Acer Aspire Black Screen

I have an Acer Aspire 5335 Notebook, It's had the black screen problem for a couple of days. It starts up, flashes the Acer logo screen for a split second, then goes black. I've tried tapping F8 when it starts up, but it just beeps. When I shine a light at the screen, I can very faintly see the screen. I haven't tried hooking it up to an external monitor yet because it doesn't have an HDMI port and I'm not sure how else to do it. I've tried removing the battery, holding the power button for a minute, then starting it up, all that. The problem seems to be outside of my computer knowledge. Can anyone help?

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Vince53

Bryan, your computer starts up because your power supply is working. You see the splash screen because your BIOS chip, monitor cable, and monitor are working. Your screen then goes blank because you have a hard drive failure. There is about 1/3 of a chance that it is a software problem that a good computer shop can repair, and about 2/3 chance that your hard drive has failed and needs to be replaced.

If you have recovery software, you can try using it. If you can borrow a legal copy of your Windows operating system on a DVD, put it into your optical drive and reboot. It will take you to a repair screen that will give you some options.

ScottyC

Vince, I'm not sure if a dead HDD is causing this issue. Normally when a HDD dies "especially on Acer models" you'll see a message similar to "BOOT ERROR: PXE-ROM" or "BOOT FAILURE - NO BOOTABLE DEVICE" and then the screen will sit on a black screen with white writing waiting for input.

Bryan, if the screen is black but the unit is still responsive "beeping when hitting keys" and you're able to see the image if you hold a light to it there are a few more likely problems. One is that the LED strip in your LCD panel is defective. Another would be that the brightness settings are set to very low or the unit is forcing the screen to shut down the LEDs. It could just as easily be the BIOS, graphics card or the LCD panel itself causing this issue. I would suggest trying to increase the brightness using the FN keys on your keyboard. Press and hold the FN key and on your unit and tap the brightness key. I believe the brightness key is the right arrow. The device may also think that it's connected to an external display. Try FN + F5 and FN + F6 to see if the screen turns back on. I would also suggest that you tap F2 repetitively when you boot the computer to get into the BIOS menu. Leave the bios screen on to see if the display goes dark again. If it does then you have a physical problem, if it doesn't it's likely just a configuration. It's possible that there is a BIOS config issue or that Windows starts to lead and shuts down the screen automatically.

I would suggest you call Acer directly to speak with them regarding the issue. They will likely try and have you do a reload to see if there are any Windows issues causing the problem. If it fails they may want to take a look at your unit, and it's best to get that out of the way to avoid a more serious issue in the future.

bryan66wilson

Alright first of all thank both of you. Scotty- I got to the BIOS screen but the screen is still dark.

ScottyC

This means that the problem isn't related to Windows at all. The problem would have to be either LED strip is defective, the LCD panel isn't supplying power to the strip or for some reason there is a misconfig in your bios (not configurable from the screen you see) that would need to be fixed. You can always try to update your bios but I'm not 100% convinced that it will solve your issue.

Frankly you would be best to just have Acer repair your unit. Are you still under warranty?

BobC

Acer Aspire 5335

similar problem - monitor periodically just goes black for no apparent reason ?

I then hit Fn + F6 and screen reverts to "normal" - then after some minutes (5 - 10 ) it just goes black again

since this is a new problem after 2 years, I "assume" it must be power supply ?

HELP !!!!

Just noticed -

if I close the top and then open again, there is a "whiring" sound like a cable rubbing against some fixed object - and it happens every time I open the lid - bad or loose connection ???

Vince53

Bob, an intermittent problem like yours MIGHT be caused by a loose or corroded cable. You can run a deep scan with your antivirus, but I would be surprised if that solves the problem. I would take it to a reputable computer shop.

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