Bought a used notebook today but can’t get it to start

Open | Hardware

It’s a brand and model that I've never heard of before - a Chuwi HeroBook Pro. Specs are decent enough - Celeron N4000, 8GB DDR4, full HD 14" display, 256GB m.2 SSD. I didn't pay much for it, just $1.59/lb, so if it's unsalvageable I should be able to yank the SSD and still come out ahead. It's a fairly cheap computer, available for $319 new at places like Amazon and Walmart.

It's charging, as evidenced by the LED next to the power port changing from red to green after being plugged in for a couple of hours. The only power button is on the keyboard, and I have no idea if the keyboard works. There's evidence of someone being inside this computer before me, but when I opened it up everything appeared to be present and all plugged in.

I did fully disassemble it, checking the (very small) motherboard for any signs of failure as well as cleaning and reseating all connectors. There was a little filth on the keyboard connector, but I cleaned it with some DeOxIt.

I would like to get it working as it might be a nice piece for watching videos in bed instead of using an old ipad or a TV. The size and low heatower consumption would be ideal for this kind of use. Given the cost and size it might be a decent thing to take to places where I'd rather not take something of value, like hospital stays, or when troubleshooting the car.

Does anyone know of alternate means that I could use to start it? It does have one USB3 port, so I was hoping that there might be some device or troubleshooting tool that I could plug in to force it to start. The only alternative that I can think of would be to fully disassemble it it again, pull out the keyboard and then determine which two contacts when jumpered are the equivalent of pressing the power key; alternately I could just take a jumper wire and go from pin to pin to pin trying to figure out which two simulate that key but that's a tedious task.

Thanks!

Posted May 4, 2022, 1:51 AM UTC

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