If your laptop power button isn’t working, then you’re probably wondering whether there’s another method you can use to turn your laptop on. Surely there must be another method to do this, right?
Well, yes there is, but it typically isn’t going to be easy for you to do this if you aren’t comfortable with taking your laptop apart. This is the easiest way for you to turn your laptop on. Let’s look at some of the potential methods that you could use to turn your laptop back on.
How to Turn on a Laptop without a Power Button
If you can’t use your power button to turn your laptop on, then you’ll likely need to take your laptop apart. This way, you can access the power circuit and ribbon cables to your laptop, which is essentially all your power button does anyway. So, to turn on your laptop without a power button you need to;
- Firstly, you’ll need to take your laptop apart to get access to the motherboard.
- Essentially, the power button on your laptop is just the place where two connections need to meet. When you press them together, they complete a full circuit and allow the motherboard to turn on. So, you need to find the two connections that your power button would typically press together if it were working.
- Then, you can connect these two together, and this will turn your laptop on. This is the simplest way to do this if you know how to take your laptop apart.
Of course, if you aren’t comfortable with taking your laptop apart, then you’ll need to look at other ways you might be able to turn your laptop on without the power button.
The position of the power button connection will vary depending on the laptop you’re using. You can find it pretty easily by simply looking in the same position as where your power button is externally on your laptop.
Here are some of the alternative methods you can use to turn your laptop on. This means that if you have a laptop without a power button working, then these solutions may work for you.
Use an External Keyboard
If you’re lucky, then you might have already set up an external keyboard with your laptop. This could be the solution to your problem of turning a laptop on without a working power button.
The thing is that external keyboards will typically have a power button on them as well. This means that if you’ve set the laptop up to be connected to the external keyboard via Bluetooth, then you might be able to use this keyboard to turn your laptop on.
This will depend on the keyboard that you’ve connected and the laptop that you’re using too. For example, you won’t be able to do this with a Mac keyboard.
And in some cases, for Windows laptops, you will need to have allowed the keyboard the ability to do this beforehand via the security settings. So, if you have an external keyboard to can try this, but in some cases, it just won’t work.
Turn on when you open the lid
In some cases, you might be able to play with the settings of your laptop to make this happen. Instead of having to use your power button to turn the laptop on, you can actually make it turn on whenever you open the lid of your laptop instead. This isn’t always possible, but in some cases, this might be an easy way to do this.
Obviously, this solution relies on you already having the laptop on in the first place. So, if you know your power button is broken but your laptop is still on, enabling this will allow you to turn your laptop off.
Get your power button fixed
I know that it’s not the advice that you’re looking for, but obviously at some point you’re going to want to get the power button fixed on your laptop anyway. Typically, this is actually not that expensive to get your power button fixed, and it really depends on what needs to be fixed.
It should be pretty cheap to fix if the clips that hold the button in place have just come loose, and the button isn’t working properly because of this. it might be slightly more expensive if there’s a problem with these clips like they’ve worn down over time or they may have broken. In this case, they’ll need to be replaced.
How easy this is will depend on the laptop that you’re using. For example, if you’re using a gaming laptop or a laptop for animation, then this will likely be easier than if you’re doing it with a Macbook, which are designed not to be taken apart.
How does a power button work?
One thing that’s worth knowing if there’s a power button problem with your laptop is how a power button actually works. This can be very useful if you’ve got a laptop without the power button working.
Essentially, all of this is done by the circuits on your laptop’s motherboard. When you press the power button, you’re making a connection between two points of the circuit, which is enough for the circuit to connect and power up.
This is probably the cause of why your power button isn’t working – one of the connection points has come loose.
Related: If you happen to have an Asus model, see our article for when an Asus Laptop won’t turn on
Conclusion
All in all, there are ways that you can turn your laptop on if it’s broken, both with and without having to take the laptop itself apart. The power button not working is a pretty common problem to have with your laptop, so don’t worry too much if it’s happened to you.
There are some short-term solutions to the problem as well as there being some long-term fixes too.
