ACER laptop does NOT start-up :(

Hi all, greetings from Norway. This is my story (sorry for long post->2 acer laptops):

Acer Aspire 3000:
3 weeks after I purchased it, the fan started to make allot of noise. Except for the noise, it worked. Then when I checked the CPU fan later, I found that it was mounted on a small plastic thingy that had melted due to heat from the CPU. Also some dead pixels that started as 1, is now counting 20.
Since I had allot of cash this time, I purchased a new ACER with better specs (yeah, I know.. how stupid can I be?):

Acer Aspire 5520G:
Early symptoms: Webcam, mic and dvd-rom *disappeared* from device manager / bios. Took a while before I noticed this, as I don't use any of these often. It was working OK (some heat issues, but usually OK), so didn't use the warranty to fix this.

A couple of months after the warranty was expired, I could not boot to BIOS. Orange flashing power led. Tried the battery/ac steps, no change. Called Acer support and was met by a grumpy old hog, and I asked specifically not to get anything done before I had received a estimate of the job. 1 month later I got the laptop back with an invoice on 100$ for DUST CLEANING! I said no way, *peach* you guys! I'm still waiting on a call for that invoice..

After the "dust cleaning" I was able to boot my computer again and it worked normal for 1 day, then, as many others in this thread; no access to the bios, black screen, fan running, green led on.. Searched google, and here I am..

As described earlier by others, when it boots normally, it works untill I shut it down. (read: works = at a random time the mouse and keyboard stop responding, and it seems the PC has frozen, but when pluggin in a usb keyboard and mouse, it's all good....)


Ahww.. Don't you all just love this <acer-feeling>

Found this forum and couldn't belevie that most got the same problem.
My situation was even funnier, my acer Aspire's 5520 motherboard was replaced 3 times(could you believe that?) until eventualy warranty time finished and the damn thing is started to act in it's old way...
I found a solution to stop the screen blinking by puting peace of plastic under the cover(next too fan), but in some misterious way cd-rom disapeared( works as a coffe cup holder only..)

Hate damn acer

Another frustrated Acer user here.

I bought an Acer Extensa. Installed Linux.
It worked fine but about a month ago,it started acting very weird. When I turn the laptop on, everything works normally. But when I shut it down, it won´t start up again. No power, no sound, nothing. I unplug the power cable and plug it back many times. Nothing happens. It usually takes 2 to 7 hours till the power is on again. It is very very frustrating. I noticed that the problem begins after I got my internet. Could it be some conflicts with the hardwares? Shall I reinstall Ubuntu again?
Thanks!

I have an external link to an ACER Service manual for you lot but this forum won't let me post external links. Anyhow you'll find it at a site called, scribd dot com/doc/19072019/Acer-Aspire-16903510-Service-Manual

Replace the dot with a .

and don't forget the www

Hope it helps.

hi guys hope this helps I got a s/h aspire 1640 sometimes touch pad stopped working /wifi/keyboard etc all random checked hard drive memory no joy the fault was simple removed battery left it out computer worked without a fault ordered new battery from hk 27 euros run perfect
regards mike

Same thing happened to my Aspire One netbook. One night it just froze on me and when I restarted the fan and power lights came on but nothing on the monitor. I ran through all the tests with an Acer tech over the phone but none of them worked so I mailed in to get fixed. A few days later they said they wouldn't fix it because the shift key had fallen off and they don't partial repairs. So now I'm thinking about just buying a lenovo ideapad for about $130 less than I paid for this Acer, since most likely it seems like the motherboard fried. And from everything I've read, fixing the motherboard will cost at least 150.

I have an acer extensa 4620-4605. I like it very much. Vista machine. Several weeks ago, it kept shutting down on its own. The event viewer said someting about could not start parallel port. Found a like to change something in the registry. Anyway, it seemed fixed for a while. Then it would not boot at all. Reloaded windows and it was fine until yesterday. It would not boot clear up. It went so far, went to a screen to repair windowns or start nornally. It would not do either. So I tried to reload windows. It would load the files, and then quit. So I loaded dos 6.2, reformatted the drive and it works just fine in DOS. Then I tried to reload windows and nothing changed. It would not take the 2nd disk of the two disk set. I tried to load windows 98, 2000, xp and they all gave the message of non-system disk. So I tried to restore from the factory disks again and it would not finish loading files before it bombed out. I loaded dos to test the disk. It seems fine. Do these machines have some sort of heat problems/ The rebooting on its own seemed to start after it had been on for a long time and it seemed to be cured after it was shut off 3 hours

I was given an acer aspire 1520 and after a few months the screen went black, and I could get no visuals from it at all. I also got nothing from plugging an external monitor.

after looking for an nVidia GeForce GO 5700 on ebay for year and a bit (the graphics are on a separate 2" square board" I came across a french website, and apparently, a common fault with that board is a solder joint popping loose.

The solution was the weirdest I had ever heard of. put the graphics card in the oven at 150 degrees for 3 minutes. I thought "I've got nothing to loose". when I plugged it all back in again, the screen was all white. Progress!!! it was all whit because I hadn't pushed the inverter connection in properly. I did that and now have a perfectly working laptop again.

And if it goes wrong again, back to the oven!

For all those who were not able to solve acer startup problems, i have tried just about everything, flashing bios to startup disc to pushing and shoving the bloody thing around as was mentioned on other forums.

as a 48 year old woman with no technical background or education, i opened up the laptop,(why not the thing did not work anyway) tried all the obvious connections, and afters lots of trying i found out the little bios battery came lose at the slightest touch, i simply got some sticky tape and stuck it on the top of the bios bettery and it still works ....

We have an Acer that isn't even 6 months old and it is doing this same thing. Except I get five flashes from my battery lcd. Comes on then shuts down immediately. Mostly only staying on for up to two seconds. I don't even get to see my BIOS splash screen. I've sent it of to Miami for a so-called specialist to look at the MB. He says there's nothing wrong with it, I think otherwise. Hell, if the HD was in bad shape, it would at least get passed the BIOS screen! Anyone figure out this problem to find a solution? I totally agree, I regret ever buying this Acer.

My Acer has started to play up a bit recently. The occiasional random turning off is a bit irriting despite the computer being plugged into the wall and the batter aparently charging.

I noticed issues with the computer when i first got it, but i didn't think alot of it because at the time i was travelling Australia (where i bought the machine from). It wasn't until i got back to Scotland and started using it more that the issues started arising. First it was the sound, then the actual running performance. Then several other issues that have come and gone since.

The random turning off seems to be happening more frequently. I fully expect it to stop working within the next year or so as the machine is about 2 years old now.

I was a diehard laptop fan until i got this comp. I am more into PC's nowadays as you get alot more for your money and you know that if something does decide to go on it you can replace it without much problems.

Do not buy an Acer.

Just joined this forum to share my sucsess in getting my Acer to work. Really hope it works for you.

Just bought a used Acer Aspire 5003 for parts or repair for a good price. When I tried to start it I got the symptoms that everyone here knows all to well. I tried everything listed here with no luck.

I fixed this laptop by first reseating the ram making sure it was seated correctly. This got me as far as the Acer screen upon boot up but would still shut off on its own.

After further inspection i noticed that i could get a extra turn on the screws holding down the heat sink and the cpu. Tightened the screws down and the computer worked great ever since.

I know this wont work for everyone but its another thing to add to the list of things to try. This might explain pressing on the case at the bottom left hand corner that has worked for some other people. So double checking the ram, tightening the heat sink down or even reseating the cpu may work for you.Your cpu may not be seating properly and not getting a good connection

Best of luck everyone.

Will try this when I get my laptop back from Miami, if it''s not fixed yet! Thanks.

Further inspection of my acer 7520 it now appears the the bios battery underneath the type board, is slightly lose, i stuck it down with sticky tape and it works ever since, for those where the acer doen not even pass the bios that might work

You know, it's cool that we're finding ways to make these laptops going, but the messed up part about it all is that they shouldn't even be taking a dump in the first place! I will NEVER EVER EVAR BUY ANOTHER ACER EVER AGAIN!I oughtta get this sucker going and sell it. Go buy me a real laptop for the money I paid for this one!