Laptop Won't Turn On!

[Gregor]

Hi. My laptop has all of a sudden decided not to turn on. When I press the 'on' button, the green light 'on' light flashes for an instant, then the orange 'not enough battery' light flashes. No matter whether I take my battery out or keep it in the result is the same. Any ideas on what might be the problem?

My laptop is a HP Compaq NX6325. The battery has always been terrible (for the past 3 years) and has given me on average 5 mins of battery life.

Any help would be appreciated!

[killie99]

sounds like either the power brick is bricked or the dc jack on the laptop is broke. When you plug in the power brick (remembering to switch it on at the mains!) and connect it to the laptop are there any lights on?

[Gregor]

Yeah, the orange 'out of battery' light flashes on but it's quite temperamental. Even now after a few days of it being broken the light flashes on when the power brick is plugged in!

[Rob_B]

Ignoring the battery (as it should run fine from the mains it can only be the charger/laptop (sorry for the obvious statement there!)

Can you borrow any other compatible chargers to try? Any signs of damage to the cord? does the LED come on (as killie mentioned?)

Any damage to the laptop in the past? Can you try removing some RAM/trying other RAM in it?

[killie99]

Yeah, the orange 'out of battery' light flashes on but it's quite temperamental. Even now after a few days of it being broken the light flashes on when the power brick is plugged in!

I mean are there any lights on with just the charger switched on and plugged in - don't press the on/off button on the laptop, just plug the charger in and switch teh charger on. Are there ANY lights on in this case?

[Gregor]

With just the charger plugged in, and without pressing the on button, the 'out of battery light' on the laptop flashes on for a few seconds and then no lights remain on. The power brick I have doesn't have a light on it which is quite annoying!

I'm afraid I can't borrow a replacement charger!
There are no signs of damage to the charger.
I recently had a problem with (I think) my hard drive, whereby whenever the I tried to start the computer I got BSOD. I fixed it by rebooting and reinstalling windows using the CD. I'm not sure if this is relevant!

I should also say that when I leave the computer plugged in for a minute and then press the on button, the computer begins to start up for a split second. By this I mean that the power light goes flashes green and the other lights on the computer. It really is only for a milisecond so no screen display occurs. After it cuts out the battery light on the laptop flashes GREEN and then ORANGE. If I then leave it for another minute attached to the charger I can repeat the process.

Does this help in anyway?

[killie99]

I reckon either the power brick is broken or the DC plug is damaged. If you can get hold of a multimeter you could check the power brick. Stick an opened up paperclip inside the dc plug on the power brick (the plug you put in the laptop - and make sure the power is off at the wall!). Switch on the meter and set it for DC volts up to 24V or thereabouts. Get someone to help you and one person touch the black lead of the meter to the outer metal on the DC plug and the other person touch the red lead to the paperclip. Switch the power on at the wall - you should see a voltage which equals the rating on the brick (there is a sticker on the brick with the rating), probably about 19 volts. If you get 0 volts then the brick is dead, if you get 19V or whatever it's supposed to be then the DC jack on the laptop is broken and it needs to be replaced, probably cost you between £50-£75 at a local repair shop.