Solved! can a faulty power adapter mimic a dead motherboard?

berbes

Honorable
Sep 23, 2015
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the laptop just went out suddenly. dead. no lights, nothing. i went through the entire sticky checklist to determine if it is a power issue, but i don't have a second adapter to try. i am a rookie with a voltmeter, but think i had things seated correctly, and it kept fluctuating wildly from 19.2 to 3.4, to 4.7 to a blank screen in 1-2 seconds, before the screen going blank. i moved the probes around a bit and got similar readings. sometimes the voltmeter just read a "1" to the far left for a quick second. it never read the 20v needed.

can a faulty power adapter mimic a dead motherboard? thanks! more potentially stupid q's to follow!!
berbes
 
Solution
You need to rule out that power supply first, and I'm not sure you have.
Can you take it to a friend or a local PC shop (free) to have it confirmed?