Laptop randomly cut out after 15 minutes and won't turn back on.

[gn12345]

Hello,

I recently returned from University to open up my old laptop which I've had for about 1 - 2 years now. I haven't used it in a couple of months and when I returned home, I started it up and everything was running fine. After about 15 minutes the power was drained on it and the screen turned off and I had an orange battery light flashing. So I got the charger and plugged it in. After about 30 seconds of use once the charger was plugged in all of a sudden the screen cut out, noise from the laptop stopped and everything turned off.

I played around with it, trying to get it to turn back on and it didn't work at all. I thought it may be the power pack as even when the charger was plugged in no lights lit up on the laptop. I then tried a different charger (not the power pack, but the plug to power pack bit) and still nothing. I finally looked in to some troubleshooting via my phone and discovered that a common problem in laptops cutting out and not turning back on can be solved by a certain method of taking the battery out, unplugging it and holding down the on button for 30 seconds. then replugging it back in and trying again (yes I did do it without putting the battery back in) and yet still to no avail, the laptop won't turn back on.

Has anyone got any quick fixes or know what is wrong with it, I don't have the money at the current time to send it anywhere to get it checked out..

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[ubuysa]

It might be that the CMOS battery is dead. This is a button style battery that could be located anywhere inside the laptop, you'll need to remove covers (and possible hard drives or even the keyboard) until you find it. They are usually a common type available anywhere.

 

[daveeb]

Does the CMOS battery not normally reside on the motherboard as with desktop pc's ?

 

[paul1224]

From what you have described I wonder whether the charger has had it? I know you have tried the plug part but I wonder if the actual power pack has gone because if the laptop worked fine when it did have power, then shut down when the battery was drained, and you then plug in the charger and no charger lights show it could mean the battery is flat and the charger is defective.

Easiest way would be to check if any lights show on the charger (if you have any) and definitely check to see if the charger light on the laptop comes on when it is inserted. If not then it could be this so if you know anyone with the same charger/volt/amps then maybe try that.

If it isn't the charger does the laptop lights blink in any sequence or anything like that as this could give a clue as to the cause of the issue?

The only time I have had a laptop completely not seem to do anything it was a defective RAM stick but even then I would expect the charger light to light up when you insert the adapter.

 

[gn12345]

I'm pretty sure it isn't the charger. Because it seemed to be charging fine when I first plugged it in but then all of a sudden it cut out all too fast, and no lights are appearing anywhere on the laptop.

 

[halox]

It wont be the CMOS battery. Computers will still work without one. It is more than likely the charger or charger cable (50% chance it could be repaired though). My first thoughts when reading it were possibly overheating but after a while it should start, then cut off again when hot. If you want I'll have a look at it for you. Free of charge since its Xmas. Where do you live? I'm in Central Scotland, you could post if you need to.

 

[ubuysa]

It wont be the CMOS battery. Computers will still work without one. It is more than likely the charger or charger cable (50% chance it could be repaired though). My first thoughts when reading it were possibly overheating but after a while it should start, then cut off again when hot. If you want I'll have a look at it for you. Free of charge since its Xmas. Where do you live? I'm in Central Scotland, you could post if you need to.

Actually it depends on the laptop. I've seen plenty of laptops that won't boot at all without a good CMOS battery but as you say I've also seen many that will. I have no idea which category the OPs laptop falls into. Hence my comment (which was rather grasping at straws I'll admit).

 

[paul1224]

The reason it could be the charger is that if there are no lights whatsoever on the laptop that to me normally means absolutely no power, if it was an individual hardware failure I would have expected at least some lights to show whether it be the power light, fans spinning, flashing BIOS warning lights, etc.

In your original post you mentioned that the power had drained but in your later post you mentioned that the charger was working fine and that's why you think maybe it isn't the issue. I wonder if when you had the charger in it actually was charging as otherwise surely you wouldn't have run out of juice? Maybe the charger just wasn't working even though you thought it was?

The only other option I could suggest is to plug the charger in and just leave the laptop for a couple of hours and then try to boot it just in case, probably a long shot but worth a try. If that doesn't work then maybe try the 'holding the power button in' scenario once again just as a second try.

If nothing works may be a PCS call to get advice (if its a PCS laptop).

 

[halox]

I have never heard of this happening. All the CMOS battery does is power low-level system functions like powering the clock and storing a computer’s BIOS settings. If the battery is flat the clock will be wrong and the BOIS needs configured every time you restart the computer.