Reset ASPIRE V5-431 CMOS battery and now will no longer start

Assistant

In an attempt to remove the BIOS password of an Acer V5-431 and allow myself to downgrade it from Windows 8 to Windows 7, I opened up the laptop and removed the CMOS battery for about an hour before placing it back in. However, now when I go to start the laptop, it fails to boot up at all. The power light turns on, and I can hear the fan and CD drive moving, but the screen does not respond in any way at all. 

 

I initially figured that the CMOS battery did not get placed back in correctly. In the process of removing it, the small plastic ridge which it clicks into snapped off. By wedging some tape on the side of it I managed to get it to stay in place, but whether that means it is actually properly set in there I am unsure, as it provided no difference when I went to start up the laptop again. 

 

Given that the monitor is completely unresponsive I considered that the problem might be the connection between the display and the motherboard. Upon examination, however, it did not appear that there was anything wrong with the connection besides the metal surrounding the connectors being a tad bent, which I believe it was when I first opened the laptop. The little conenctors apppear undamaged.

 

Any idea what to do in this situation? Help will be very much appreciated.

Clyde

I suspected the LCD came unhooked, but you said you checked the connection. Were you grounded with a ESD strap when you did the repairs? Any possibility you shorted out the MB?

Assistant

I was not grounded with an ESD strap so I suppose that is a real possibility... *cringe*

 

I did not have one on hand, and I've never used one before when opening up a desktop computer. This was my first time disassembling a laptop, and it looks like I might have paid the price for disregarding that precaution.

 

Is there any way to verify that the motherboard is indeed shorted out?

philetus

"the small plastic ridge which it clicks into snapped off" that also has the contact for the top of the battery. If there is no contact touching the top of the battery, the battery isn't doing anything.

Assistant

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philetus wrote:

"the small plastic ridge which it clicks into snapped off" that also has the contact for the top of the battery. If there is no contact touching the top of the battery, the battery isn't doing anything.

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philetus, are you sure that is the case? It did not seem like anything metal touching the battery was disturbed. The plastic ridge was truly very small, and appeared to be nothing more than a little lip to keep in the battery. Also, there appears to be no metal pieces running towards the area where the ridge used to be.

A pair of small metal extensions are near where the ridge used to be, but they were never directly atop the battery; rather, they seemed to be up against the side of the battery.

philetus

Batteries need to have a complete circuit to work.On the flat cmos battery one flat side is Pos. and the other flat side is neg.

If the contact for either side is not touching the battery you don't have a circuit and your laptop won't start.Maybe the contact for the top of the battery is not making contact.

philetus

I also found this for the V5-431:
When you reset the bios you defaulted it back to factory settings.
That means you have to go into the bios and re-select the type interface used for the hard drive with the os on it.
It says OS not found because the HD interface mode selected in the bios is wrong.

It needs to be set Sata or Ahci mode.
Save the settings before exiting the bios.

Assistant

I would not be surprised if it is not making contact as it is supposed to. Without the ridge holding it in place it has been difficult to keep it pressed in as firmly as it used to be, and the way the metal connectors press up against it results in it actually being pushed out of place. Usually it would be pressed snugly up against the ridge, now it just slides out.

 

Can the motherboard simply be replaced? And thank you for the extra tip regarding the bios, if I can salvage this guy back to life that will come in handy.

philetus

Yes you can replace the MB if you think it's worth around $100 for a MB.They have some on Ebay and if you search for "V5-431 disassembly you will find a complete, downloadable service manual at manualslib.

This is a bit radical, but since you may have to replace the MB anyway, can you push the battery into place and superglue it, being careful not to get glue on the contacts? Or glue something, non-metalic, over the battery to hold it down?

MonikaFx

The CMOS battery or lack of it won't keep the computer from starting up. It will however cause the BIOS to reset to factory defaults and especially loose the date and time values.

 

Can you get the BIOS screen to come up by pressing F2 or delete or whichever is the right key for your system?

You have to enter at least a date and time there and most likely information about the rest of your system, otherwise it may not find the hard drive to boot up windows.

 

If you have a problem with the CMOS battery still or that broken part, it may be that you have to re-enter this information every time you boot up - that way you know you have a problem with the CMOS battery.

 

But you do have to enter it once in any case cause that information was lost when you removed the CMOS battery.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

philetus

About a month ago I had a Toshiba A70 would not start until I replaced the cmos battery.

Assistant

Thanks Monika and Philetus
I had considered the glue idea before, but wanted to hold off at the time. Since it doesn't look like the issue is going to be fixed another way at this point I think I will give it a shot sometime soon. If that doesn't work, I'm guessing the motherboard is fried and will need to be replaced.

 

I wish it was simply the CMOS afffecting BIOS settings as Monika suggested, but with the screen being completely unresponsive I don't think the computer is even getting that far. The only signs of activity are the power light and fan.

 

The help on this forum has been very informative, even if it was mostly bad news for the laptop, haha (my fault). I will try out the glue on the battery, and if that is unsuccessful, replace the MB. I am pretty confident that would solve the issue. Thanks again for all of the help!