So I clicked a suspicious web link, nothing immediately happened and I went to bed. Yesterday morning I got up and the laptop power was out. I thought perhaps the battery had died (maybe it did, I don't know). I tried to power it on, but when I pressed the power button, it just blinks on for a few times, then stops and it's back to being dead. I tried holding down the Shift button + power, zero button + power, nothing (I have Windows 10). I removed the battery, pressed power to deplete any residual electricity, tried again - nothing.
I've never had a computer show that it has power, but refuse to even give me a screen. It doesn't change color or anything. This is a new laptop, so I don't believe it's a hardware failure. It's either malware or I'm just not doing right right combination of things to recover usability. Anyway, I have a big paperweight called a laptop right now, and it's essential that I get it working, as I need it. Help!
It sounds like a power issue if you are confident that it's not the motherboard. I'm assuming that you've discounted that it may be the mains socket that is faulty.
Try this:
remove battery, and disconnect mains adapter.
press and hold down only the power button for 30secs at least.
put the battery back.
plug in mains adapter, then try to start it up again. as normal.
If that doesn't work it may be your adapter. Have you a spare one you can try? If you don't have a spare one, try disconnectiong the adapter and try to boot using only the battery.
As this is not a malware issue I'm afraid that's as far as my knowledge goes therefore I would suggest you ask in our Windows forum.
Whatever happens, please let me know so that I can close this thread.
When your computer is up and running again, if you suspect malware feel free to start a new topic here.
Did that. I hold down the power button - it doesn't stay lit; it blinks like it's been doing, then goes out after about four blinks. Battery in, battery out, plugged in, not plugged in, same difference. I don't think it's hardware. Like I said, it's only three months old and it was working fine yesterday when I closed it up. I thought about doing a system reset (by, from what I've read, holding down the zero and the power button simultaneously, but nothing changes). But it doesn't get me a boot or reset screen.
Apologies for the delay but for some reason I didn't receive notification of your reply.
I think the best idea is to do as I previously suggested and start a topic in the Windows forum as this is beyond my area of expertise. Hopefully the experts there can help and when it's up and running come back here and start a new topic.
