How To Trou­bleshoot a Com­puter That Won’t Turn On / NO POST / NO BOOT

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maw2214 on 3:44 AM

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It’s a dread­ful way to start a day – you press the power but­ton on your com­puter and noth­ing hap­pens. Few com­puter prob­lems are more frus­trat­ing than when your com­puter
won’t boot.

There are many rea­sons why a com­puter won’t turn on and often very few clues about what might be the prob­lem. The only symp­tom is usu­ally the sim­ple fact that “noth­ing works” which isn’t much to go on.

Add to this the fact that what­ever is wrong could be an expen­sive part of your PC to replace – like the moth­er­board or CPU.

Do not fear because all may not be lost! Here’s what you need to do:

Read #1 below (it’ll make you feel bet­ter).
Pick the best trou­bleshoot­ing guide (#2 – #9) based on how your com­puter is act­ing or #10 if your PC stops at any point because of an error mes­sage.
Note: All of these “com­puter won’t start” trou­bleshoot­ing guides apply no mat­ter what Win­dows oper­at­ing sys­tem you have installed on your hard drive, includ­ing Win­dows 7, Win­dows Vista, and Win­dows XP. Steps 1 through 5 even apply to other PC oper­at­ing sys­tems like Linux.

1. Don’t Panic! Your Files are Prob­a­bly OK

When faced with a com­puter that won’t start most peo­ple tend to panic, wor­ried that all the data on their PC is gone forever.

It’s true that the most com­mon rea­son a com­puter won’t start is because a piece of hard­ware has failed or is caus­ing a prob­lem but that hard­ware isn’t usu­ally a hard drive, the part of your com­puter that stores all of your files.

In other words, your music, doc­u­ments, emails, and videos are prob­a­bly safe – just not acces­si­ble at the moment.

So take a deep breath and try to relax. There’s a good chance you can fig­ure out exactly why your com­puter won’t start and then get it back up and running.

2. Com­puter Shows No Sign of Power

Try these steps if your com­puter will not turn on and is show­ing no sign at all of receiv­ing power – no fans run­ning and no lights on the com­puter case.

Impor­tant: You may or may not see a light on the back of your PC depend­ing on the kind of power sup­ply you have and the exact cause of the problem.

Note: Don’t worry about the mon­i­tor yet. If the com­puter is not turn­ing on because of a power issue then the mon­i­tor cer­tainly can’t dis­play any­thing from the com­puter. Your mon­i­tor light will likely be amber/yellow if your com­puter has stopped send­ing infor­ma­tion to it.

How To Fix a Com­puter That Shows No Sign of Power

3. Com­puter Pow­ers On… and Then Off

Fol­low these steps if, when you turn your com­puter on, it promptly pow­ers back off.

You’ll prob­a­bly hear the fans inside your com­puter turn on, see the lights on the front of your com­puter turn on or flash, and then it will all stop. You won’t see any­thing on the mon­i­tor and you may or may not hear beeps com­ing from the com­puter before it shuts off by itself.

Note: As in the pre­vi­ous sce­nario, don’t worry about the state your mon­i­tor is in. You may have a mon­i­tor issue as well but it’s not pos­si­ble to trou­bleshoot it quite yet.

How To Fix a Com­puter That Turns On and Then Off

4. Com­puter Pow­ers On But Noth­ing Hap­pens

If your com­puter seems to be receiv­ing power after turn­ing it on but you don’t see any­thing on your mon­i­tor, try these trou­bleshoot­ing steps.

In these sit­u­a­tions, the power lights will stay on, you’ll likely hear the fans inside your PC run­ning, and you may or may not hear one or more beeps com­ing from the computer.

This sit­u­a­tion is prob­a­bly the most com­mon in my expe­ri­ence work­ing with com­put­ers that won’t start. Unfor­tu­nately it’s also one of the most dif­fi­cult to troubleshoot.

How To Fix a Com­puter That Turns On But Dis­plays Nothing

5. Com­puter Stops or Con­tin­u­ously Reboots Dur­ing the POST (POST SCREEN LOCK UP

Use this guide when your com­puter pow­ers on, shows at least some­thing on the mon­i­tor, but then stops, freezes, or reboots over and over again dur­ing the Power On Self Test (POST).

The POST on your com­puter may look like the screen­shot above or may instead sim­ply show your com­puter maker’s logo.

Power On Self Test (POST)
Def­i­n­i­tion: Abbre­vi­ated as POST, the Power On Self Test is the ini­tial set of diag­nos­tic tests per­formed by the com­puter when pow­ered on.
Tests that fail are relayed to the user via the use of POST codes, beep codes or on-screen POST error mes­sages imme­di­ately after the com­puter pow­ers on.

The POST is han­dled by the system’s BIOS.

Also Known As: POST
Exam­ple:
After I upgraded the mem­ory in my com­puter, the POST gen­er­ated a series of short beeps. After trou­bleshoot­ing the prob­lem, I dis­cov­ered that I had not pushed the mem­ory firmly enough into the slot on the moth­er­board.

Impor­tant: [COLOR=“Red”]Don’t use this trou­bleshoot­ing guide if you encounter an issue dur­ing the load­ing of the oper­at­ing sys­tem, which occurs after the Power On Self Test is com­plete.[/COLOR] Trou­bleshoot­ing Win­dows related rea­sons why your com­puter won’t turn on begin with #6 below.

How To Fix Stop­ping, Freez­ing, and Reboot Issues Dur­ing the POST

6. Win­dows Begins to Load But Stops or Reboots on a BSOD

If your com­puter begins to load Win­dows but then stops and dis­plays a blue screen with infor­ma­tion on it then try these steps. You may or may not see the Win­dows splash screen before the blue screen appears.

This kind of error is called a STOP error but is more com­monly referred to as a Blue Screen of Death or a BSOD. Receiv­ing a BSOD error is a com­mon rea­son why a com­puter won’t turn on.

Impor­tant: Choose this trou­bleshoot­ing guide even if the BSOD flashes on screen and your PC restarts auto­mat­i­cally with­out giv­ing you time to read what it says.

How To Fix Blue Screen of Death Errors

7. Win­dows Begins to Load But Stops or Reboots With­out an Error

Try these steps when your com­puter pow­ers on, starts to load Win­dows, but then freezes, stops, or reboots over and over again with­out gen­er­at­ing any kind of error message.

The stop­ping, freez­ing, or reboot loop may hap­pen on the Win­dows splash screen as shown to the left or even on a black screen, with or with­out a flash­ing cursor.

Note: If your com­puter won’t start and you see a blue screen flash or remain on the screen, you’re expe­ri­enc­ing a Blue Screen of Death and should use trou­bleshoot­ing guide #6 above.

Impor­tant: If you sus­pect that the Power On Self Test is still going on and that Win­dows has not yet started to boot, a bet­ter trou­bleshoot­ing guide for why your com­puter won’t turn on might be #5 above. It’s a fine line and some­times hard to tell.

How To Fix Stop­ping, Freez­ing, and Reboot Issues Dur­ing Win­dows Startup

8. Win­dows Repeat­edly Returns to the Advanced Boot Options Screen

Use this guide when noth­ing but the Advanced Boot Options screen appears every time your restart your com­puter and none of the Win­dows startup options work.

In this sit­u­a­tion, no mat­ter which Safe Mode option you choose, your com­puter even­tu­ally stops, freezes, or restarts on its own, after which you find your­self right back at the Advanced Boot Options menu.

This is a par­tic­u­larly annoy­ing way in which your com­puter won’t turn on because you’re try­ing to use Window’s built-in ways to solve your prob­lem but you’re get­ting nowhere with them.

How To Fix a Com­puter That Always Stops at the Advanced Boot Options

9. Win­dows Stops or Reboots On or After the Login Screen

Try this trou­bleshoot­ing guide when your com­puter pow­ers on, Win­dows shows the login screen, but then freezes, stops, or reboots here or any­time after.

The stop­ping, freez­ing, or reboot loop may hap­pen on the Win­dows login screen, as Win­dows is log­ging you in (as shown to the left), or any time up to Win­dows fully loading.

How To Fix Stop­ping, Freez­ing, and Reboot Issues Dur­ing Win­dows Login

10. Com­puter Doesn’t Fully Start Because of an Error Mes­sage

If your com­puter turns on but then stops or freezes at any point, show­ing an error mes­sage of any kind, then use this trou­bleshoot­ing guide.

Error mes­sages are pos­si­ble at any stage dur­ing your computer’s boot process, includ­ing dur­ing the POST, at any time dur­ing the load­ing of Win­dows, all the way up to the Win­dows desk­top appearing.

Note: [COLOR=“red”]The only excep­tion to using this trou­bleshoot­ing guide for an error mes­sage is if the error is a Blue Screen of Death[/COLOR]. See #6 above for a bet­ter trou­bleshoot­ing guide for BSOD issues.

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