ACER laptop does NOT start-up :(

Well, I'm yet another person who's joined this happy crew. About a week ago I started having severe blue screen issues, random crashes with increasing regularity. My first hunch was that my drive was at fault here, and indeed, I do detect a number of faults with both chkdsk and the check ubuntu linux runs on startup.

Needless to say, the crashes don't stop, quite the opposite. I get rebooted constantly, to my increasing irritation. Since I didn't want to take the time to do a clean reinstall of Windows XP right then, (I really need to finish a report and wasn't about to waste time with such rubbish, I was thinking) I just kept on trying to make things work anyway. Some more diagnostic tools installed, to no avail.

Now as I get rebooted, the screen is blank. HD light is on, fan runs, but no image.
I hard power off and on again, and it works. This worked a few times, now I'm stuck in the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.

Strangely enough, sometimes I get as far as GRUB before it freezes completely. I've even managed to reach ubuntus version of chkdsk once, after 20 or so attempts. I'm at a loss here...

Hi all,

I too have the identical problem - i wont list it as i think we all know the issue by now! Mine is an acer travelmate 4000WLMi - i am trying to go through all the possible problems now - but feel the only way to properly check is by getting a new motherboard. anyone any ideas or suggestions? all will be greatfully received!

Cheers, Gaz

+1 ...

Aspire 5050

winVista + Ubuntu Feisty

a while ago it was starting if i waited like 3 minutes, yesterday it wouldn't start at all, nothing - problem started just after a week uptime, and it heats up increadibly... i think i just burned it...

I've got an Acer Travelmate 2300 and had a similar problem last night...

I was installing Ubuntu to an external HD and ran into trouble with it overwriting XPs MBR on the machine and Ubuntu's bootloader didn't work at all, gave me an error... After I tried (unsuccessfully) to rewrite the MBR in the repair console (due to a administrator password issue that is a known XP issue for preloaded machines) I rebooted the machine and it wouldn't POST...

I've tried reseating the RAM and HD, I've removed the battery and tried to start without it, I've tried to start without the PS, and I've tried everything with it hooked up to an external monitor which I am sure works... So far nothing...

Today I'm going to pick up a 44-40pin IDE cable so I can at least see about getting my data off the drive...

I assume it's a MB issue...

And the real kicker is just yesterday afternoon I screwed up my car by over-torquing some nuts... Computer and car all in one day and summer classes start up on Monday.

I've had an Acer Travelmate 2300 for 2 1/2 years. It stays put at home (I use it because it takes less space than a desktop).

This year it started to cause problems in not starting. If I'd used it for a day, it would take another day before it would start again, whether shut down or on standby - all this from the power supply. It's got worse, so time down takes longer before I can get any sign of life from the machine. The power light on the front shows juice.

The other day I disconnected the power cable for half an hour and pulled out the battery pack for 10 minutes. A couple of hours later it started up.

It's driving me up the wall, as I'm completely at the mercy of the laptop and whether it's ready to start or not.

A couple of months ago I posted a message to technical support on one of the Acer websites and have heard nothing.

Looking around the web, this seems to be depressingly common in Acer laptops.

Thoughts: a) it looks like the battery on mine is either dead or not retaining charge; b) no idea why it won't start up on mains juice; c) if it starts sometimes, I conclude that the mother board can't be fried.

Anyone found ways through this crap? It may be low cost, but not if it falls over.

Well, I believe my problem was the video adapter on the mother board or some other part of the motherboard itself. These things do happen in most comptuers, I'm just used to tower systems where I can replace a part easily and cheaply. I've replaced the laptop since it would have cost $400-$500 to replace/repair the MB.

'Well, I believe my problem was the video adapter on the mother board or some other part of the motherboard itself. These things do happen in most comptuers, I'm just used to tower systems where I can replace a part easily and cheaply. I've replaced the laptop since it would have cost $400-$500 to replace/repair the MB.'

My experience with computers prior to the Acer was with Macs. Nothing like this ever happened and certainly not in such a short time. I still have a Mac laptop going strong after 6 years.

Another Acer in trouble. Acer 2010 with 2 x 512mb, will not start, gets continuous beep during POST and no further. Fan runs for a moment, no screen display, LED light remain on, which indicates to me some power is on. Swapped the two memory cards /slots, tried with one memory card, same problem. Tried both ac power and battery, same results. Could it be both memory cards are faulty, or perhaps the MOBO? Sent emails to Acer, they're not interested, as it 's out of warranty. Quote on motherboard is nearly the same price as I paid for the laptop. Different models have nearly the same problems, what does this say about ACER products? Is it the quality of components they use.

Hi guys, I bought an Acer Travelmate and My god I have caught hell for it, My computer has gone through some of the exact same issues, I bought it in December of last year so the warranty is still good. The first time I got it back It was still broken, so I sent it back, I was to recieve the unit today but the company mixed my computer up in shipping sending me the wrong one, Acer is garbage, the customer service is bad, and we were all fools for buying their computers , we deserve better than to be treated like our money doesn't matter

Hi every body. Sunday morning I joined the club. My acer travelmate died with the black screen and the fan running. I tried to connect to an external video but it didn't worked. I can see the blinking light ... all the stuff you described before (I hope to recover the hard drive).
To add something I did. Swiched off took the cable and the battery off, waited for a couple of hours, without battery and lead push the power button for 5-10 sec and put everything back again... didn't worked (suggestion by IT guy of PC World).

Please keep sending update on this topic just to be sure that I had to buy a new PC (desktop this time!)
thanks
Sandeman

People are not posting any updates, i think everyone got tired and sold it for parts as is......Im considering doing the very same thing, how much will it be worth? $200.00 or less?

Here's the response received from Acer. Zero comment or response to my query, except to outline what to pay for a service. I'm not impressed.:

'Hello, Thank you for contacting Acer.

Regarding your enquiry,

This would be classed as a chargeable repair, the process would be the following.

There will be a £41.13 charge taken from you before your machine is brought in for repair. You will then be given courier details so that you may arrange collection of your machine for shipment to our repair centre. Once received in the repair centre it will undergo assessment by one of our technicians. They will draw up a written proposal for you containing full details pertaining to your repair. This will be sent to you by post giving you ten days to respond.

Once you have received the proposal you have the option to reject it, which means the £41.13 will cover the engineer and couriers fees, and the machine will be returned to you un-repaired. If you accept the proposal the £41.13 is deducted from the final bill and the repair then goes ahead.

After ten days, if your proposal is not signed and returned to us by fax or post the repair is defaulted as rejected, your machine is not repaired, and shipped back to you.

If you would like to book your machine in for an assessment please let us know and we will make the necessary arrangements.

Regards



Acer Technical Support Team'

Me too. TM 2200. Won't charge or power up, with or without the battery in place (but charger PSU is OK on another machine). Sometimes flashes orange LED, sometimes not. Curious very faint ticking noise from inside the machine when the PSU is connected. Mother board already replaced once under guarantee (they said) when the charging became unreliable, but failed again just after the end of the guarantee.

Call me paranoid, but is there anyone that has a TravelMate that does NOT suffer from this problem just after the guarantee runs out?

Hypothetically, they could build in a real-time clock that triggers an emulation of these symptoms 15 months after powering on for the first time. Thus increasing the market for new laptops. But of course, such a reputable company would not do that.

But there is already one company that does something similar, and quite openly. If you do a test print on an HP 3210 printer, it will tell you the date the cartridges were installed, and their expiry date. After the expiry date, they will not work at all.

Call me paranoid, but I wonder if the practice is more widespread than we think.

K.

Right, so here is my story.
I have an Acer Aspire 1690. Bought it in Singapore and I live in Ireland.
I started having this problem back in December. I took my laptop to Bali for my holidays with the parents and it worked fine when I got on the plane from Singapore.
Once we got to the hotel in Bali I would try to start it up but the screen remained black and you could hear it wouldnt start up properly. So we thought it might be the high humidity that might be screwing around with it. During my stay there I tried to start it up a few times and no success.
When we got back to Singapore the following day I tried turning it on and nothing. Since it was the weekend I had to wait before I could do anything.
On the Monday before I called their support line I tried turning it on, and miraculously it worked. From that day on, I didnt have any problems with it what so ever.

Just a few weeks ago I got the same problem. But as the days went by it changed.. Eventually it would start properly but the screen remained black. If I left it running it would reach my desktop and it would seem everything else was working fine.

From the black screen it soon turned into a white one from startup. Or a black one which would constantly flicker (black to white). But the weird thing was there were times when it would start properly. It would get about halfway through the loading and then the screen would even go black or white. Right now it has been working for 20mins as I write this.

Now everything is working fine except when I try loading up a game, then the screen will surely die on me. By tomorrow the problem might be back again. But the thing I dont understand is, if I'm having these screen problems, why does it sometimes work for me?! And why might it work and die within 5mins, or run all night and not work the following day I try turning it on..

Any ideas.. Anyone?

My Acer Aspire 3003 started doing this last week. Sometimes it would load up - other times it would try its best, on other occasions it would get part way towards loading before the screen went black with white moving lines on it, not unoike white noise on the telly, and on others it would simply power on, I'd hear a whirrr of the fan and then it would go black and quiet - with the power light remaining on.

I scoured the net and found this page where many people seem to be describing the same symptoms as I'm suffering.

I spent about 3 hours just trying to turn it last Friday then noticed something that seemed to make it work. The little plastic tog at the end of the power adapter had got caught under the laptop near where the power plug connects to the laptop.

Once that had happened I tried something. I found out that if I pinched the laptop, with my fingers, on the right hand side (near the back where the power adapter connects) and held the top and bottom of the keyboard half of the laptop together quite tightly - I could start it every time.

Now I'm no hardware expert but I know a little and that suggests to me that some connection in the power supply must be loose. I admit that holding your laptop together is a far from perfect solution nor is clipping it together with a D-clip or some other make-shift quick-fix but I wonder whether anyone else has come across this anomaly and whether this works for them - which might give way to someone knowing far more about laptop hardware than me suggesting where exactly the problem may lie.

Perhaps, however, I have an entirely different problem - but I agree with everyone who has said they are suspicious of suggestions that they may have a motherboard problem. When it does power up it functions perfectly!