Laptops on board

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Post by Jeff »

That's all you need to know really. If it stops working, turn it off and then turn it back on again!!
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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Well, a brace of beer vouchers on offer to anyone who can fix my Acer laptop. Put it down to make a sandwich and came back 5 minutes later to find it dead. Expensive sandwich that one! Had the hard drive tested and it was fine but still no pulse! Has sat in its bag for 18 months since. Any takers? :roll:
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Post by Jeff »

It's dead, Jim.
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Post by Jeff »

Or...

Does it have a removable battery? If so, try firing it up with the battery out. Batteries sometimes fail in a way that stops things powering up.

Other than that it's one for the menders probably. It might just be a fuse, but good luck finding it.

If you can get the back off check for obvious burnt components. Does it smell of burning at all?

If all else fails stick it on ebay as 'spares or repair'. I've been amazed how much some things sell for in that state.
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Post by Discus »

Might plan a funeral. Typical it failed 3 weeks out of warranty. I swear it knew! :x
Discus
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Post by Discus »

Well, I decided to take another crack at the Acer laptop - after removing the battery, and trying it on the mains only, there was still no joy. Battery back in and held down the power button and ejected the DVD tray, whoosh, it fired up again, screen and everything. Wanted to start in safe mode but feeling 'lucky' I booted it in full windows 7 mode, all good. Spent all day downloading windows updates and driver updates - still all good. Then, bang, the luck ran out. As the laptop shut down to restart to finish installing the windows updates, the screen went blank and the obstinate b**ger wouldn't reboot! At least I now know the motherboard isn't fried, the ram was tested and passed with flying colours but it did flash up a message that there was an issue with the Nvida graphics card driver - only issue is it doesn't have one, its an ATI card. Weird? Now thinking the power supply may be an issue or maybe the Hitachi hard drive is on its way out. Long shot but any thoughts folks? Shame to give up on it as it is/was a really nice laptop to use, with great sound and lovely keyboard. Should I send it in to a specialist? What kind of tests can they run on the components? I still have a bit of hope :roll:

Rob
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Post by Jeff »

In situations like that we used to swap bits in and out from other machines we knew were in good order. Eventually that way you can find out where the problem lies - hopefully.

It's a very effective troubleshooting method if you have lots of similar machines about. Until black wednesday. The problem turned out to be a particular processor which had an internal short which when inserted into a motherboard and powered up, killed the motherboard. We killed something like 5 motherboards that day. Very sad.

Nvidia thing is probably a coincidence - but I am just guessing.

The fact that it worked when you ejected the DVD drive though... have you tried completely disconnecting the DVD drive from power and bus? We had more than one machine fail to boot due to a faulty CD drive. If that doesn't fix it then perhaps the problem is a dry joint somewhere - temporarily connected due to the motion of the eject. Presume you've checked all socketed chips are pressed in well? Remove and re-seat them if you have an extraction tool (or a pair of small screwderivers). Remove and re-seat the RAM. Remove and re-connect ribbons that you can easily.

Try booting up with as much as possible peripheral disconnected. Can you disconnect the screen, floppy drive, USB controller, SD card slot, network card?

Then if that all fails try a slight bend to the motherboard while attempting a reboot.

It's tantalisingly close to being fixed.

If you send it off you'll be lucky if it's looked at by an _actual_ expert. It's in their interests also to tell you it's kaput isn't it?
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Post by Discus »

Close, but no cigar just yet! Was wondering if the hard disk is the issue. When the computer tries to access the disk, there is sometimes a loud click, almost like the arm that accesses the disk is not moving properly. Seems to happen when the computer has been on for a long time and everything is warmed up. Must admit I am not really competent to start dismantling the thing as I will probably make things worse - don't want a black Saturday! :cry:
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Post by Jeff »

I don't know what that click is but I have heard it from drives before they give up the ghost in the past - but that's never stopped a machine from powering up. It should show BIOS stuff and then some message about no boot disk found, if the drive is going to die. You can try unplugging the drive though and see.

I wouldn't worry too much about unplugging things so long as you ensure you earth yourself before going for it, unplug it from the mains, remove the battery, and go steady, noting how things connect, as you disconnect them. They're surprisingly resilient to everything except static.
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Post by Jeff »

PS. But I guess if a DVD drive can stop a machine from powering up (which I've seen a few times) then it's not impossible I guess for a HDD to do the same - but I've never experienced that.
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Post by Discus »

Will take a little looksee tomorrow. If it is a bit complex I might have to give it to the local spotty oik and the repair place near us, even though he looks about 12! It did go to our neighbour who runs a computer business (Xenopus) who said the hard drive was working at the time but he didn't really repair laptops so was unsure how to take it to bits. I think the keyboard needs to come off but that looks like NASA would struggle with that! :wink:
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Post by Jeff »

Keyboard removal is usually much easier than it looks. Do a search on YouTube for:

*insert laptop name here* keyboard remove

Or

*insert laptop name here* keyboard removal

Or

*insert laptop name here* hard drive upgrade

etc.

Might well be something there.
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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Right, honing in on the issue. Managed to get it to boot again and I think its the display graphic chip as the screen went a bit jumpy and then went blank again. All this with the battery out. Maybe an overheating issue or dry connector somewhere? Getting there slowly! :D
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Post by Jeff »

As things heat up they expand of course so potentially a bad connection could re-join when everything's cool.
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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Bit of research of the net suggests the graphics chip needs reballing. This can be done for about £80 or so with warranty so would be worthwhile even though the laptop is old tech now. It could then be moved on board as the dedicated boat laptop as it does everything I need - net, SSB software for weather files, has a tv dongle for freeview, DVD etc. Even has manic miner so hours of fun there! Might pop it in the fridge for a while, see if it confirms diagnosis. Someone recommended putting it in the freezer to diagnose a dry connection but I would have to eat the contents of the top drawer to make room :lol:
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