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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Mr Skrunts on 01 May 2012, 22:59:54

Title: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 01 May 2012, 22:59:54
i have aquired an Acer Aspire 8930g with a fault.

I bought the laptop knowing it is faulty and not having a hard drive fitted, was told it would not power up , nothing to the screen at all, and a clicking noise once the Power was connected and swiched on.

Paid my money took it home without seeing the faults, promptly plugged it in and everthing was as told.  Not done anything with the laptop till today and have now misplaced the power supply.

Not sure if I have the original power supply which is 19v and 4.74A so tried my girlfriends Acer Aspire 3000 19v 3A power supply and the clicking was still evident.

Questions.

If my charger is below the correct ratings could it cause the clicking (From with in the casing where the hinges are)

Thought this may be a power supply fault and therefore worth a few quid getting it fixed?

Have now had a gander round the net and it seems the suffer from screen inverter issues.

Could the problem be any of the above.  (A mate suggested the clicking could be a capacitor)

TIA.   :y



Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Rods2 on 01 May 2012, 23:11:08
Possibly an inverter problem. The inverter is used to power fluorescent tubes that backlight the display. Without these lighting the screen it will appear blank.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Rods2 on 01 May 2012, 23:13:30
You could try connecting an external monitor to the laptop to see if the laptop is booting the bios.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Vamps on 01 May 2012, 23:43:17
i have aquired an Acer Aspire 8930g with a fault.

I bought the laptop knowing it is faulty and not having a hard drive fitted, was told it would not power up , nothing to the screen at all, and a clicking noise once the Power was connected and swiched on.

Paid my money took it home without seeing the faults, promptly plugged it in and everthing was as told.  Not done anything with the laptop till today and have now misplaced the power supply.

Not sure if I have the original power supply which is 19v and 4.74A so tried my girlfriends Acer Aspire 3000 19v 3A power supply and the clicking was still evident.

Questions.

If my charger is below the correct ratings could it cause the clicking (From with in the casing where the hinges are)

Thought this may be a power supply fault and therefore worth a few quid getting it fixed?

Have now had a gander round the net and it seems the suffer from screen inverter issues.

Could the problem be any of the above.  (A mate suggested the clicking could be a capacitor)

TIA.   :y

Good grief, are you still alive?...... :D :D :y :y :y
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 02 May 2012, 05:56:47
You could try connecting an external monitor to the laptop to see if the laptop is booting the bios.

Will this bypass the problem if it is the invertor?
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Rods2 on 02 May 2012, 15:24:39
You could try connecting an external monitor to the laptop to see if the laptop is booting the bios.

Will this bypass the problem if it is the invertor?

Yes, as you are using an alternative display. The only way the faulty inverter could have an effect is if it is drawing so much power it makes the PSU shutdown.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 19:40:09
Being Acer, its probably not worth repairing. Most likely the a handful of components on the system board, not really DIY repair. Even if it was, you have to change loads, as it seems to self destruct other related components.  *IF* you are really lucky and caught it early, might just be a failed cap (usually visible).  After than, a Winbond controller tends to cook, not a nice repair.

A new system board is around £275 on an exchange basis last time I checked, so not worthwhile.

I suspect the seller knew this ;)


TB's top tip, avoid Acer  :-X
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 19:40:47
Always worth booting up on external monitor to prove whether system board or screen.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Ken T on 02 May 2012, 20:53:26
Chances are it would start if the PSU were a bit lower, the higher current is when it is running all things and the battery is flat. Most inverters I have seen have a fuse on board so I would have thought it would not drag down the whole system if faulty. A capacitor faulty, well it could be, it could also be something else. Not a good idea just to change all caps just in case.

Do any lights come on when you try and start it ?. Do they come on but go off straight away ?.

A quick look around showed this http://www.theacerguy.com/forum/topic/aspire-8930-sudden-death It might be an internal graphics card gone duff and overloading things.

Ken
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: Ken T on 02 May 2012, 21:02:14
It might be the old ineffective cooling that killed the graphics cards of so many HP's, Dell's etc. In those cases it was sometimes possible to "repair" the component by using a rework station. People like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GPU-Graphics-Repair-Acer-Aspire-series-/130688838154?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item1e6da96a0a can do it. I managed it once, but it was very hit and miss.

Ken
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 21:18:04
I only ever tend to buy laptops with integrated graphics, as thermally, discrete GPU is always going to be troublesome.  A laptop is unsuited to gaming anyway.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: albitz on 02 May 2012, 21:22:20
My aspire 5551 has had a problem since the day I got it.Every so often (usually once a day) the screen goes black and there is a loud buzzing noise.Emergency shutdown,then restart and its fine until next time. I have dismantled it and blown all the dust etc out with compressed air which seemed to help a bit,but not cured it.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: CaptainZok on 02 May 2012, 21:25:11
D
My aspire 5551 has had a problem since the day I got it.Every so often (usually once a day) the screen goes black and there is a loud buzzing noise.Emergency shutdown,then restart and its fine until next time. I have dismantled it and blown all the dust etc out with compressed air which seemed to help a bit,but not cured it.
Did you take the fan and heatsink off the cpu and clean it?
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: albitz on 02 May 2012, 21:27:12
Cant remember tbh,it was a few months ago.I will make a note of that and have another go at it,probably in work over the weekend.
Cheers Captain. :y
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: CaptainZok on 02 May 2012, 21:29:35
Get a tube of heat sink compound for when you put it back together then.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 21:29:39
If you do take heatsink/heatpipe off cpu (or gpu if it has one of those as well), remember to use thermal paste on refitting.
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 21:30:03
Get a tube of heat sink compound for when you put it back together then.
LOL, I must type faster ;D
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: CaptainZok on 02 May 2012, 21:31:18
Is it "Great minds think alike" or "Fools seldom differ"? ;D ;D
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: TheBoy on 02 May 2012, 21:31:47
Is it "Great minds think alike" or "Fools seldom differ"? ;D ;D
You're great, I'm a fool ;D
Title: Re: Laptop repair (Help please)
Post by: albitz on 02 May 2012, 21:36:25
way beyond me. I will give it to one of the eggheads at work and let them do it. ;)