The short answer
A DWT dishwasher that does nothing when you press start is usually a door-latch or power-supply problem rather than a failed control board. On this family the latch is the interlock the control listens to, so it comes before the board in the order, which is where this page departs from the brand-generic one.
What you observe
- No lights at all on the panel — A power question, not a machine question: breaker, cord or the switched supply under the sink.
- Panel lights but nothing happens on start — The control has power and is refusing to run, which usually means the latch is not making.
- The panel lights then goes out on its own — A supply that is marginal or a control resetting, and it needs the circuit proven first.
- Buttons respond but the programme never begins — The control is alive and refusing, which is the latch or an active lock.
- NEAR MISS - it runs but nothing gets clean — That is a wash-flow fault and belongs on the cleaning page.
Causes, most likely first on DWT
- Door latch or its switch not making — Ranked first on the DWT family: the latch on this family carries the interlock the control reads, so a worn striker reads as a dead machine. These codes share a tub and a wash system, so a finding on one of them is worth assuming on the rest. What moves against the brand-generic order is lower down: control lock, delay start or a demo mode left on sits above thermal or door-interlock protection tripped here, because the platform has run in many trims, and the parts common to every trim accumulate the failures.
- No power at the appliance — Second: a standard US household branch circuit is 15 A or 20 A at 120 V, and a switched spur under the sink gets turned off during other work.
- Control lock, delay start or a demo mode left on — Third: easy to miss on a panel where the lock indicator is small, and it costs nothing to rule out.
- Thermal or door-interlock protection tripped — Fourth: a protective device that has opened leaves the panel dark in exactly the way a supply fault does, which is why the two are checked together.
- Control board or user-interface failure — Last: last, and genuinely uncommon: most boards blamed for this were reporting a latch that was not making.
Check in this order, and why
- Confirm the panel lights at all — This one observation splits the fault in two and saves everything that follows.
- Cut power at the breaker for a minute and retry — It clears a latched control state and costs nothing to do first.
- Confirm the stop tap is open before blaming the control — A machine that cannot fill abandons the cycle in a way that reads as a refusal to start.
- Rule out control lock and delay start — Hold the lock button for a few seconds and cancel any delay, then retry.
Before you open anything
Safety
Isolate the machine at the breaker and shut the stop tap before any panel or fitting is disturbed. Broken glass in the sump is the injury that actually happens here, so lift debris with pliers and not with fingers.
When to call a technician
Call once power at the appliance is proven and the door latches properly but nothing happens, because what is left is the interlock wiring or the control, and both are behind the door panel on this family.
Other DWT pages
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
