Unsolvable problem! Any suggestions?

[brendancox464]

Hello all! 

 

I do not usually post on the forums, so please be kind! I am having a terrible time with this acer laptop I have, had problems since the day i purchased it and wish I have just bought another HP (they last me forever). Onto the story:

 

1. Laptop HDD was corrupted and would not boot into Windows. But I could get into the BIOS and boot from USB.

2. Booted from USB into the Windows 10 installer to check to see if the drive was still visible and that it could reinstall windows

3. Drive was visible and it was able to reinstall windows but I did not because I had some files to get off the HDD

4. Two days later I took the HDD out of the computer and put it into an enclosure to see if there was any valuable files (there wasn't)

5. Inserted the HDD back into the computer

6. Tried to boot the Laptop but no success. It just has the blue power LED for 5 seconds and then turns off. No HDD status lights, zero fan noise, no HDD spinning and no LCD turning on.

7. Tried doing power residual, testing RAM, boot without HDD, disconnect WiFi card, disconnect battery and run off mains. Nothing works

 

I am convinced that it is not a faulty motherboard since all I did was power it down normally, disconnect battery, drain residue power and then remove HDD. Researching online people have said that there can be a loose ribbon/sensor/keyboard loose or something but I have never fully disassembled a laptop (since I have never had problems as serious as this).

 

I am really stuck in this situation! I have tried everything I can think of! 

 

Specs:

* Acer Aspire V3-571G

* Intel Core i5 3210m

* GeForce 710m

* 1TB HDD

 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read this long story!

 

- Brendan

 

[Squish4058]

EDIT, ignore this post just re read the OP

[SpaceGhostC2C]

According to your description, there isn't much that could explain why it stopped working (I mean, nothing you explicitly did should have that effect).

So, I'll resort to generic troubleshooting for laptop attempting to start but failing...

- Does it have fans? Are they working?

- Do they still use BGA chips for North Bridges etc in laptops? I hope not. I had this problem with an HP before, it was caused by a broken soldering in the bridge. I wish with all my heart it's not your case.

 

I believe detached keyboard/trackpad would lead to an error message, not a failure to boot.

[brendancox464]

2 minutes ago, kris2340k said:

Does the bios screen show, its the first screen to always show when powering the pc and will have an asus logo

If it does not, it sounds like a post failure. If its after said screen shows then its a bios setting
also sorry If i missed it in your OP, I read a lot in a day lol. but did you ever actually reinstall or are you still booting the old one.
PS if you have another pc you should try putting ubuntu on a PC and booting it, its identical to making a windows installer except insead of an installer you will run a full OS from your usb

BIOS screen does not show, it is a post failure. I was never able to reinstall Windows on it, the drive files are just wiped and ready for the fresh OS.

Thanks for the tip of having the Ubuntu on a flash drive, I do have one but did not bother trying to boot from it as I had no need. Only wanted to have a quick look to see if the drive was visible

[Squish4058]

Just now, brendancox464 said:

BIOS screen does not show, it is a post failure. I was never able to reinstall Windows on it, the drive files are just wiped and ready for the fresh OS.

Thanks for the tip of having the Ubuntu on a flash drive, I do have one but did not bother trying to boot from it as I had no need. Only wanted to have a quick look to see if the drive was visible

my bad I re read your post and misread the no LCD at all, this plus no HDD light is almost a garunteed post failure, give me a minute to give up that post failure reason list I made

[Squish4058]

Original post was here, it was rushed so ask me about anything if you dont understand it, or are too scared to do anything like messing with your CPU, because if you are too scared you should probably not do it lol, I advice checking other things on the list before touching the CPU

 

again if you dont know what any of these are or how to check one of them ASK, I would rather be bothered 10,00 times than someone make something go bang.
also I am not responsible if something does go bang lol

[brendancox464]

16 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

According to your description, there isn't much that could explain why it stopped working (I mean, nothing you explicitly did should have that effect).

So, I'll resort to generic troubleshooting for laptop attempting to start but failing...

- Does it have fans? Are they working?

- Do they still use BGA chips for North Bridges etc in laptops? I hope not. I had this problem with an HP before, it was caused by a broken soldering in the bridge. I wish with all my heart it's not your case.

 

I believe detached keyboard/trackpad would lead to an error message, not a failure to boot.

- Yes it has fans but they are not working

- Sorry but I couldn't tell you! My 4 other HP laptops are going fine without any issues. Sadly this Acer has been plagued with issues

[brendancox464]

10 minutes ago, kris2340k said:

Original post was here, it was rushed so ask me about anything if you dont understand it, or are too scared to do anything like messing with your CPU, because if you are too scared you should probably not do it lol, I advice checking other things on the list before touching the CPU

 

again if you dont know what any of these are or how to check one of them ASK, I would rather be bothered 10,00 times than someone make something go bang.
also I am not responsible if something does go bang lol

Thanks for your reply! Really informative post, still deciding whether I'm going to go all out and completely disassemble this laptop (following a youtube video) and try from there. Do you have any experience in cracking open laptops? Thanks again, really appreciate your time taken

[Squish4058]

Just now, brendancox464 said:

Thanks for your reply! Really informative post, still deciding whether I'm going to go all out and completely disassemble this laptop (following a youtube video) and try from there. Do you have any experience in cracking open laptops? Thanks again, really appreciate your time taken

I do, ive gone as far as removing the entire back cover and taking out hard drive and disconnecting all cables I see.
my advice is if you have never done it before then dont. The first one I cracked open is still open from 4 years ago. I could probably put it back together but cba lol

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 minute ago, brendancox464 said:

- Yes it has fans but they are not working

- Sorry but I couldn't tell you! My 4 other HP laptops are going fine without any issues. Sadly this Acer has been plagued with issues

I had the problem I described on a HP, and I also observed it in an Acer. The issue was with the way chips were attached to teh motherboard. But they were older models (2006 celeron for me, 1008ish Core duo for the Acer), I believe they might have scrapped the BGA soldering since then.

 

Sorry I missed on the fan, you mentioned that. On a second thought, it should still lead to an error message when the computer is cold (as it is, since you had it off fro a while)

[samiscool51]

if you have the Manuel their might be a way of telling the error code

if you don't have it click this link:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/www.mrcdn.com/pdf/acer/gug-as-01-01-06-all-win8-2012.pdf

use the find feature in your browser (if your browser has one) it will help alot

[Ryujin2003]

I've had many issues with my Acer. I'm not a fan of their brand, and good luck with the customer service. My laptop came with broken USB ports and booting issues. I'd have to pay to ship it and hope it gets fixed. Dumb...

 

I would try putting a new HDD in and see if it boots and can recognize the HDD. If not, see if it'll detect an external. I want to figure out if it's the SATA interface or not. I would also do the basic "clear CMOS" thing.