Induction has gone mainstream, and Bay Area Appliance Repair Service now runs these calls on Bosch, Samsung, GE Profile, Frigidaire and Whirlpool as often as on gas ranges. When the whole cooktop goes dark, the short list is a blown internal fuse, a failed control board, or a wiring fault between the outlet and the unit. A dead coil is possible, but when the entire cooktop is out rather than one zone, it’s rarely the coil.
Start with what you can check without a screwdriver.
Two Checks Before You Call Anyone
Confirm the outlet is live. Built-in induction runs on a dedicated 240V circuit, so plug a lamp into a nearby outlet, or check the breaker. If it tripped, reset it once. If it trips again right away, stop. That’s a short inside the unit or a wiring fault, not something to keep resetting.
Then look for a child lock. Bosch, Samsung, GE Profile, Frigidaire and Whirlpool all have a lock mode that kills every touch input, usually a long press on a specific pad or a padlock icon. If you’re not sure which, the manual has it.
Power confirmed and no lock active means the problem is inside the glass.
What We Actually Test
Internal fuse. The most common cause of a fully dead unit. Most have one or more glass tube fuses on the main board or near the power input. A surge or a hard short pops it. The fuse is cheap. Reaching it safely and figuring out what blew it is the work. If a fresh fuse blows the second you power up, there’s a deeper failure, and that’s exactly where a “cheap fix” turns into a bigger bill.
Control board. The board runs the touch pads, power regulation, and the safety cutoffs. When it dies, the cooktop goes fully dark. We check for burnt components, bulging caps, and scorch marks, then test the board’s output before condemning it. Replacement cost swings a lot by brand, so you get the number after the diagnosis, weighed against the unit’s age and value.
Handy fact: if a surge fried the board, the coils are usually fine. The coil assemblies and the IGBT driver next to each coil sit apart from the logic board and tend to ride out surges that kill the electronics.
IGBT or driver board. The IGBT drives the coil for each zone. A shorted one can trip the whole cooktop’s protection circuit and shut everything down even though only one zone actually failed. We check each driver circuit on its own. This is desoldering or board-swap work, not something to wing.
Wiring and power. Less common, but real: the internal harness can loosen, especially on a unit that’s been moved, and a hardwired 240V install can back off a terminal at the junction box. We check continuity through the harness as part of a normal diagnosis.
Why This One Isn’t DIY
Induction cooktops hold dangerous voltage in their capacitors after you unplug them, and a cap that hasn’t bled down can put out a serious or fatal shock. That’s not a scare line. Anyone who’s opened one respects it. On top of the shock risk, the wrong fuse rating, a mishandled board connector, or missing the root cause just puts you right back where you started, or worse.
A real diagnosis tells you which part failed and whether fixing it beats replacing.
Book a Visit
Breaker tripping on reset, or power confirmed and the unit still dead? It needs a tech. We work on induction across the Bay Area, Tri-Valley and East Bay included. The diagnostic is $75, credited to the repair, and you get a straight repair-or-replace call before we go further. Call (925) 999-4095 or book on our contact page. We schedule fast, often same or next day.