Like all gadgets and electronics, laptops deteriorate over a certain period. So, when a certain part like a power button stops responding, don’t be surprised. If you are not a gadget-savvy person, you must be left wondering how to turn on laptop without power button. But, if you read this guide, you will be able to do it in a jiffy.
Turning your laptop on without power button
This guide will show you four easy ways to turn on your laptop without the power button. Let’s get started!
Solutions
1) Remap the Shutdown Key.
2) Using an Emergency Disk.
3) With an external keyboard (for Windows)
4) enable wake-on-LAN (for Windows)
5) Power on a laptop with the help of a motherboard
6) Power on a laptop with the help of wall socket
Note: This article is for people who want to turn on laptops without the power button. I am not responsible if you do something wrong and end up breaking your Laptop or yourself. If you perform these steps incorrectly, use this guide at your own risk. The methods given in this article are tested and work on a majority of laptops available in the market, including Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, etc… Since each laptop brand has a different mechanism to hold down a key even if one key is remapped to perform another task. The methods given below are for reference purposes. If you cannot do it on your laptop even by following these steps, let me know in the comments.
How to turn on laptop without power button
Try all of the methods below. At least one will work for sure!
Method 1 – Remap Shutdown Key from BIOS
The most common practice used by people who want their laptop to turn on even when the power button stops working is remapping the shutdown key i-e F12 with Fn+F3 or F13 with Fn+F4 keys. This method works great on laptops which has an issue with its physical power buttons rather than its logic board. So, let’s see how you can remap the shutdown key of your laptop so that it will start up instead of shutting down whenever you press it.
Step 1: When the laptop boots up, press the F10 or F2 (or whatever key your laptop requires) to enter the BIOS menu.
Step 2: Go to “Power Management”
Step 3: Adjust the settings that you see under “power on with open lid.”
Note: You cannot do so in the Control Panel. Lid settings in the control panel only let you shut down the laptop when you close the lid and not the other way around.
Method 2: Try Emergency Disk (If your laptop supports)
Another method to force restart or power on a stopped working laptop is by using an emergency disk. This method works great if you don’t have access to your Windows installation CD/DVD and can be used in places where laptops cannot install external equipment. Since changing the settings of the shutdown key doesn’t always help, we will use this method to fix our problem of turning on the laptop without a power button.
Step 1 . First thing first, insert an emergency bootable USB drive into one of your laptop’s USB ports and start up your machine while holding down the Shift key from the keyboard so that you boot from a USB drive instead of the internal hard disk.
Step 2 . When the laptop boots from a USB drive, it will ask you to choose the operating system you want to run from it i-e, either Windows 7 or XP. Select Windows 7 and press [Enter].
Step 3. Now booting from the emergency USB drive should take a while, depending upon your system speed. Ensure that your laptop is connected with an active internet connection so that you can go online and download a software called ” WinToFlash. ” Once downloaded, install this program by following all their on-screen instructions.
Step 4 . Once installed, open the “WinToFlash” window and then select the option which says “Restore Legacy Operating.” Now click on the browse button on the top of this window and choose the Windows 7 installation on your USB drive.
Step 5. Now just hit “Begin Installation” and wait patiently. This will take a while, and once done, restart your laptop to enjoy the new working power button.
Method 3: Power on with an external keyboard (for Windows)
First of all, you have to enable an external keyboard to power on the laptop. Here’s how you can do so via the BIOS settings.
1. Reboot your laptop and open the BIOS menu via either the “F2” or “Esc” key as soon as it starts booting up.
2. Do a search for an option that says something like, “Enable External Keyboard” or “Power on by Keyboard.” This setting is usually in the Power Management section. If not found, try looking for another weird-looking button labeled similarly and enable it by pressing Enter
3. Configure the backup power keys
4. Save the settings
5. Shut down your lappy and test whether the external keyboard is working or not.
Method 4: Enable wake-on-LAN (for Windows)
Wake-on-Lan is a feature that allows a laptop to be turned on via a network message. You can enable this feature in BIOS settings. Follow the steps below:
1. Reboot your laptop and open the BIOS menu via either the “F2” or “Esc” key as soon as it starts booting up
2. Do a search for an option that says something like, “Enable Wake On Lan,” there is a chance that this might be disabled in some machines, so you have to look out for it
5) Set your laptop to turn on when you open the lid (for Windows)
Even though this feature is available in BIOS settings, it doesn’t always work. So you can try enabling it via Windows “Power Options” settings as explained below:
1. open the “Control Panel.” It’s that icon on your laptop screen that has a lot of tools and utilities inside it that allows you to customize how your computer works
2. open “Power Options” via the control panel’s search bar (for Windows 7) or view all settings (for Windows XP)
3. A new window will now open, select the option “Choose what closing the lid does” and enable it. You can now close this window and restart your laptop for changes to take effect.
4. Your laptop will now get turned on automatically whenever you close the lid of your laptop.
Method 5: Power on the laptop with the help of its motherboard
This method will work on almost any laptop. However, I don’t recommend it if you are not already familiar with the circuitry. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1: First of all, unplug the laptop’s charging cable.
Step 2: Open the case and locate your laptop’s power button.
Step 3: Remove the button
Step 4: Use a conductor to short-circuit pin 1 and pin 3.
Step 5: Wait as your laptop powers on (If it has enough charge. Otherwise, you will need to connect it to the plug)
Method 6: Turn on your laptop with the help of a wall socket
If you don’t want to short-circuit the power button, here’s another method that works like a charm. You can use it for all major laptop brands, including Dell, Lenovo, HP, ASUS, and Toshiba. Follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open up your laptop with the help of a screwdriver
Step 2: Remove the battery
Step 3: Cut the cable that connects the power button with the motherboard.
Step 4: Now, plug your laptop into a wall socket. It will turn on by itself.
Easy, peasy solution, right?
How does a laptop’s power button work?
When you press the power button of your laptop, the following things happen:
1. The motherboard is turned ON
2. A circuit on the motherboard detects that you have pressed the power button. It tells the “Power Supply Unit” (PSU) to supply power to all other components like CPU, GPU, etc., via 3 wires (green, black and yellow).
3. When you turn ON the PSU, and it sends power to the motherboard and other components of your laptop, thus booting it
4. When you initialize the hardware (GPU, CPU, etc.), and the files load up from your hard disk, the “Operating System” (OS) boots up.
How can I install a new power button?
First, you need to open the laptop’s case. Just move the screwdriver very carefully in an anti-clockwise direction around all of the screws. After removing all of them, gently remove the cover. There might be more than one layer so keep this in mind while opening it up. You can find circuit boards and cables beneath the cover.
1. You need to detach all the cables and circuit boards, so find out how they are attached and unplug them carefully with a screwdriver.
2. Now, remove the screws holding down your motherboard, so it is loose, and you can access the power switch pins on the board itself. There will be 4 or 6 of these pins near the flash memory chips.
3. Now, you need a fine-tipped soldering iron and some solder wick to remove the excess solder on those pins of the power switch so they can be re-soldered with ease. For removing the old melted solder, heat up one of the legs of the power switch for a minute or so and wait until the solder melts. Now use a soldering wick to clear out the old solder by moving it around all pins simultaneously.
Here comes the hard part
4. Once you have removed all excess solder, you need to prepare your new power switch by pushing back each pin into its original place with a small screwdriver or simply a pen. Then solder a new switch to those sockets by soldering the 3 legs of the switch to each socket and then putting some extra solder for strength.
5. Once you have done this, attach all cables and circuit boards back into their original place and put your laptop back together as it was before opening it up (you might need to remove the battery for this).
6. When you complete re-assembling your laptop, try out the new power switch. If it works, put the cover back on and screw it tight so your laptop is as good as new!
What does it mean when my laptop fails to turn on?
This means your laptop is not getting any power from the PSU. Follow these tips in such a situation.
1. Make sure that there is no damage to the charger and it is plugged in correctly and working properly (you can do this by checking with a different device like a lamp or mobile phone)
2. Next, remove your battery and see if you can start your laptop up. If you can, the problem is with the battery
3. If there is still an issue, it means that your motherboard is kaput and you need to take it to the repairs.
These were some of the ways to turn on a laptop without a power button. However, if none of these options works for you, then it might be time to buy new hardware or hire an expert technician to fix up your laptop. If you have any questions or queries, feel free to ask us in the comment section below, and we will try our best to answer them.
Note: These steps were tested on an HP laptop and might not work with other devices and brands. This tutorial is only for informational purposes. If you choose to follow it, you do so at your own risk. Stay tuned to Techsips.com for more tricks!
