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🎮 Xbox One Won’t Turn On? 13 Reasons & How To Fix It Now.

You last played your favorite game on your Xbox One without any issues, and now when you push the power button, it does not turns on.

It is no fun to spend time from your gaming schedule to troubleshoot the console.

In this article we have made it as simple as possible to understant why your Xbox One wont turn on, and possible fixes.

Possible Reasons & Solutions To Fix Xbox One Won’t Turn On

We have categorized all the possible reasons for Xbox not turning on into the following categories along with possible solutions.

  • Power supply issues
  • Overheating
  • Stuck in Power Saver Mode?
  • Avoid the future power supply issues
  • Instand on power mode.
  • No Additional Surge Protector

Power brick is blinking (Orange and White)

He have covered this issue in the article Xbox One Power Brick Blinks. Here is a quick summary:

1. Stop using power strip, surge protector, and try a new outlet

2. Avoid loose connections in the power cords

3. Check if the power brick itself is faulty

Power brick shows solid orange light

He have covered this issue in the article Solid Orange Light On Xbox Power Brick. Here is a quick summary:

In general, the Orange Light LED on Xbox One power brick indicates that the power brick is in the Surge mode. It means that your Power brick (PSU) has detected a power surge and activated its built-in surge protection to shield your console.

To resolve this you have to reset your Xbox One power brick.

reset xbox one power brick from surge mode
  1. Unplug both power cords; the one connected to the wall socket, and the one connected to the console.
  2. Leave it unplugged for few minutes. (About a couple minutes is good enough in my experience)
  3. Now first plug-in the power cable connecting the electrical outlet to the power supply and check LED.
  4. Once the LED turns on plug-in the other cable (connecting to the console.)

Power brick overheats

If the Xbox One power brick is overheated and this is causing the gaming system to turn off, you need to take out the power plug.

The most common reason why the Xbox power brick gets overheated is because it’s placed in a direct sunlight, the Xbox’s heat exhaust is blowing hot air or the HVAC system is making it hot. Your best solution is to move it to a cooler place.

Overheating of the Xbox One Console

If your Xbox is overheating it will shut down and wont turn on until cooled down.

There are several reasons behind overheating

  • Fans are rotating very slowly or not rotating at all because of dirt sedimentation.
  • Fan is broken.
  • Ventilation is clogged with dust so there is hardly any airflow.
  • Thermal paste failure
  • Room temperature is too high

We have covered this issue in the section Xbox Console is overheating. But here are some additional points after you follow the suggestions in that article.

Thermal paste failure

This is getting a bit technical now, we would like you to consider this step at the end of all the 4 methods, as this will include opening and re-pasting thermal paste, which obviously is a tech job and if you think you cannot do that, just don’t go for it. Take your Xbox One to some professional who will do the needful for you.

For those who know they can, follow the instructions:

  1. Open your Xbox One screws with dedicated toolset.
  2. Check if the thermal paste is spread or still standing firm, if that’s already spread, go to the third step.
  3. Find a thermal paste online for your Xbox One and a pair of surgical gloves.
  4. Remove the layer of the previous paste completely and now apply a thick layer of new paste exactly on those lines where the last paste was held.
  5. Now close and nut the screws properly. Wait for 24 hours to let the thermal paste settle down.

After this surgical treatment of the gaming console, there is no way left your Xbox won’t turn ON. Enjoy!

Room temperature is too high

The Xbox One overheating issue may arise because maybe the temperature in your room is too high for the console. It has been observed that if your Xbox One keeps turning OFF every then and now, then this issue is the prime reason behind it.

To resolve this, cut the direct sunlight if any to the room while keeping the ventilation. You may bring your Xbox to a cooler room, like the one with an air conditioner.

There is water spilled on the console motherboard

We have covered this in Xbox does not turn on, but beeps.

Xbox can’t read media from a connected storage

We have covered this in Xbox does not turn on, but beeps.

No display detected

If the Power button’s light on the front of the console is lit, but it won’t start up, check your HDMI cable connection and TV.

Xbox wont turn on unless it detects a working display connected to it.

Xbox wont turn on because of software issue

If none of the above solutions work, we hope that it is just a software issue and try the following methods to fix what is preventing Xbox one from turning on.

Important Note

The solutions here should be tried the given order only as they carry increasing risk of losing your saved data and games.

Soft reset your Xbox One

To soft reset your Xbox:

  • Unplug the console completely and leave it off for a while.
  • Press and hold the power button of the console few times (while disconnected) to discharge any reserve power in capacitors.
  • Then plug the power brick again and test.

Repeated press the eject button

While Xbox One console is plugged in, repeatedly press the eject button 10-15 times and then press the power button.

This is a surprising fix to many Xbox issues and I am not fully sure why it works, but it do work for a lot of users.

If something was preventing your console to read your DVD, this method will reset that and now your console could read the disk and boot normally.

You should try this fix with and without any disk inserted in the console.

Insert a disk upon starting up your Xbox

This is another surpirsing fix which works for many users. And it is easy too.

Inserting a disk into the console drive may change the start-up behavior of the console.

  • Turn off your Xbox and partly place a CD into the disk drive.
  • Power it on and hear the beep noise, then carefully insert the CD fully into the disk drive
  • Now that your Xbox is on, it should accept the disc and turn on.

Power cycle (Soft Reset) your Xbox

Power cycle is like a force restart for your Xbox console when you cant access the software settings.

This will clear a lot of temperory files. But it does not affect your data like games and save files.

To perform a physical power cycle:

  • Plug the cord and turn the electricity supply ON.
  • Hold the power button (the Xbox button) on your console for 10 seconds, this will trigger the reset process.
  • Your console will go OFF, and the power brick will blink from orange to white.
  • When the brick turns solid Orange, that signifies your power cycle is completed.

Final Fix: Hard reset your Xbox One

I will not call this one an easy fix, even though it is quick to perform like the other tricks.

This should be your attempted with care and as a last solution.

  • Identify the following buttons on your Xbox console
    • Power button (the Xbox button)
    • Eject button (the one used for ejecting a disk)
    • Sync/Pair/Connect button located on the left side of the disc drive
  • Hold down ALL 3 buttons together for 10 seconds
  • Release only the eject button button while holding the other two buttons for 15 more seconds
  • Release all buttons
  • Now Hold the power button and long-press the sync button. Do this step couple of times if needed.
xbox one working condition

The more of these easy fixes do not help, the more likely it is that your Xbox is having a hardware failure. We have covered only the ones here which are identified by a been sound. But there can be more reaons why an Xbox One won’t turn on. So check that article out as well. If it needs repairing find a local shop as Microsoft has discontinued support for original Xbox One as well as One S and One X series.

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