2013 Archives

[drbobalew]

I purchased my Acer Aspire AS5253-BZ849 on 10/3/11, so its now out of warrenty. until recently its been a real joy. Does anyone have ideas on what to do next?  here's a history of the problem. 

1/4/13

Failed to power up.  No indicator lights came on.

Staples tried store power cord, but no response.

1/6/13

Ramsey tested my power cord – proper voltage output. He tested battery – no voltage output from battery.

Ramsey removed Acer hard drive and copied onto my WD Passport.

Ramsey found this tip on line and tried it…

Posted on Sept.21, 2011
http://tektype.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/my-acer-laptop-wont-turn-on-what-should-i-do/

This had no effect, problem persisted.

1/9/13

I installed a new battery and began to charge it.

1/10/13

Laptop still would not power up. No lights, no warmth.

9PM: I took the battery out and held down the power button for 20 seconds (tip found on Acer website). Put the battery back in and plugged in power cord. The orange charging light came on.

11PM: orange light off, blue light on.

1/11/13

1PM computer started fine. Restarted to install new windows updates. Installed Adobe reader updates. McAfee scan.

I unplugged charger and played a couple of DVD’s until battery was week and computer went into sleep mode. Plugged it back into until fully charged. Still worked fine. Shut system down.

I removed the new battery and put in the original battery and plugged it in to charge. There were no indicator lights on and computer would not start up. I unplugged it and removed the battery. Held down the power on button for 20 seconds. Reinstalled battery and plugged in. no lights and would not start. I tried the same procedure with the new battery. Still no lights and would not start.

1/12/13

I tried the same procedure with the new battery (3 attempts). Still no lights and would not start.

I then tried the procedure outlined above from TekTime IT Consulting Blog. This had no effect, problem persisted.

1/14/13

With computer unplugged and new battery in, tried holding down power button and then tapping it repeatedly. Computer came on, went into sleep mode, after 2-3 hours all lights went out. Would not start again, even when plugged in.

[Acer-Tommy]

The single item that I'm seeing where you are experiencing problems immediately after, is that you are letting the system go to Sleep mode.  When that happens you are following it with, "unable to power" issues.

I would remove the battery and just power the system on AC Adapter.

Can you get the system to operate this way?

[drbobalew]

thanks, Tommy, but even with the battery out, the system would not power on with the ac adapter. I brought it down to a local computer repair shop. He diagnosed a bad mother board and estimated $330 to replace it. Does Acer offer any deals to help compensate for a dead laptop recently out of warranty?

[Acer-Tommy]

That would very likely depend on your location and how far out of warranty that you are.

Regional differences may make it less or more worthwhile to pursue.

Please send me a PM with your details regarding this.

[drbobalew]

I am in Narragansett, RI 02882 USA. the 1 year warranty expired 10/3/12.

[Acer-Tommy]

Please PM me your contact information.

[drbobalew]

I tried sending the info as a private message, hope it worked

[drbobalew]

Thanks Tommy, I received a follow-up call from Acer tech Josh. We tried a power reset, but there was no response. I explained the history of problem. He suspected problem with mainboard. After phone consult, I sent the unit to Acer for a $199 out-of-warranty repair (2369861U) and included a detailed history of the problem. The unit was returned to me with a Diagnosis/Repair note stating “Replaced the battery. Reimaged the OS. Updated bios. Tested components. Unit is functioning fine.” My laptop will still not power on! I tried a power reset, no luck. As noted in my history of the problem, I had also had temporary success when I had installed a new battery. I tried calling Acer, but could not get through to a live person. Please help.

[drbobalew]

I finally received a call back from Acer tech, Josh on 2/20 and had to send the unit back in a second time for repair. It was returned to me on 3/4 (2435263U) but still will not power on. I have left messages for Josh on 3/4, 3/5, 3/8, and 3/11 but have not heard back. Can anyone at Acer please help?

[mkfrankme]

drbobalew - just want to let you know you are not alone, with the problem or the poor response from Acer.  I bought the same model for my daughter about a year and a half ago.  It worked fine until recently when it developed the same symptoms you describe.  Others with this model have had the same problem too.  Though Acer has been willing to help some people off warranty for no charge (search in this forum "Aspire 5353 power") it does so selectively and privately.  After getting brushed off by Acer-Tommy when I requested assistance I took the laptop to a local repair shop and was quoted $400 for a motherboard replacement.  It seems likely Acer got a bad batch of mainboards that crap out after a year plus of use on this particular model.  I have bought a number of other Acer laptops and netbooks in the past with no hardware problems but given the treatment a number of us who bought Aspire 5253s have gotten my advice is stay away from buying Acer products in the future - mkfrankme