Laptop won't power on, even after multiple hard resets

[adrianwb]

Hi, my daughter's af156sa laptop won't power on. I've done multiple hard resets and tried all possible combinations  of two different A/C adaptors (both showing 19.6V as expected) and the battery, but there is no sign of life (no fan noise, no beeps) apart from the power LED which glows solid white when either A/C adaptor is plugged in, or orange if the battery is also plugged in. It hadn't been used for a while as she'd been away at uni, but it made no difference after leaving it plugged in and charging overnight. I've also replaced the CMOS battery,  but no difference.

It was working fine before she left for uni and nobody has touched it since, As far as I know, I've exhausted the obvious battery/power adapter troubleshooting, so my best guess now is that either the power on/off switch has broken or that the power jack is no longer actually delivering power to the motherboard? I can see two ribbon connectors coming from the power, but I'm reluctant to start poking around with a multimeter while the A/C adapter is plugged in...

It's about 5 years old, and I replaced the hard drive with an SSD a few years ago. No problems since then that I'm aware of. Any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted!

Adrian

[The_Fossette]

@adrianwb

I reviewed your post and I understand that the computer is not booting and there is no display on the computer.

Don’t worry, I assure you I will try my best to get this sorted.

I see that you have already followed the relevant troubleshooting steps and I recommend you contact support and they will assist you with the available service options for your computer.

Here is how you can get in touch with support.

1)Click on this link – www.hp.com/contacthp/

2)Select the product type.

3)Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.

4)Select the country from the drop-down.

5)You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.

Let me know how it goes and you have a great day!

P.S: Welcome to the HP Support Community 😊

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accept as Solution. Your feedback counts!

Cheers!

Stay Home – Stay Safe

[adrianwb · Accepted solution]

Hi all, in the hope that this might help someone else, here's the solution to my problem:

I bought a new battery, and that allowed the laptop to power on again, but then it became apparent that the new battery would only charge while the laptop was powered off (i.e. not while you were using it!), so that pointed to a problem with the DC power adapter, which apparently is quite common if google is to be believed.

I'm reasonably comfortable with opening up the insides of laptops, so I ordered a replacement off the HP parts site and replaced the old one (with the help of the HP manual and some Youtube videos - I had to disconnect the fan, but didn't have to disconnect the display). The pins on the old DC adapter were all over the place, but the new one seems to have been redesigned to fit the tip more securely - problem solved, and it even booted without a battery 🙂

It turned out that the old battery was completely dead - my  guess is that it had probably been discharging with the laptop powered on for quite a while when my daughter was using it, and then it just died completely when it was left unplugged for a new months 😞