Acer Aspire V3-571 shuts down regularly

I have an Acer V3-571-6849 that was presented to me with no power.

I determined that it should be a motherboard problem and purchased a "good used" motherboard and installed it.

The laptop booted up fine after replacement, but while checking for malware, I noticed it shut down by itself.

Upon boot up, eventvwr showed only a power event and no other blue screen error. I have since seen it shut down while watching and no blue screen is even briefly displayed.

I removed the HDD and booted to a CD and performed RAM testing. During the Ram test, it shut down again, so I know it is not an operating system issue.

I have used a hard-wired temp gauge on a multimeter and a laser temp probe and I find no area on the board or chips that exceeds 120F. Most areas are at 95-99F. The hotest area on the Processor is 117F. I believe this is normal. The fan is spinning all the time.

I am going to replace the Ram chip just in case. Any ideas where else to look?

Thanks in advance,

Charles.

P.S. I have 87 Acer desktops and 10+ Acer laptops and have had no serious issues until this one.

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JackE

I'd guess a current leak to ground somewhere that trips the system off. The usual suspects would be screws (loose or otherwise misaligned) near the charger jack, MB trace lines touching a ground, broken conductors in the video ribbon usually in the tortuous path it takes thru the hinge area, and improperly-seated connectors. Those'd be my first guesses from afar.

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

Thank you very much for the reply.

We have tested today extensively without any cables plugged in (except power), including the video cable and also pulled the power switch ribbon cable after powering it up.

It still shuts down after about 20 minutes. I can't beleive it is anything but a failing MB at this time unless I am missing something.

Best regards,

Charles.

JackE

Double/triple-check screws affixing MB are seated and not touching a trace line, pin or any ungrounded path on the MB. An internal breaker is tripping for a reason and it's likely not simply a faulty breaker.

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

We pulled the board out of the case and only had the power connector attached, so it can't be a screw, not even the power switch board was left attached.

I know it could be a bad processor, but I have never run into that and from what I have heard, usually that is a hard failure.

Any other suggestions before I try to get a replacement MB?

Thanks again,

Charles.

JackE

As a last ditch effort, you could try a MB solder re-flow. Nothing lost except for a bit of time in the toaster oven. 8^)

Jack E/NJ

ajay_1988

Dear ctk2112,

Could it be possible that your system is shutting down due to over heating issue.

Did you try to change the thermal heat sink paste?

If not lets give it a try and see if it works...

Post back your result

yuryv

What part number systemboard is it?

JackE

Q5WVH LA-7912P

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-571-6643-Motherboard-LA-7912P/dp/B00BSEYWGU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398719891&sr=8-1&keywords=v3-571+motherboard+board

Jack E/NJ

yuryv

That should do it!

JackE

Hope so. Have you also checked out the power sub-board since you said it also shut down with a known good MB? http://electronicshelponline.blogspot.com/2013/04/acer-aspire-v3-571-v3-571g-how-to_22.html

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

1. Replaced with another MB

2. Still shut down after less than 10 minutes this time.

3. We also tried running it after unplugging the power sub-board (power button mounted to this) and it stayed on for about 15 minutes or so, but still shut down.

4. We thinking this is thermal now. we detected temp at exhaust port at about 106F with no increase in fan speed before it shut down. The CPU was probably hotter, but the system was put back together completely this time.

5. We placed the laptop on a Targus chill mat (2 fans) and are running an MBAM scan on it now to see how hot it gets and if it shuts down.

6. It ran for 19 minutes and shut down and the exhaust temp was 90F.

7. Could this be a BIOS issue? We did notice that the fan doesn't spin up to high speed (ever) even while running an MBAM scan. I am starting to look.

8. Now that the it shut down with exhaust temp only at 90F, it probably isn't a thermal issue. Now we are thinking this must be a processor issue.

Thoughts?

JackE

The power sub-board referred to above is sometimes called a charger board ---- it usually connects to the charger jack with a ribbon cable and feeds both the battery & MB. Something may be tripping it or just a bad sub-board. Hard to tell from afar. Have you tried Ajay's suggestion --- the processor could be a lot hotter than the exhaust port is telling you --- how about putting the whole unit inside the fridge and see how long it runs?

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

I did discover that it lasts considerably longer if the AC power is not plugged in... over an hour before I noticed it went down. I will update again after I investigate further.

Thanks for following.

Charles.

ctk2112

Well, I bought some time by telling the owner "It's dead!". Smiley Wink

I had to go out of town for a week, but now back and thinking about this.

Posts above mentioned "power sub-board", "charger board", etc.

Does anyone have a part # for this?

Could it be this item?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACER-ASPIRE-V3-571-15-6-Genuine-OEM-DC-In-Power-Jack-Charging-Port-Cable-/321274435946?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4acd72d96a

Is there a better place to order from?

Thanks,

Charles.

JackE

No, Charles, that's only the jack and cable that plugs into the sub-board.

In researching this more, there may in fact be two sub- or daughter-boards involved in this issue. One holds the power switch itself and looks something like this http://www.notebookparts.com/acer-aspire-v3-571-v3-571-6643-power-button-board-p5ws0-nbx0000uv00/

The other, which the power jack plugs into, I can only refer you to this link right now.

http://electronicshelponline.blogspot.com/2013/04/acer-aspire-v3-571-v3-571g-how-to_22.html

Unfortunately, a lot of these types of small boards are not readily available and often only found as scavenged parts on places like ebay.

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

We ran this motherboard without both of those items disconnected (no connections to the motherboard). We used the power button to start it up and then disconnected the ribbon cable and watched. It stays on for up to 20-30 minutes and then shuts off suddenly. We even did this with no RAM chip installed.

We did confirm that this board has the latest BIOS firmware (only one available).

This seems to be the Rubik's cube of laptop problems...

Please help me save what little hair I have left! Smiley Frustrated

JackE

Correct me if I'm wrong. You've now tried 2 different MBs with essentially the same result. Are you using just one intel I3 CPU part between the two MBs in your tests?

Jack E/NJ

ctk2112

The original motherboard was replaced because it would not power on at all.

She stated that it was shutting down by itself for some time now, then the last time it shut off and would not turn back on.

I tried a replacement i3 CPU as well, but there were no significant changes.

Fun, right?

JackE

OK, Charles, I now gotta suspect a ground leak or a poor ground connection somewhere. When things get screwy, defy logic or fundamentally create an unfun fun situation, a ground issue often lurks around in there. Either a board trace or screw contacting something it's not supposed to or NOT contacting (too well) something it's supposed to. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack. So, depending on how patient you are, you might wanna poke around in there a bit cuz you just might get lucky and be a hero. 8^)