2011 laptop will not switch on

[Marianthompson47]

I had similar on a 2013 laptop. Was the computer updating? You could try re-booting the system. Plug the computer in to the mains and with both lights showing press the power button. Both lights should go off. Keep the button pressed for 30 seconds and then press to start again.

If the battery is failing you should be able to see the power being held, or if failed the battery light will be orange.

I will try this as well, thank you.

[GrahamH]

If the lights come on and it sounds like it is powering up but the screen remains black then it might be a screen failure. Plugging in an external monitor might help.

[Marianthompson47]

If the lights come on and it sounds like it is powering up but the screen remains black then it might be a screen failure. Plugging in an external monitor might help.

Nothing at all happens. No lights, no sound, nothing.

[Biggles50]

No lights at all could be a power supply issue coupled with a flat battery.

An electrical test meter connected to the terminals that plug into thee Laptop will show if power is available.

At 13 years old even spending £15-£25 on a new power supply would still not guarantee that the Laptop would work.

It is probably time to buy a new Laptop.

Do destroy the hard drive and recycle the remainder of the Laptop when it come to disposal time.

[Marianthompson47]

No lights at all could be a power supply issue coupled with a flat battery.

An electrical test meter connected to the terminals that plug into thee Laptop will show if power is available.

At 13 years old even spending £15-£25 on a new power supply would still not guarantee that the Laptop would work.

It is probably time to buy a new Laptop.

Do destroy the hard drive and recycle the remainder of the Laptop when it come to disposal time.

Thank you very much. Could you please advise how to destroy the hard drive, should I not be able to revive the laptop?

[Marianthompson47]

No lights at all could be a power supply issue coupled with a flat battery.

An electrical test meter connected to the terminals that plug into thee Laptop will show if power is available.

At 13 years old even spending £15-£25 on a new power supply would still not guarantee that the Laptop would work.

It is probably time to buy a new Laptop.

Do destroy the hard drive and recycle the remainder of the Laptop when it come to disposal time.

Miraculously, the laptop switched on.

However there are several issues.

1. The battery doesn't seem to be charging, there is a red cross across the icon.
2. It is telling me that the Microsoft package is not genuine.
3. It tells me Windows has crashed.
4. My most reliable mouse has stopped working.

😔😔.

[Spelk]

Did you have the laptop stuck in a cupboard unused for a long while? If so the battery will have gone into "deep discharge" which knackers them. So you might get it to work just about but the battery life would be a matter of minutes and it can just go off with no warning.
If the main battery goes flat then that can also lead to the small back up battery also suffering from deep discharge and it becomes useless to hold basic info like time and settings.
I have an old camera which I neglected to charge up every few months so, although I can use it with fresh main batteries inserted, the back up battery is "gone" so I have to reset the time and date etc whenever I take out a main battery to change it for a freshly charged one.
Reminds me it's time I recharged all the other things I still hang onto but rarely use, old tablet and a few cameras.
Destroying the hard drive - I tried that on a one from an old tower PC. Six inch nail would not go thought it. Could not drill through it. Ended up just hammering the connectors to make them unusable. Theoretically someone could have maybe still got at the data on it out but there was nothing on there which would have been worth the bother.

[manukarik]

I have a laptop that I can only use when plugged into the mains. It was upgraded to Windows 11. Since then it powers on but nothing on screen even if I try to reset the video with the key combination: Windows + Shift + Ctrl + B at the same time. Can now only use when plugged into mains.

Have you tried the key combination above? Have you recently upgraded to a new version of Windows?

[familydar]

I have a laptop quite senior to yours, the sticker on the back says it was pre-installed with Windows Millennium Edition!  The main battery failed when it was still quite young, as did a warranty replacement, and it sat in a cupboard for a few years when I got a desktop.

I unearthed it perhaps five or ten years ago and installed XP.  I find it useful for digitising my vinyl, it has a line-in port and I can sit it alongside my record deck. I plug it in to the mains.  It never goes online.

The little backup battery referred to by Spelk discharges if I leave it unplugged and the laptop gives error messages when it boots and won't recognise things connected to the USB ports, but setting the date and time to something fairly current, then rebooting, solves this.  I suspect your message about non-genuine software is because it can't reconcile the install date with what it thinks is today's date.

If you don't need to rely on the battery I'm sure your 2011 example has years of service left in it!

Jane :-)