Tag Archives: power button

Faulty power button

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’m told that a PC power button has stopped working.

The PC owner has a young (maybe 2 year old) daughter, who likes to push buttons and often has sticky fingers, so I’m not surprised.

The last time I visited, the button would often stick when pressed, and wouldn’t easily spring back out.

Given that this PC also has a reset button, then the easiest thing to do is to unplug the power button wires from the motherboard, and plug the reset wires into the power header.

So, the reset button becomes the power button, and the old power button becomes a toy for the toddler.

But the PC refuses to start. Sometimes the fans will spin, other times it will beep (indicating a hardware error).

Eventually, it starts to look like a power supply problem. I explain this to the owner as I’m going to the car to get a new power supply. His wife overhears, and says: “oh yeah, something happened with the power the other day… sparks were flying and everything…”. 😐

OK, plug in the power supply, and everything works fine.

Regarding the faulty power button: have you fixed a faulty computer component in an unusual way?

hp nx9010 strange power button

Computer Aid Posted on by

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).