I have an Aspire E5-721. When I press the power button, I get a drive light but a black screen...

...with no cursor. Nothing onscreen. The problem started occurring a little less than a week ago.

After a long wait (to see if anything happens) and then holding down the power button again to kill it, I'll retry anywhere from four to ten times before it finally starts up. The issue is getting progressively worse. I ran check disk and it says there aren't any problems. Ran a trouble shooting program, same thing. I ran a full system scan with Norton Security to check for threats, nothing found. Ran a file cleanup, optimized the drive, and made sure Windows 8.1 was up to date.

Does this sound like the infamous 'dead screen/flash BIOS' problem? Or possibly something else? When I check the driver and manuals page for this model, the only two BIOS updates I see are:

- Support ZYV battery shipping mode in factory product line

- Increase system stability

And I'm wary about performing BIOS fixes myself. Any suggestions/solutions would be greatly appreciated.

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laurent_14

Hello,

Do you have the same issue with an external monitor or a LCD TV in using the VGA or HDMI port?

CarterHayes

I haven't yet tried that. Will test and report back. Thanks.

CarterHayes

Hooked up an external monitor (VGA connector) and I have the same issue. When the notebook eventually decides to turn on, the external monitor shows the start-up and desktop just fine. But when the notebook acts up and the screen stays black, the monitor also stays black.

laurent_14

Hello,

Sorry for the delay.

1- Could you give me the first ten characters of the computer serial number (S/N)? Only the first ten.

2- Your laptop is it still under warranty?

CarterHayes

PM'd you the information. Thanks for the response.

laurent_14

Hello,

Thank you for your trust!

As your laptop is still under warranty, I suggest you to contact your Acer support by phone or by tchat.

I think it's a bios issue (corrupted). They have specifical tools to recover the bios ... not us (ex: crisis disk).

Note:

You own an Aspire E5-721-492D.

CarterHayes

I contacted Acer support by phone and explained the problem just as I did here. Got the impression they didn't think it was a BIOS issue, and they said the two BIOS updates available on this site for this model wouldn't help even if it was a BIOS issue, and was recommended to refresh the PC if/when I could get it turned back on again. After a bunch of attempts it finally started up, I refreshed the system, and not only is it still doing the exact same thing (black screen, no cursor), but now I have to reinstall a ton of programs (which they informed me would happen). Oh, and close to 200 Windows updates. Of course, I have to restart the computer for the Windows updates to take effect but it won't even initiate a restart process without going brain dead/black screen. Guess which brand of computer I won't ever buy again?