude line of laptops is one of the reliable Dell Laptops. Nevertheless they also do face boot issues. If your Dell latitude laptop wont turn on there are a couple of things that you can do before you lose money and time sending it to be repaired by a technician.
Even if you are not a tech person just read on and try these simple steps.
Drain flea power if Dell latitude wont turn
Electrical current remains for a period of time after you switch off your laptop even if you disconnect it from the power supply. You can easily see this on desktop computer motherboard light. The light will still be green after you have disconnected from power supply.
Same applies with the Dell latitude laptop. This residual charge is what is referred to as flea power and can cause the laptop not to turn on. So basically you have to drain the residual power.
To drain the flea power from the laptop
- Disconnect the laptop from power supply.
- Remove the battery.
- Now press and hold the power button for 15 seconds.
- then connect the latitude laptop charger.
- Now turn it on.
If its still not turning on, don’t give up yet check the following
Power supply and charger
This is obvious but I will include it here anyway as a reminder, since the obvious may become not so obvious when you are frustrated and want to kick your computer.
Power source
Is it getting any power from either the charger or the battery? Check the wall outlet using a different electrical gadget to see if its working. If its not working use a different socket.
For battery issues read this article
Charger
Dell laptop chargers have a light which indicates if current is going through. Its usually located either on where the two cables of the charger connect or at the tip of the charger. The light should turn either green or white if the charger is functioning properly. See pictures below
If the indicator doesn’t show the green or blue colour light indicator when connected to a power supply you might need to have a look at the charger. It might be the one that’s broke.
Fix laptop using rescue disc or operating system
Most of the time when I try to figure out whats wrong with a computer, I use an OS that runs from USB or Disc. I use Kali Linux or Hirens boot CD.
Either one will do the job they have lots of tool to analyze your computer and help you figure what exactly is wrong with the computer even though Kali is inclined to forensic and security staff.
The live CDs or USBs are good cause you can boot through them using the live OS and it will not interfere with any files on on the system unless you directly access and manipulate the files.
Basically you insert the flash drive or cd. Then follow the prompts to boot from the flash or disc.
You can attempt and see if it wont boot from the live CD. If you do not have the following live Operating Systems you can use a windows setup disc to test. Do as if you want to install the OS and see if you can trigger the computer to turn on.
If it turns on with the windows disc then you know the problem is with the operating system.
Overheating
Another issue that may cause your the latitude laptop not to turn on is overheating. The laptop may be shutting down to prevent further damage to its components. Heat can fry your motherboard.
In the case of overheating, the laptop usually shows lights when attempting to turn on, and the fans also turns on and then it shuts down on its own. If the CPU fans are not working it can also cause heating as they are part of the cooling system
- Check to see if anything is blocking the ventilation system. Even if the fan is blowing but the ventilation is blocked the heat is not dissipated efficiently.
- Next would be clean clean in it up dust it using a can of compressed as collecting dust can affect cooling system.
- Lastly if thermal paste has dried up. You can get it from [amazon_textlink asin=’B00M5G6AHY’ text=’here and apply i’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’accatech0a-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c68aebfe-b998-11e7-9de8-01823d984a1d’]t on your computer.
Overheating can be Fixed using thermal paste when a laptop wont turn on
Docking station
If you connected your laptop to a docking station disconnect it from the docking station. The docking station might be the one affecting your computer from turning on correctly. Same applies for dual screen setup.
New Hardware and peripherals
If you installed new hardware remove it and see if its not the one causing laptop not to turn on. Actually just disconnect all hardware and peripherals that you are not needed for the computer to turn on eg. external hard drives, memory cards and so on
Reseat RAM
Last option will be to to reseat the RAM. For some reason as a last option for one of my friend’s dell latitude e6420 laptop, I decided to open it. I removed the RAM sticks. Dusted the motherboard board a bit and replaced everything and somehow the laptop blared back to life.
So if the Dell latitude wont turn on disconnect the charger, and battery remove the battery and open the back section. Then remove the RAM sticks. Blow any dust on the board. Using a can of compressed air preferable.
Now put back everything the way it was and turn it on.
Funny thing somebody asked me on my email if turning the laptop upside down when draining flea power helps. I had no idea and I don’t understand why. But people in forums are claiming it has helped fix their laptops.
Strange!
If you had a different solution to the problem of when your Dell latitude wont turn please leave a comment below how you solved it