Any ideas on a completely (and by surprise) dead Laptop?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I have an Acer 7741. Its about 1.5 years old, had to replace the hard drive once in it, but thats about it. A few days ago, I was prompted to install a bunch of windows updates (I hate hate hate hate hate installing them). But finally I did, and was prompted to shut down the computer which I did. And then it never started up again. Nothing, not even the usual lights indicating that it was plugged in, or that the battery was charged or charging, not even the little light on the on/off button.

I read about and tried discharging the machine with the battery out and power off, and tried it a few ways..... no luck.

The only clues or (perhaps) coincidences that I can describe about the machine before it died was:

1) It required long overdue updates
2) for the past 3 weeks, some bars of horizontal lines would appear on the desktop when woken up, (but were easily gotten rid of by clicking refresh)
3) I did shut it down during a raging thunderstorm. (but it was plugged into a surge protected outlet)
4)The machine spent most of its time, plugged in and sleeping.

So, because there are no lights or anything at all, I'm guessing it must be the power supply within the machine? Any ideas before I look into tearing the thing apart and wasting money and effort on the power supply???? Could it be some other component (motherboard???? That would be serious right??)

Please Help or else..... GASP! .....I'll be stuck inside all summer!!!!!!!

[CK_John]

1. This is probably a lost hiberfil.sys file. In sleep mode, memory is saved as an exact copy

and when awaken the file is loaded to memory and your ready to go. Now if a mirco blip on the power line shorts out the place that has the address of the hyiberfil file it doesn't know where to look to comeout off sleep mode.

The fix may require you to send it back to manufacture to replace bios chip. Although I was able to remove the HD and put it another working similar laptop and got it to boot. I also had added the HD as a second drive and deleted the hiberfil, did a disk cleanup on it and put back in original.

Also as a second drive you can backup data files. I don't want to give false hope but it may need a new bios chip (mother board). Look for same model on eBay sold for parts.(they usually have shot screen but good mother board).

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. Interesting.

I'll have to discuss that with my dad, since he's more of a techie than I am. But one question. Even if the computer was in sleep or hybernate mode wouldn't there be a least some lights on? like the power connected or charging light on? I mean its really dead. I could pop the hard drive out of dad's Acer and connect it, but there seems to be no power to even turn the machine on.

[CK_John]

3. That's my best guess without having access to the laptop. nt

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. Try starting...

...with the battery and HDD removed.
Do you have a way to verify that the power brick is okay?

[gvstn]

5. Just to add to this

When you do the discharge bit, you want no A/C and no battery and then hold the power button in for 30 seconds or so.

Then plug in the A/C only and try to power on and see if any lights at all.

[HopeHoops]

6. A lot of laptops won't start without a working battery. 1.5 years isn't unheard of, but unusual.

In general, running off A/C will still work even if the battery won't hold a charge, but it has to be functional enough to pass the current on to the rest of the system. Either way, the thing should at least show the power on and A/C light, even if it is hibernating. I wouldn't expect any disk activity if those two aren't on.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

8. I think the Acer should run without a battery.

But I think you are right, that there should be at least some indicator lights showing that its connected, even if its stuck hibernating. The battery was 100% charged when it died, and was in pretty decent shape (ie would run for 3-4 hours on battery). Still If I get a chance, I'll try swapping around power cords and the hard drives with dad's acer. At the very least I'll find out if my HDD is fried, and/or be able to remove my data from it. Too bad, he doesn't have the exact same model, or else I could try swapping batteries too.

**********

Thanks to all for the advice!

[HopeHoops]

9. Just make sure the amperage and voltage on the charger match yours.

I'm not familiar with current Acer machines, but I've encountered a few Dell boxes that wouldn't do anything without the battery. That was also true with the original ThinkPad, but that was a VERY long time ago.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. yep, thats how I did it. Tried it a few times. n/t