Heres an example of a weird laptop design.

Customer says he lost the power button (it broke and disappeared into the laptop).

I think: so whats the problem??? Just press the switch that the buttom would have pressed. But he says that there is no switch.

Ok, either the switch has been damaged, or there is something weird going on.

Once I get the PC, I see the hole where the button should have been, but it only has a small blue LED inside…

Hmmm, where is the switch?

After dismantling the top of the laptop, I find the power button, and I can now see what happened (and why some people should never be allowed to design laptops)…

The button is actually an “L” shape.

The top of the “L” is supposed to be anchored/glued to the top plastic case, just above the hole for the visible button… this is the bit that broke.

The visible button is where the vertical and horizontal lines of the “L” meet. This is also there the blue LED can shine through the power button.

The other end of the horizontal line in the “L”, is where button actually makes contact with the power switch (about 5 mm to the right of the “hole” from where the power switch was missing).

Its all a convoluted lever system, which falls apart as soon as the anchor point breaks (which will happen eventually). Without an anchor point, the button assembly just floats around inside the laptop.

Its all fixed with a careful application of some glue.

But I can’t help wondering why make the power button so complicated (particularly when its likely to receive some brute force when people cannot start/stop the laptop).