Is my motherboard dead?

Greetings,

My laptop randomly shut off while idle on the desktop and does not turn back on anymore. The battery was almost fully charged (was charging) when it just shutdown and now every time I press the power button the keyboard LED's light up for a second and then it all shuts off again. This laptop is about 2 years old now.

When I plug the charger in the orange charging light is solid for 2 seconds but then starts blinking about 6 times, what does this mean?

FYI my AC charger got cut a little on the thin section of the wire (the part that comes out the adapter then into the laptop), some of the internal wiring got cut a little but it continued charging with no problems for months. Did this possible cause a short on my main board? I've replaced the battery but haven't used the charger yet, want to confirm with someone here first about the root issue. The laptop doesn't turn on at all with the new battery so I assume it has no charge yet.

Acer predator Helios 300
Model: G3-571-768G
GTX 1060
i7 7700HQ

P.S:
I've opened the laptop before to apply new thermal paste and clean out the dust but it worked for many months after with no issues, better than before in-fact.

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MaClane

Good evening Newtonius !

The first step is to purchase a new charger and in no way use the damaged one.

Newtonius

MaClane said:

Good evening Newtonius !

The first step is to purchase a new charger and in no way use the damaged one.

As long as you don't think it's the board then okay, I'll get a new charger. Will update this post when I do. Thanks!

StevenGen

Did you replace the battery with an OEM genuine battery? If its a copy then, it could be that its a bad battery as most copies from eBay, Amazon are not of good quality. The exact thing happened to me on an Aspire 5750-2414 with the charger/battery that shorted and destroyed the battery and the laptop would, light for 2 seconds then it would starts blinking, then turn off. It seems that something happened in the charging process and the charger/battery were damaged. AS in my case, when I replaced the battery/charger everything worked, as laptops have a safety that will not allow a charger shortage to affect the motherboard through a charger. Let us know if this fixed your problem?

xapim

Newtonius i would also check the battery for any wear either with hwinfo/battery bar pro or battery report up to 15/20% wear (depending on the age of the laptop) should be fine but more than that consider replacing the battery as some of your cells are damaged they will not hold enough power (also never when gaming never use the laptop on battery only this will kill the battery always on AC with the battery 100% charged before you start any games as this will also damage it should only be used on battery for really light works/emergency and the laptop wont work properly neither with a faulty battery neither without any the battery its just a powerbank (boost) to help the adapter with more power when this one cant provide enough to the cpu/gpu to maintain the best performance) and before buying a new adapter you should check it first with a voltmeter if is outputting the correct voltage as you dont want to buy a new one and the one you have would still be fine

If you battery/adapter is fine i would try a battery powerdrain press hold the switch for 30s+ leave it to rest for 2/3h to complete drain all capacitors and try again if it boots got to bios and reset setup defaults if it still doesnt boot also check your ram compartment if you have a power kill switch and if its properly pressed when you close the ram access door in doubt add some layers of electric tape to the part that presses the switch to make sure its properly pressed after all these steps still not working would probably be a mobo issue

Newtonius

StevenGen said:

Did you replace the battery with an OEM genuine battery? If its a copy then, it could be that its a bad battery as most copies from eBay, Amazon are not of good quality. The exact thing happened to me on an Aspire 5750-2414 with the charger/battery that shorted and destroyed the battery and the laptop would, light for 2 seconds then it would starts blinking, then turn off. It seems that something happened in the charging process and the charger/battery were damaged. AS in my case, when I replaced the battery/charger everything worked, as laptops have a safety that will not allow a charger shortage to affect the motherboard through a charger. Let us know if this fixed your problem?

I did get it off ebay but the part#, amp capacity, etc are all the same with my old battery. I can't test it out however until I get my new charger. Once I do I'll update you too. Thanks for your input.

xapim said:

Newtonius i would also check the battery for any wear either with hwinfo/battery bar pro or battery report up to 15/20% wear (depending on the age of the laptop) should be fine but more than that consider replacing the battery as some of your cells are damaged they will not hold enough power (also never when gaming never use the laptop on battery only this will kill the battery always on AC with the battery 100% charged before you start any games as this will also damage it should only be used on battery for really light works/emergency and the laptop wont work properly neither with a faulty battery neither without any the battery its just a powerbank (boost) to help the adapter with more power when this one cant provide enough to the cpu/gpu to maintain the best performance) and before buying a new adapter you should check it first with a voltmeter if is outputting the correct voltage as you dont want to buy a new one and the one you have would still be fine

If you battery/adapter is fine i would try a battery powerdrain press hold the switch for 30s+ leave it to rest for 2/3h to complete drain all capacitors and try again if it boots got to bios and reset setup defaults if it still doesnt boot also check your ram compartment if you have a power kill switch and if its properly pressed when you close the ram access door in doubt add some layers of electric tape to the part that presses the switch to make sure its properly pressed after all these steps still not working would probably be a mobo issue

I'll have to check when I get my new charger - can't find my volt-meter but don't want to use a knicked AC cable anyway. I tried the method you stated in your second paragraph with both batteries but both still just light up the keyboard for a second and then shuts off again. Once I get the new charger I can troubleshoot further if the issue persists. I'll update everyone in this thread. Thanks for your input.

Newtonius

StevenGen said:

Did you replace the battery with an OEM genuine battery? If its a copy then, it could be that its a bad battery as most copies from eBay, Amazon are not of good quality. The exact thing happened to me on an Aspire 5750-2414 with the charger/battery that shorted and destroyed the battery and the laptop would, light for 2 seconds then it would starts blinking, then turn off. It seems that something happened in the charging process and the charger/battery were damaged. AS in my case, when I replaced the battery/charger everything worked, as laptops have a safety that will not allow a charger shortage to affect the motherboard through a charger. Let us know if this fixed your problem?

xapim said:

Newtonius i would also check the battery for any wear either with hwinfo/battery bar pro or battery report up to 15/20% wear (depending on the age of the laptop) should be fine but more than that consider replacing the battery as some of your cells are damaged they will not hold enough power (also never when gaming never use the laptop on battery only this will kill the battery always on AC with the battery 100% charged before you start any games as this will also damage it should only be used on battery for really light works/emergency and the laptop wont work properly neither with a faulty battery neither without any the battery its just a powerbank (boost) to help the adapter with more power when this one cant provide enough to the cpu/gpu to maintain the best performance) and before buying a new adapter you should check it first with a voltmeter if is outputting the correct voltage as you dont want to buy a new one and the one you have would still be fine

If you battery/adapter is fine i would try a battery powerdrain press hold the switch for 30s+ leave it to rest for 2/3h to complete drain all capacitors and try again if it boots got to bios and reset setup defaults if it still doesnt boot also check your ram compartment if you have a power kill switch and if its properly pressed when you close the ram access door in doubt add some layers of electric tape to the part that presses the switch to make sure its properly pressed after all these steps still not working would probably be a mobo issue

@StevenGen I did get it off ebay but it's an exact same model as my old battery to every detail on the cover; part#, output, etc - looks like it was taken from another laptop and resold as a spare part. I understand your concern and appreciate your response though, it reassures me a little knowing my board could be fine.

@xapim I'll have to check that information when my charger comes in, I don't have a working volt-meter on hand but the AC cable is knicked, don't want to use it anymore. I'm sure the adapter part is fine and I'd love to solder a new AC cord but I can't find the right model cord online. Hopefully it's not a mobo issue and I can get into the bios with the new adapter. I do like that electric tape over the KS button, but I'm sure it's fully pressed down when the RAM compartment door is on, I even tested both batteries holding it manually.

I'll keep everyone updated if I fully troubleshoot this issue, thanks for your inputs however: all valuable information.

StevenGen

Ok keep us posted, as this is common with allot of copy 'made in china' batteries bought on eBay, they are very cheap faulty copies of OEM batteries and chargers, some don't even charge to 100% and/or are always problematic e.g. I've got one now on my V3-571G that is a personal laptop that I'm using (that I bought together with the 5750-2414 battery/charger off eBay) which has been a disaster and only charges to 80 to 90%, it doesn't fit properly into the laptop casing and that is why I'm warning people not to buy a copy of anything.

Also, when my copy charger shorted in the charging process of the 5750-2414 (btw, I refurbish and sell older and newer laptops as a business) this happened after only about 1 months from new, it completely destroyed the copy battery (made it useless) ok as eBay are good and they do make sure that you get a refund but, the hassel of replacement and/or refund is not worth it, never again, buy OEM and a reputable brand that is used as OEM.

Newtonius

@StevenGen
@xapim
@MaClane

So I got the new charger, still doesn't boot. Tried to run off the A/C charger at first but same thing; keyboard flashed for a second but then total shutoff. I then put in the new battery, put tape over the power kill switch, put the case back on, charged the battery till full, and it did the same thing when trying to power it on.

I then tried to do the "internal battery reset" method:
Held the power button for 15 seconds to perform software reset, then pushed the battery reset switch for 5 seconds using a needle, let it sit for over an hour.
Tried powering it on again and same thing - quick flash and then power off. I've even did this before when I took out everything, M.2, RAM, HDD, CMOS battery. To no avail does any of it work.

One thing to note, when the laptop was all put together - the battery was in and charging - the orange LED was on steady lit, but whenever I tried turning the power on the blue LED light would turn on for that split second with the keyboard and then all LED's would shut off; charging and power on lights. I guess I need to get a new laptop or a donor mobo eh?

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