Had this laptop since Win7 arrived and it's been good. Used it this morning - fine.
This afternoon - not working. Power switch LED does get brighter, the fan starts running, and the LED on the mouse receiver (USB power) comes on.
But black screen and no LED showing disc activity. No BIOS screen either. Tried booting with F6 held down which should get you to the BIOS setup. Nothing. Tried plugging the HDMI output into the TV - still nothing.
Looks to me like a BIOS problem? Not something I've encountered before.
Or could there be a voltage rail which is down? PS faults being the most common? I've not got much experience of laptops so don't know what to check.
First thpought was PSU problem maybe the 12V gone. did a quick google for teh machine and it seems there are other with similar problems, as it's a PC I'd give it a good kick or slap :-)
I'd be interested to hear if it works, as I have a couple of old, working Acers here, and I keep expecting problems.
I sold my 5536. That was the machine where I first encountered the (fairly common as it turned out) problem where, if you played audio tone through the speakers and turned the level up, you got dropouts. That was the most obvious of a number of audio problems.
I am pretty certain that this was a power regulation problem in the machine.
The U Tube video referred to a slightly different model and the software appears to be different from those instructions. Found several forums with 'cures' but all different.
If this is the model I think it is, with a heatsink/fan/heatpipe assembly that covers both CPU and separate GPU, then there is a fairly common failure mode caused by overheating of the GPU. When this fault shows the machine fails to boot at all, and it does not get as far as even attempting to access the disk or allowing access to the BIOS config screens. (no amount of BIOS reflashing will fix it, if this is the problem).
The problem seems to be partly caused by a bit of thermally conductive foam that sits between heatsink and GPU that squashes over time, resulting in the GPU not really being in proper contact with the heatsink. Combine that with a BGA package and lead free solder and you have a ticking time bomb.
Some people have had success with some thin copper shims (search ebay for "GPU shim") and new thermal grease placed between heatsink and GPU. One suggestion is to remove heatsink, clean, grease and shim, then replace the heatsink but with the fan disconnected. The shims should ensure there is a firm contact between GPU and heatsink, and its also applying a little pressure to the package toward the PCB. Let it run for
10 mins or so, so that the heatsink gets hot. Then let it cool (20 mins), and reconnect the fan, and see if it boots after that.
If that fails, then you could try a reflow. I had success with that on a HP laptop of similar vintage that used much the same thermal design. I took the mobo out, and squirted some liquid flux under the GPU. Folded a sheet of foil to make a heat shield a few layers thick, and cut a GPU sized hole in it. First I warmed the board all around the GPU using the heat gun at a distance until it was at about 100 deg C (IR thermometer). Then placed the heat shield over the GPU and used the hot air gun to heat the chip more directly. Watch it carefully, and you may see a slight movement of the package as the balls reflow - you should even be able to give it a slight nudge when up to temperature and it will recentre itself on the pads due to surface tension. As soon as its reflowed, stop heating and let it cool slowly. Mop off any spare flux with suitable solvent and a tissue. That will usually get it booting again, although even then a reflow is not always a lasting fix - you may need a re-ball for that (as well as the heatsink mods described above).
Does it have a Cmos battery? The problem is from what you say it could be almost anything. In the old days computers all had a little sounder that bleeped to let you know where the issue was of course. Could it be that its overheated and has now decided not to start up? I was amazed to see how much fluff and gunge gets in the cooling system of a dell a while back. Brian
Looks like you may be right, John. Battery was fine.
Looked on Ebay for MBs - and loads on there. All faulty. ;-) But there is a place offering a repair service for 40 quid. So about 60 including postage. If that did do the trick probably worth it.
If it were me, I'd be looking out for an ex-corporate business laptop on ebay or elsewhere, take the HD out of the Acer and put it in a usb case, and get what you can for the Acer.
It's a quandary. I was perfectly happy with the Acer running Win7 so didn't wish to upgrade.
Notice that John Lewis only seem to offer a two year warranty on laptops - so perhaps they are now just another disposable like so much else? This one had a pretty gentle life and never really left the house. Just really used for a quick browse in the kitchen with my morning coffee.
Chatting to a pal today who bought a similar one after having a play with mine. But it was his only machine. That was getting slower and slower he said, so has relegated it to his place in Spain and had bought an Apple for here. At a couple of grand. ;-)
I wouldn't buy from Laptops Direct (or any of their clone companies) again - they appeared to be a 'one man in a shed' operation, seemed to be advertising pc's that didn't actually exist, and were very difficult to contact. Finally sorted out the purchase, but only 'sort of' - as I say - I wouldn't deal with them again.
I've just bought a Lenovo T410, 6gb +320gb HD for £80 from a regular commercial seller on ebay. OK, it's a 14" model and I had to install W7 from scratch, but it came with the COA and has now worked perfectly for a week (!).
Incidentally I loaded my Acer 5536 with Windows 8, which I hated, and it then went peculiar (can't remember how). I took the HD out and put it into a Lenovo Intel based laptop, I think an old X60, and it thrashed about a bit and came up OK. It's still here somewhere.
The advantage of Lenovo is that there is some of the old IBM thinking left, so the support site is good for drivers, maintenance manuals etc. And a lot are disposed of by big companies in batches.
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