While it’s great to have a portable gaming system like the Nintendo Switch, it can be extremely annoying when it suddenly quits powering on in the middle of an intense gaming session.
The truth is that Nintendo Switch is experiencing a problem that causes it to remain in the off position, giving the impression that it is broken.
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Check the Power Cord for Issues
The Nintendo Switch’s charging wire has been known to experience issues, as has been the case with the vast majority of portable game systems. It’s important to keep the charging wire in good condition because it will wear out over time (especially if you play while it’s charging).
Inspect the adapter and the pins to see if they are bent or if the wires are frayed. Also, unless you have no other option, you should only use an approved Nintendo Switch charging wire.
It’s possible that using a cord made by a company other than the console’s manufacturer will shorten the console’s battery life. For optimum charging and to avoid battery issues over time, it is recommended that you replace a broken or non-Nintendo charging cord with an original Nintendo Switch cable chord.
If you’ve ruled out a faulty charging port as the source of the problem, try the next solution on this page.
Put your Nintendo Switch into a Full Charge.
Make sure your Nintendo Switch is fully charged before you write it off as a hardware problem. It’s ridiculous to think of, but maybe the console didn’t charge because you didn’t plug the cord in properly.
It will take longer to fully charge the console if you are using an older cord or one that was not manufactured by Nintendo.
If your Nintendo Switch isn’t cooperating, try charging it for a while to make sure it’s completely charged before moving on to the other solutions for this issue.
Do a Hard Reset
A firmware fault should be looked into if the power charging cord has already been ruled out as the source of the problem.
Those who have experienced the same problem have reported that hitting the power button in a particular way has helped them switch on their Nintendo Switch device.
How to turn on your Nintendo Switch with just the power button:
- For 12-15 seconds, press and hold the console’s power button on its top.
- As the countdown timer reaches zero, let go of the button for a while, then press and release it three times in rapid succession; on the third push, you’ll need to hold it until the Nintendo Switch turns on.
- Try to make it through the first screen and see what happens.
If you have exhausted the preceding troubleshooting steps and your Nintendo Switch is still malfunctioning, please continue on to the final solution described below.
To Force a Reset, or Hard Reset
Last but not least, you can try resetting your console to its factory settings by performing a hard reset.
In many cases where your console would not boot up, this procedure will be successful. There have also been reports of the Nintendo Switch’s performance being enhanced after a factory reset.
Here’s how to make a factory reset on a Nintendo Switch:
- To access Maintenance Mode, press and hold the power button as well as the up/down volume buttons for 5 seconds.
- Using the Joy-Con, go to Initialize Console Without Removing Save Data inside Maintenance Mode, and then select OK.
- After following the provided steps, try powering up your Nintendo Switch again to check if it now activates.
