Laptop will not switch on

ennogs · 14 Nov 2013 at 19:24

I was given an Asus X53S laptop to look at. After doing some testing I saw the hard drive needed replacing. I gave the person the laptop back and said what needs doing. About a week later they gave me the money to buy a hard drive and gave me the laptop back. Before I replaced the old hard drive with the new one I did not check if the laptop was still booting up. As it was booting up the last time I had it I just assumed that side of things was ok. I replaced the hard drive and then went to boot up the laptop. It won't boot. It's dead as a dodo.

Now I know if I go back to the person whose laptop it is and say it now won't switch on I will get the dreaded "Well it was switching on when I gave it to you...................."

I am going to borrow a multimeter tomorrow to check the external power supply is ok. Is there anything on the motherboard I could check with the multimeter in regards to the laptop not powering on?

Can anybody please suggest ideas of things to check. So far I tried taking the battery out and holding the power button for 30 seconds and the putting battery back and trying again. I have also tried leaving the battery out for 15 minutes and then putting it back in.

Threepwood · 15 Nov 2013 at 10:56

Chalk it up to experience and stop repairing other peoples computers for free, it just is not worth it. You will come to this conclusion eventually...

You can still help your nearest and dearest, the ones who will believe what you say is true anyway.

And, never presume, esp when working with other folks hardware.

benjii · 15 Nov 2013 at 11:05

My laptop did the same a while back, the motherboard had randomly fried. I hadn't even been tinkering with it. I googled it and there seemed to be a surprising amount of similar accounts, some suggest static, others suggest overheating. Point is, it was dead. Only after replacing the mobo did it work.

enkoda · 15 Nov 2013 at 14:27

If it's not the power pack you could take the machine apart and check the DC jack input - could be a loose/broken cable connecting it to the motherboard, could be that the header board itself is knackered (you might be able to source one from a supplier).

Hades · 15 Nov 2013 at 18:29

My old Asus sometimes would not power up unless you disconnected it from the power and also took the battery out for 15 mins

melvis · 15 Nov 2013 at 19:13

Threepwood said:
Chalk it up to experience and stop repairing other peoples computers for free, it just is not worth it. You will come to this conclusion eventually...

You can still help your nearest and dearest, the ones who will believe what you say is true anyway.

And, never presume, esp when working with other folks hardware.

^ this, i dont mind fixing it in front of them, but i wont take it away unless its direct family or close friends who trust Im not going to break anything that wasnt already broken.