How to Restart a Dell Laptop (2023) 3 Methods

Dell laptops are one of the most efficient and high-quality laptop brands today. They’re budget-friendly and customizable, depending on what upgrades you want on your laptop. But, some Dell laptop users are curious about how to restart Dell laptop.

How to Restart a Dell Laptop

It’s sometimes necessary to restart your Dell laptop for updates and unexpected app crashes. This guide will show you how to restart Dell computer and the steps to force shut down Dell laptop once your Dell laptop won’t turn off.

Read this guide to learn more.

 

Table of Contents

How to Restart Dell Laptop

There are a few ways to restart your Dell laptop. Depending if your laptop is currently freezing or unresponsive or if a restart is needed for an update, you’ll need to follow various restarting or rebooting methods. Below are some ways that you can try to restart your Dell laptop:

 

Method #1: Perform a Soft Reboot

This method is typically used if you’ve applied settings change or an update was recently installed on your laptop. This reboots your laptop and immediately closes any running apps and processes. To perform a normal restart on your Dell laptop, follow these steps:

  1. After closing all running apps, click the Start icon on the bottom-left corner of the taskbar.
  2. Select the Power button at the bottom and choose Restart.

If your laptop is unresponsive, try pressing the following buttons on your keyboard: CTRL + ALT + DEL. This will bring up the Security Options window. Then, choose Restart to force a restart on your laptop.

Depending on the purpose of your restart, it may take a while for your laptop to boot up again. Also, remember to keep your laptop powered up during a restart to avoid any errors.

 

Method #2: Performing a Hard Shutdown

If you’re wondering how to shut down laptop with keyboard, you’ll need to perform a hard shutdown on your Dell laptop. This is done by pressing and holding the Power key on the keyboard for five seconds or until your laptop shuts off. Then, try switching your laptop on by pressing the Power key.

 

Method #3: Perform a Hard Reset on Your Dell Laptop

If your Dell laptop has booting issues, especially when it cannot boot its operating system, you’ll need to perform a hard reset. This fixes power issues on your Dell laptop, such as residual or static electricity that’s still stored on the laptop’s system board.

To perform a hard reset on your Dell laptop, proceed to these steps:

  1. With your laptop turned off, remove all cable connections on your laptop. If it has a removable battery, remove it at this step.
  2. Disconnect any USB drives, printer, and internet cables.
  3. Press and hold the Power button on the keyboard for 15 to 20 seconds to drain the power.
  4. Next, reconnect the battery to your laptop and plug in the power adapter.
  5. Turn on your Dell laptop.

 

Final Thoughts

Your Dell laptop can sometimes freeze and be unresponsive due to various issues. When this happens, it’s necessary to restart it to get your laptop back to its normal state. Hopefully, this guide helps you with the different methods when restarting your Dell laptop.

If you’re still facing booting issues with your laptop, contact Dell Support for further assistance.