Acer Aspire 10 (SW5-011) Will not turn on, no charging indicator.

TeganRowsell

Hello!
Last night when I went to bed, I plugged my acer in to charge and it was charging fine. When I woke up and opened it, there was no charging light and it wouldn't turn on. I have tried:
1.Different charging wire. Didn't work. This one is definitely working- I have a second acer of the same model and it charges that one just fine. 
2. Pressing and holding power + volume up for 25-30 seconds, and volume down. Does not boot.
3. Opening the casing and making sure the panels that connect to the charging port and buttons are connected. I'm no tech wiz, but there's certainly nothing flopping around unplugged, and everything seems pretty snug.

I have no clue what's wrong with it. It's not even like it was jostled badly breaking something- it was doing nothing but sitting on a flat, stable surface all night, and was about 80% charge when I plugged it in so I know it's not the battery being run down. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

TeganRowsell

I should note, I don't have access to advanced tools here, so I can't check electrical flow or voltage or anything like that. I am working with butter knives and an unused dissection kit from an old biology class.

billsey

It is possibly the battery has finally died, though it's unusual for that to hit without any warning... When you had it open was there any indication that battery might be swelling? With the dissection kit and a frog heart you might be able to test voltage to see if it's putting anything out, but I'm not sure that would indicate anything helpful since we don't know what voltage is required to make it beat.

Abk

It usually happen to my too. Try turning it off until you see the Orange light and then charge it. Don't turn it on when charging 

TeganRowsell

@billsey What sort of indicators are there usually to see if a battery is swelling? Also, wouldn't it still turn on if plugged in even if the battery is dead? I should note that while this tablet isn't "new", it was sitting in my mom's closet for years before I want to say... two months ago? So it hasn't undergone any rigorous use recently. I should have noted this though- it DOES have heavy screen shadowing around the corners, but I never really considered it a "problem" because the computer was still useable like that, and I didn't think it was relevant because its a display issue, not a battery issue.

@Abk I'm afraid I can't turn it off to plug it back in to charge because I can't turn it on to start with. I do have it just sitting on the charger now, but the orange light hasn't popped up since last night.

TeganRowsell

Ok, that's interesting. I left it to "charge" overnight, and when I opened it up it still had no orange light and wouldn't turn on, but the right hand side of the screen was warm, so I know the electricity is going somewhere.

billsey

When one of the Lithium-Ion batteries gets discharged too far they have a internal circuit that disables charging. That's to keep the battery from catching on fire or exploding. Likely that is what happened when it sat for so long. Only safe remedy is to replace the battery...

TeganRowsell

Dang, that's a shame! Glad I bought a replacement, but I wish this one had lasted a little longer! Thank you for helping, though! I appreciate it!

billsey

Yes, you don't really have to do it often, but you should plug it in for a while every month or two if it's going to just be stored. Best is to store it with a full charge so it'll go as long as possible. Likely when it was first put in the closet it wasn't actually shut down and was in sleep mode instead.

TeganRowsell

Ok! Is there a chance that it'll ever turn on again, if just so I can get the documents that are on it? Or is it pretty much entirely dead?

Easwar

Hi TeganRowsell,

If you have any other charger you can connect it with the unit and try to turn ON the laptop. 

billsey

The only way to get data off is to get it running again. The SSD is soldered to the motherboard, so you can just pull it out to mount on a different machine. Unfortunately it looks like replacement batteries run in the $30-40 range and that model is getting a little long in the tooth...