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If it’s one thing I hate, it’s when a laptop refuses to turn on. Generally, the moment a laptop just doesn’t want to turn on anymore, you can be rest assured that you are about to spend big money. In my own case, since it refused to even turn on, the range of potential problems all boiled down to a bad battery, ruined chasis (i.e. ground has gotten loose somehow), or the motherboard was cracked. Given that my laptap was new, this was not encouraging.
So, in some despair, I took my laptop to my local Best Buy. My only goal was to get a diagnosis of the problem before I sent it in for warranty work. To do otherwise is to invite a never ending litany of “we fixed it” “no you didn’t” with HP. I approached the Geek Squad technician and told him that my laptop would not turn on at all. I started to speak at some length about how the power supply still provided power, how the charging indicator would still light up, how I took out and replaced the battery to make sure the contacts were lined up properly, and so on. Rather than listening to my homegrown attempts to diagnose the problem, he calmly took out the battery and pressed the power button a few times. Then he replaced the battery.
As I was about to ask him what in the Hell he was doing, since laptops are not generally known to function with the battery removed and no AC power, he pressed the on switch and it came on. After blinking in disbelief for a moment, I asked him what the problem was. He told me that my laptop, while reliable in every other way, has this odd known problem with how it interfaces with the battery. Removing the battery and pressing the power button a few times solves the problem.
He handed me my laptop and said goodbye. No charge, no hassle, and out of the store in under five minutes. Not bad, considering I was staring into the black hole of sending my laptop back to the manufacturer for warranty work. I know that Best Buy takes fire for their Geek Squad’s technical support in some circles, but my local store and their staff are just fine. And if you own an HP pavilion dv5 and it won’t turn on, just take the battery out, unplug it from AC, and press the power button a few times before replacing the battery. It’s goofy, but it works.
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The reason why Geek Squad takes fire in some circles (at least by those in-the-know) is mostly due to Best Buy’s own policies. Most of the Geek Squad gets paid $10-$12 an hour. Only the senior tech at any given store is required to have so much as an A+ certification; and if you have more than that (like me – I have an A+, DCSE, and MCP) you’re “overqualified” and will probably NOT get hired unless the store is just that desperate. Quite frankly, if you have at least an A+ certification, you can often make more money doing level 1 or level 2 phone support, with much less stress from managers and customers.
Oh, I should point out that the employees get paid $10-$12 per hour, but if they have to make a house call, they charge $120 per hour… nice profit margin, Best Buy. Having said that, however, I will point out that joining the Geek Squad *can* be a useful first step towards getting a better job, if you can handle the stress.
Excellent!!!!!
I can not believe this worked. My laptop is ON now! Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you
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