No Power · No Charge · Immediate Shutdown
Device will not turn on? Start with the power path.
A computer, phone, or console that shows no sign of life can fail for many reasons: battery, charger, power supply, port, charging circuit, shorted component, or motherboard. We trace the fault instead of assuming the entire device or board is dead.
Section 01 / Symptoms
Which version are you seeing?
These sound similar and point at different stages.
Section 02 / Method
Why one failed part makes a whole device dead
This is the fault most often quoted as a board replacement, and the one where component-level repair makes the largest difference to the price.
Boards start in stages
A board does not simply switch on. It brings up a series of voltages in a fixed order, and each stage checks the one before it succeeded before proceeding. That design is what makes a dead device diagnosable: the sequence stops in a specific, findable place.
One short stops everything
If a single component fails short, it pulls its rail to ground. The stage cannot come up, so nothing after it runs either. The result is a device with no lights, no fan, and no response, caused by one part that costs almost nothing.
Measuring where it stops
The rails are measured in order against what the board should be producing at each step. The first one that is wrong identifies the stage that failed, which turns an unknown fault into a specific one.
Finding the component drawing the current
Knowing which rail is shorted is not the same as knowing what shorted it. Controlled current is injected into the rail and the component consuming it is located by the heat it produces, using a thermal camera. That is the step that makes this a targeted repair rather than a guess.
Replace and verify
The failed component is replaced under the scope, the sequence is measured again to confirm every stage now comes up, and the device is reassembled and run under real use before it goes back.
Section 03 / Devices
No-power diagnosis for
Section 04 / Questions
Before you book
My device is completely dead. Is it worth anything now?
Usually yes. Complete failure is the symptom of one stage in the power sequence not coming up, and that is frequently a single component. It looks like the worst possible outcome and is often one of the more contained repairs.
I was quoted for a new board. Why is this different?
A shop that cannot repair at component level can only replace the whole board, so that is the quote it gives. Diagnosing to the component identifies the individual part that failed, and replacing that part is typically a fraction of a board replacement, especially on hardware that is out of warranty.
Would a new battery fix it?
Rarely, and it is the most common wasted spend on this fault. A device that shows no response at all on mains power has a problem before the battery matters. The battery gets tested during diagnosis rather than assumed either way.
It was working yesterday and died overnight with no warning.
That is typical for this fault, and it is a good sign rather than a bad one. Sudden total failure with no preceding symptoms usually means a component failed short rather than a system degrading over time.
Can you tell me the price before I send it?
Not accurately, because the price depends on which stage failed and that cannot be known without measuring. What is fixed is the $40 diagnostic, and you get the actual fault and the full price before approving any work.
Book
Bring in the device and its charger or power adapter when practical.
The $40 diagnostic is credited toward an approved repair. Dead is a symptom, not a diagnosis, and the diagnostic is what tells the two apart.