For some reason, you may want to perform a dust clean or system clean. However, you may randomly find that your PC won’t turn on after cleaning. Here’s a true example from Reddit.
Hey my PC won’t turn on after my dad cleaned the fans and everything off dust with pressurized air. I am not sure what is causing the issue. I have some LED Strips installed and they turn on my keyboard also turns on when powering the PC. But the PSU fans and other fans to not turn on, there is also nothing on my screen. My mainboard does not have a screen and also does not beep. -https://www.reddit.com/
How to fix the “PC not turning on after cleaning” issue? Below, this post collects feasible solutions to this issue in different cases. You can take a look.
Case One: PC Won’t Turn on After Cleaning Dust
Many users report the PC won’t boot after cleaning dust from the CPU, fan, or other computer components. In this situation, you can try the following ways for a repair.
Way 1: Check the Cable Connection
To clean dust from your PC, you may need to unplug the specific components. If you reconnect them improperly or loosely, the cleaned PC now won’t boot. As for this, you should check the computer cable connections first.
To make sure there is no connection problem, you can remove and then reconnect all the cables correctly and tightly. Besides, you can also try reseating the related components carefully and gently.
Way 2: Replace the Problematic Component
Electro-static discharge (ESD) may occasionally occur while you clean the computer, damaging the specific components. As a result, the PC won’t boot after cleaning. To fix it, you may need to replace the problematic part, no matter it’s CPU, video card, or hard disk. There are some helpful tutorials available:
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Case Two: PC Won’t Turn on After Cleaning System
If you suffer from the “PC not turning on after cleaning the system” issue, you can refer to the listed methods to fix it.
Way 1: Run Startup Repair
When the cleaned PC now won’t boot, you can first try to troubleshoot it by running Startup Repair. It’s a Windows built-in tool that can repair lots of boot issues.
Step 1: Boot your PC into Windows Recovery Mode (WinRE).
Step 2: Navigate to Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair.
Way 2: Rebuild BCD
You are also likely to encounter the “PC not turning on after cleaning” issue due to corrupted BCD files. On this occasion, you’d better rebuild BCD. Here’s how to do this.
Step 1: Go to Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt in WinRE.
Step 2: In the elevated Command Prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each.
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
- bootrec /scanos
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
Way 3: Reset Your Windows
Resetting your Windows may also help when the PC won’t turn on after cleaning. You can give it a try. If you have no idea how to execute the operation, you can focus on this guide: Reset Windows 10: Remove Files and Clean the Drive.
This post explores 2 cases where your PC won’t turn on after cleaning and workable methods to solve it. When you run into the same issue, you can try to fix it with the given solutions.