Aspire M5201 Won't boot

davidoricardo

Hello, my aspire has stopped working. It powers up, including the hard drive but nothing happens. I have removed the hard drive and backed up my data to a separate drive, cleaned and defragged the drive. I tried inserting the recovery discs to no avail. Any thoughts?

laurent_14

Hello David,

 

I suppose the desktop works normally.

1. The informations of the bios has been updated with some errors due to a defective CMOS battery.
   It was "lost".
2. CMOS settings wrong

   CMOS date/time not set

   CMOS checksum bad
   These messages are displayed when the battery is defective (normally).
   As you changed this one, I suggest you to clean the contact of the battery holder. May be bad contact.

laurent_14

Hello,

 

You wrote: "It powers up, including the hard drive but nothing happens."

So you hear the HDD and the fan?

If so, have you tried to connect an external monitor or a LCD TV in using the VGA or HDMI port?

davidoricardo

Yes, the machine was connected via VGA to an HP monitor which I know is fine but it receives NO SIGNAL

laurent_14

Hello,

 

Sorry! I didn't see it was a desktop. My brain was probably tired...

 

1. What model do you own exactly?

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

In waiting, you can do this test if your desktop is equipped with a graphic board:

=== OUT OF VOLTAGE ===

(Unplug all power cords like desktop, monitor, printer etc).

1. Unplug the VGA connector and plug it on the VGA slot of the motherboard
2. Remove the graphic board
3. Reinstall the left panel and plug only the power cords of the desktop and monitor.
4. Start up the desktop and check if you see something displays.

Remarks:

Install no drivers. It's only a test (VGA mode).

davidoricardo

Hi, Aspire M5201 is all that is shown S/N 92LPR77UCP

There doesn't appear to be a VGA on the motherboard

I had a spare Radeon graphic card which I have inserted but with no response on the screen

Note that there are 2 connectors still attached to the integrated card, which I have not removed, should I remove them and try again?

laurent_14

Could you post here a picture of the rear side (connectors)?

It's normally the original motherboard (blue connector).

davidoricardo

Hello. sorry the socket was hidden by a cover, I have tried that, still no signal to the monitor

davidoricardo

Does it matter which connector the hard drive uses on the motherboard? I noticed when I tried one the whole machine did not power up. I have 6 in 2 rows of 3. The top right is used by the DVD drive 

laurent_14

1. Hello. sorry the socket was hidden by a cover, I have tried that, still no signal to the monitor.

Have you tested withtout graphic board?

2. Does it matter which connector the hard drive uses on the motherboard?

The devices must be connected in order 0,1,2 etc e.g. SATA 0 empty SATA 1 HDD don't work. SATA 0=OS HDD

davidoricardo

Hello, no have tried without card in, no luck

When you talk about the device sockets on the motherboard, what order are the numbers?

As I said I have 2 banks of 3 sockets

1     2

3     4

5     6

 

Which one should the HD be connected and which one the DVD drive?

laurent_14

Hello,

 

The SATA "sockets" are marked on the Printed Circuit Board like this:

SATA_1, SATA_2 ....SATA_6

SATA_1 connect the HDD

SATA_2 connect the DVD drive

 

You wrote: "no have tried without card in".

- That means you have directly plugged the monitor in the VGA port of the motherboard?

In this configuration, you have no video signal so the chipset is defective/dead.

- Do you remember if you heard beeps on startup?

 

Last test, you can try to do Clear CMOS:

=== OUT OF VOLTAGE ===

1. Remove the CMOS battery which looks like a silver coin.
2. Wait 5 minutes and put back it in place
3. Plug all power cords and try.

davidoricardo

Hello, yes directly to motherboard. No beeps, just the mechanical sounds of the fans and the hard drive.

 

Re the final test, I have replaced the battery BUT now it will NOT power up at all!!!

 

Any thoughts as this seems to have made matters worse!

laurent_14

Hello,

 

1. Have you replaced the CMOS battery (CR2032) out of voltage?
2. Did you "respect/observe" the battery polarity?
3. Is the power indicator lit when you press the power button?

It sound like more and more to a corrupted bios (strange!).

davidoricardo

OMG! It's alive!

 

In answer to your questions

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) Yes

 

But having left it a day I've just powered it back up and it's booted, went to safe screen first and I took it straight back to opening Vista.

Initially it said CMOS settings wrong

CMOS date/time not set

CMOS checksum bad

 

Well thank you for your help!!! I think the phoenix has risen....I would appreciate your conclusions

David

laurent_14

Hello David,

 

I suppose the desktop works normally.

1. The informations of the bios has been updated with some errors due to a defective CMOS battery.
   It was "lost".
2. CMOS settings wrong

   CMOS date/time not set

   CMOS checksum bad
   These messages are displayed when the battery is defective (normally).
   As you changed this one, I suggest you to clean the contact of the battery holder. May be bad contact.

davidoricardo

Yes, thank you

All appears to be working normally

Many thanks once again

David

laurent_14

... and good use!

N3gn4v

Hi, is it stupid to answer in a nother persons thread? because i have exactly i think this problem with same PC Acer Aspire M5201 from 2008 with Radeon HD 3650, 4GB RAM, 2x HDD and Vista 32bit.

It's that. When i startup The "Aspire" logo in front it's in LED light, but all others like Power button, HDD-Led, USB ports, and Video doesn't work at all.

Do i have exactly the same problem as davidoricardo?

* One more thing. My date and calender is set to May 1st 2008.

This was for 2 years ago when i last start up this computer then it worked but the date was wrong.

So is it has to do with Battery CMOS?

billsey

Yes, if it's coming up with that date and time the CMOS battery had died. Replace it and reconfigure any BIOS settings that weren't at factory defaults because they have been all reset when the battery failed. This is actually quite normal on a ten year old computer.

N3gn4v

Okay, but this thing about "replace" where do i find battaries? Is it a specific battery model?

billsey

Almost all CMOS batteries are standard coin cell 2032s. Sometimes they use a different one, but it's pretty unusual. Check first but I expect you'll be just fine with those.