Over time, technology products can develop faults in their operation due to wear and tear or the end of their useful life. In the case of laptops, they may have faults in powering on and in the battery, although it is not always a serious case and in many cases the fault is diagnosed before taking it to a specialist.
The first instinct is to leave it plugged in all night, but that maneuver almost never solves the problem. In this sense, it is worth understanding what happens inside a notebook battery when it fails.
This problem can have three sources: a poor power supply, faulty hardware or a malfunctioning monitor. The first thing is to rule out the power supply.
Why charging it all night doesn’t work
The answer is simple: lithium does not allow overcharging or trickle charging. This means that, when the battery is full, the charger cuts off the current.
In other words, a full charge, in most laptops, takes between 2 and 3 hours. In conclusion, leaving it plugged in all night does not add a solution.
How to diagnose it correctly step by step
- Remove the laptop battery.
- Connect the device to a working power outlet.
- Confirm that the outlet works by plugging in another device.
- Try turning on the laptop using only the charger.
If it turns on, “the problem is not the power supply, but the battery,” according to HP. In this case, the laptop can be used only with alternating current, that is, it will always have to be used plugged in and the final solution is to buy a new battery.
If it is an internal battery that cannot be removed, it is advisable to take it to a technical service center.
If, on the other hand, the battery is not the cause, other points should be checked:
- CMOS battery: this is a battery different from the main one, whose function is to store the motherboard settings. It usually fails in old equipment that spends a lot of time turned off. It can be replaced with another one.
- Screen: if the power button lights up and the fan can be heard, but the screen does not show an image, the screen inverter is faulty and must be replaced.
- External devices: disconnect USB devices, drives or DVDs, because the BIOS may try to boot from them and the notebook freezes.
In conclusion, HP suggests checking these points in order: first the power supply, then the battery and only then the rest of the components. With these tests, the user can know the origin of the notebook fault and make a decision accordingly.