I was wondering if someone could help me to diagnose the problem with my laptop. Acer TravelMate 4000 LCi, (P-M 1.4Ghz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, DVD-CDRW). Purchased brand new back in Dec. 2004 from Amazon. Started using since summer 2004. It had 1 year warranty which is of course expired.
I damn the day I bought Acer listening to advices of my Indian and Chinese friends from university. I personally own Toshiba Satellite M35-S359, which has been working great since Jan. 2004. I purchased Acer as a second laptop for other home users.
This Acer laptop was basically a desktop replacement. I never had a problem with it before. However, in the morning of the day before yesterday I've discovered that Acer wouldn't start-up.
The power indicator blinks from yellow to green and screen doesn't power up at all.
However, when I unplugged it and reinserted battery it booted up fine and I used it for the entire day.
The next morning it wouldn't start-up at all.
Again, the power indicator blinks from yellow to green and screen doesn't power up at all.
Several attempts to reinsert or remove battery
plug or unplug AC adapter didn't help.
I removed HDD and put it back but it didn't help. I must buy 2.5" enclosure to make sure that problem is not caused by HDD, which I doubt.
When I plug laptop in or insert its battery, the laptop lights up on its own. I mean it's power button lights up but again nothing happens. Just power indicator blinks from yellow to green, and that's it.
I thought of the following causes.
- Power connection problem (Jack went down, laptop's AC input etc.). Because it was acting weird. When I plug it in it powers up on its own, without pushing power button. But still it won't boot at all. LCD is dark with no signs of life.
The same happens if I insert battery. Even if I shut it down via power button, sometimes it's power status light remains green. Then I've to push power button again to shut it completely down.
LCD is down. Because I found a crack on each hinge. I was "surprised". This laptop was never used away from home. It was basically desktop replacement which was very well taken care of. Crappy plastic! I hate Acer.
HDD is down. I can test it later if I buy 2.5" external enclosure for this purpose.
Motherboard is down, which is more than likely. Maybe overheating issue?
I'm afraid this maybe a cause which fried motherboard.
I've to admit that although it is Pentium M Centrino, its fan was always running on, which made me think of overheating issue and I was even thinking of buying a cooling pad a few weeks earlier. Who knows, perhaps it would have prevented current dead-stalemate situation.
Note, laptop was perhaps on 20 hours a day!
And even when it was shut down in the nights, it was never unplugged and the battery was always there too. In other words, it was charging the battery 24 hours a day.
I'll appreciate any valuable advice and remedy!
Thanks.****