V3-772g-9653 Won't boot

I shutdown this morning, unplugged it all, put it in my laptop bag, took it with me on a short journey and set it up again. Only this time, instead of booting up as it always did, it wouldn't POST. The power light came on and the fan was spinning at full speed and never stopped. The blue fully charged battery light was on and the blue power light.

Holding down the power button DID NOT turn it off, I had to disconnect the power and then the battery.

Tried again no dice. Removed power and battery, then bottom panel. Removed the mSATA SSD that I installed end of July. Tried again, same result. Removed original HDD, replaced mSATA drive and repeated. Same. Removed one memory stick, repeat, same. Replaced and removed the other, same. Replaced and removed DVD drive. Fired up. Started to boot but then I realized it was taking far too long and then boom it powered off by itself. Not been able to make it do that again since bringing it home.

Other information that may or may not be related: A strange powdery like substance on my screen after turning it upside down each time. Not really like dust, and since I upend this machine to dust the air vents regularly anyway, is not something I've noticed before. Might just be years of this and that but just don't remember seeing anything after cleaning the vents. A few days ago I could smell some unusual smell, and in the end I decided since I couldn't really smell it strongly from any wires or anything (or the fan exhaust) that maybe it wasn't my computer but was coming from outside.

Same thing happens if I power it on without power (battery only).

What are my options?

Devastated

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brummyfan2

Hi,Have you had a look at the battery for any sign of leakage, powdery substance appears normally outside old batteries, I would suggest you to take it to a Technician for thorough check up.

Shenya

Battery is fine, no sign of any leakage, the powdery stuff (and it could just be the years of skin and food particles) comes through from the keyboard onto the screen when upside down, I just don't remember noticing this when I clean the underside vents (doesn't mean it didn't happen, I mentioned it in case it might have any bearing on anything).

I will pull the thing completely apart in a couple of days and see if I can see something obvious that can be replaced (bad cap or something)

Shenya

I've been reading about other Acer models where users have described the exact same issue, on one thread there was a bunch of guff about reflowing the gpu (it's never overheated, CPU does when gaming at times, but to this day when idle CPU temps are exactly as they were when I got it over 3 years ago), but a LOT of threads talked about BIOS recovery. This is the last one I was reading http://www.techrepublic.com/forums/discussions/acer-aspire-one-150-wont-boot-up-only-has-black-screen-when-power-is-on/

Yes it's for a netbook, but could it be as simple as the BIOS going crazy? How does one do this when the only thing that happens is the power lights come on, the fan spins to full speed and you hear the DVD drive kick in? No one mentioned not being able to turn off the machine without removing the battery, but since this motherboard has a GTX760M on it, I imagine a replacement is not going to be economically viable?

It came with BIOS 1.08 and that's what I left it at (and that's what I would want to use), since when 8.1 was released I read many threads of BSODs when people upgraded to 1.11 etc in order for 8.1 to work, so I stayed at vanilla 8.

I love this machine (more than you could imagine) I don't want to have to buy a new one if I can get this up and running again for a reasonable amount.

How to try flashing the BIOS when it does nothing but spin the fan?

Shenya

I went away for a couple of days over Christmas to spend it with family. I removed the battery from my 9653 after trying again to no avail and propped the laptop up against the wall (so that I didn't accidentally forget it was on the floor and tread on it, and hoping that maybe gravity might do something remarkable).

Some 64 hours after the last attempt, having just arrived home shortly before 11pm Monday night, I looked at the beast and thought, pfff, might as well see what happens. Flopped in the battery but didn't hook up the ac adapater (since it can't be forced off by holding the power button, only by releasing the battery) and pressed power.

It fired up and got to my OS selection screen (Win 10 nd Win 8).

The last time I had used it I was in Windows 8, and since I wasn't ready with my mouse plugged in, it seemed to take off on it's own without waiting out the 30 seconds. The screen went black and I could see the mouse pointer and move it with the track pad, but after a minute or so it was clear nothing was happening. I held the power button down and after a while (seemed like forever it powered down). I pressed power again, no OS option, it just booted itself straight into Windows 10.

And there it has been ever since. I don't know if anyone has any theories or knowledge as to what could have happened or what might be the issue, but as I write this, the uptime is 1 day, 22 hours, 2 minutes and counting. It works exactly as I expect (with what I've been doing at least).

I'm too scared to shut it down, or even restart and see if I can get into Windows 8 (Windows 10 seems to make it run a lot warmer, and whilst some games run better in Windows 10, many others run cooler and better under 8 so I'm forced to keep 8 also). I'm also too scared to try a game out right now, but for a machine that was dead for a week, a 3 day stint all alone with no battery or power plugged in seems to have resurrected it.

Should I be frightened of ever turning it off again or there perfectly reasonable explanation for this and it was just a one off glitch?

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