What "dead" usually means
People assume total silence means the computer is finished. Far more often the machine is fine and something in the chain that delivers power to it isn't. That chain has several links, and the cheap ones fail most.
On a laptop, the most common culprit by a wide margin is the charger. They get wrapped tightly, trodden on, yanked from the wall by the cable, and the wire eventually fails inside the insulation where you can't see it. The second most common is the battery, which is a consumable that wears out after a few years.
On a desktop, the power supply is the usual suspect: it's the component under the most electrical stress and it's designed to fail before it takes the rest of the machine with it.
Try these before paying anyone
- Different outlet. Obvious, frequently correct, costs nothing. Skip the power bar and go straight to the wall.
- Check the PSU switch. Desktops have a physical switch on the back that gets knocked when cables are moved.
- Look for a charging light on a laptop. No light at any outlet means the adapter is the problem.
- Try without the battery if yours is removable. If it powers on with the charger alone, the battery has failed.
- Drain it. Disconnect everything, hold the power button for 30 seconds, reconnect and try. This clears a stuck power state surprisingly often.
- Listen carefully. A fan twitch, a single beep, a flicker of an LED: any of these change the diagnosis completely.
What the symptoms tell us
Completely silent, no lights. Power isn't reaching the board. Adapter, power supply, or the socket that takes the charger.
Lights or fans come on but the screen stays black. That's a different fault entirely. Power is fine and something further along has failed. Often memory, sometimes the display itself.
It starts then shuts off after a few seconds. Usually overheating or a power supply that can't hold up under load. Don't keep retrying it repeatedly.
Your files are almost certainly fine
This is the part worth hearing. A computer that won't power on says nothing about the drive inside it. Power supplies, chargers and motherboards fail without touching your data, and pulling your files off a healthy drive from a dead machine is routine work.
So if the immediate worry is photographs or documents rather than the computer: they're very likely still there.
When to stop and get help
Stop if you smell burning, see any scorching, or the machine had liquid spilled on it. Stop trying repeatedly if it powers on then dies: repeated attempts under a fault can do more damage than the original problem.
Our diagnostic is $50 per hour and you get a firm quote before any repair proceeds. If the fix costs more than the machine is worth, we'll say so rather than sell you the work.
Rather work through it question by question? The free troubleshooter starts on this exact problem, and you can share the result with your own technician or a family member.
Diagnose this now →Your computer won't turn on, answered plainly.
Is my computer dead if it won't turn on?
Are my files gone?
How much does this cost to fix in Edmonton?
It turns on then shuts off after a few seconds. Same thing?
Work through it yourself
Our free troubleshooter asks a few questions and narrows down the likely cause, then gives you steps to try. At the end you can copy the summary, email it, or share the link with your own technician or a family member. Nothing to install, and no email required.