Where is the power button?
Laptop designers have grown very adept at hiding or masking the power
button. The most recent trend is to put the power button under the laptop’s
lid; you must open the laptop up to find and press the power button, turning
the laptop on.
- Older laptops may have the power button anywhere, usually along one
of the laptop’s sides: front, left, right, or back.
- The power button may be a spring-slide switch that you must push in
one direction and then release.
- Some power buttons are tiny push buttons, what I call “pray and press”
buttons. There is no click or bump to the button’s feel; you just press
it in with your finger and pray that the laptop understands your
intentions.
- You can put a red sticker dot by or near the power button’s location in
case it’s easy to overlook. Even so, I find that a few times after opening
the case and turning the system on, I remember where the button is. Of
course, this won’t help you use anyone else’s laptop, because the power
button is never in the same location twice.
“What is the moon button for?”
The moon icon labels a sleep button. This might be in addition to the power
button, though on most modern laptops, the sleep button and power button
are one and the same.
- Sleep, or suspend, mode is covered later in this chapter, in the section,
“Putting your laptop to sleep (Stand By) mode.”
- See Chapter 5 for more information about the symbols you find on your
laptop.
Random power button symbols
Blessed is the laptop owner whose laptop’s power button has a symbol on it.
And wise is he who recognizes the symbol as that of the power button. Let it
be so. Amen.
Figure 4-3 displays a sordid sampling of laptop computer power button
symbols.
Figure 4-3:
Power
button
symbols
common
and
obscure.
Nerdy terms for starting a computer
Despite years of effort, the computer industry
continues to use ancient and primitive jargon to
mean “starting a computer.” Among the lingo,
you will find:
Boot. The oldest and most mysterious computer
term, it basically means to turn the thing on or
“pull it up by its bootstraps.” In fact, bootstrap is
an even older version of this term.
Cold boot. To turn the computer on when it has
been off for a while. See warm boot.
Cycle power. To turn the computer off, wait a
few seconds, then turn it on again. This is often
required when you’re trying to fix something.
Das Boot. Not a computer term at all, but the title
of a German film about a U-boat in World War II.
Power up / power on. More human terms for
turning the computer on.
Restart / reboot / reset. Often times, a computer
needs to be shut down and then started up
again. This can be done without turning off the
power, and it’s called a restart, reboot, or reset.
Start / turn on / switch on. Again, more human
terms for turning the computer on.
Warm boot. Another term for a restart, reboot,
or reset.
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Power on!
To turn on your laptop, press the power button.
- Refer to the previous sections if you need help finding the button.
- If nothing happens, then the battery is most likely dead: Plug the laptop
into a wall socket by using its AC adapter cord (or module or power
brick thing).
- Be sure to check all the power cables! The power brick may wiggle loose
from the wall socket cable.
- When everything is plugged in and nothing happens, then you have a
problem. Contact your dealer or laptop manufacturer for assistance.
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