Acer Aspire One D250 dead motherboard or something else

Hello all,
As I said in another thread I've had my Aspire One D250-1024 for long time and few months ago netbook suddeenly stopped to work (black screen after power on). After power on cpu fan works for 2 seconds and then stops, screen is black all the time and power button is green, nothing happens. I was convinced that something on the motherboard most likely graphic chip is dead. Couple days ago I've bought the same second hand motherboard like the old one - KAV60 LA-5141P and install it but the same symptoms happened like with old motherboard - black screen after power on!

Of course I could return "new" motherboard but I want to be sure that both mainboards are dead and the reason for black screen isn't something else beside the motherboard.
I've tried with another RAM memory, DC supply should be good - cpu fan works for 2 seconds.
Could someone tell me for sure before I return the motherboard is it motherboard issue or something else?

Accepted answers

JackE

>>>Now I tried everything with screen ribbon cable to move it and stretch it in all directions to see if correct picture will appear on the screen and nothing happened just RGB colors moving across screen - first blue, than green, than black with grey stripes as I said before. >>>

Manipulating the ribbon like this might not mean much especially if both mainboards behave the same way. The ribbon's conductor traces are printed on plastic and thus don't necessarily respond like wires to stretching & bending. The screen's LED backlight inverter seems to be OK since you're seeing lit colors & stripes. It would be unusual for the screen to fail like this. And unusual for both mainboard GPUs to exhibit the same behavior. So I still suspect the LCD ribbon cable.

daisy91

The system does not display anything; an error code appears; one or more beeps occur; the system locks; the system reboots; a Windows BSOD (blue screen of death) appears; or one or more of the ports, expansion slots, or memory modules fails. These are the motherboard problems. you have to check or repair your board first.

LudiMilojko

Third attemp and the third luck! I've replaced the motherboard for third time and this one was good! The last motherboard was almost good! Everything was working except video output on lcd screen. Most probably problem was on motherboard's graphic chip. Now with new (also second hand) motherboard all seem to be good for now. We'll see...

Thank you all for your selfless help!

All comments

JackE

>>>cpu fan works for 2 seconds.>>>

This is normal on initial startup to overcome rotor stiction from a dead stop. But then it should continue to spin at a somewhat slower speed till the cpu heats up. If the fan stops but the power button remains lit, try temporarily disconnecting the screen ribbon connector from the mainboard to see if the fan remains on.

Easwar

Hi LudiMilojko,

Try to do power drain,

1. Shutdown the unit.
2. Unplug the cables connected to the unit.
3. At bottom of the unit there will be a small tiny pin hole with a battery symbol close to it. Take a pin or a paper clip insert into it you feels like pressing a button hold it for 20-30 seconds.

LudiMilojko

JackE said:

try temporarily disconnecting the screen ribbon connector from the mainboard to see if the fan remains on.

That is not bad idea to eliminate dead screen. I've just assembled netbook and will have to dissamble it again to disconnect screen cable. I will try it tonight and l let you know the results.

JackE

OK. Jack E/NJ

LudiMilojko

Easwar said:

Hi LudiMilojko,

Try to do power drain,

1. Shutdown the unit.
2. Unplug the cables connected to the unit.
3. At bottom of the unit there will be a small tiny pin hole with a battery symbol close to it. Take a pin or a paper clip insert into it you feels like pressing a button hold it for 20-30 seconds.

Should I remove the battery before I insert the pin into that hole?

LudiMilojko

Easwar said:

Hi LudiMilojko,

Try to do power drain,

1. Shutdown the unit.
2. Unplug the cables connected to the unit.
3. At bottom of the unit there will be a small tiny pin hole with a battery symbol close to it. Take a pin or a paper clip insert into it you feels like pressing a button hold it for 20-30 seconds.

You must be thinking on battery reset hole. I have looked everywhere but my Acer One doesn't have that hole. I found some videos that show this reset hole button but it was other Acer laptop model not Acer Aspire One. Are you sure Acer Aspire One has this hole button?

JackE

Jack E/NJ

LudiMilojko

JackE said:

OK. Jack E/NJ

Hello JackE,
You were right! First I have disconnected screen ribbon cable and removed keyboard and all unnecessary cables and without keyboard I could see how cpu fan and hard drive work. Yeah, right after I removed screen cable I turned power on and netbook started cpu fan turned off as you said after 2 seconds but hard drive continued to work (I could hear hard drive is working and hard drive led light was blinking and also some time after cpu fan started to work again). Then I just put screen ribbon cable back and turned on again netbook and for miracle cpu fan and hard drive were working as without screen cable and some strange RGB colors started to move across screen - first blue, than green, than black with grey stripes etc, but there wasn't any picture or Windows logo. What is going on? I would say if I see those even blinking colors screen should be alive but I don't know is problem in screen connector, ribbon or most likely graphic chip on the motherboard! Have you ever seen situation like this? What could it be?

JackE

More than likely the ribbon cable has intermittent breaks in the conductor traces, probably in the congested hinge area. Usually happens from wear and tear of opening and closing the lid too much. Part no. 50.S6702.001. Probably costs as much as the $16 mainboard.

I'd try re-seating both ends of the ribbon just to make sure the contacts are clean before getting a new cable. The LCD inverter end usually has sticky tape, like electrician's friction tape, that makes things messy.

LudiMilojko

Interesting thing is that now when I disconnected everything (keyboard, touchpad..) except power supply connector and power button ribbon netbook is working (CPU fan and hard drive all the time) and earlier when netbook was completely assembled hard drive didn't work and cpu fan stacked after 2 seconds...
Now I tried everything with screen ribbon cable to move it and stretch it in all directions to see if correct picture will appear on the screen and nothing happened just RGB colors moving across screen - first blue, than green, than black with grey stripes as I said before.

LudiMilojko

Easwar said:

Hi LudiMilojko,

Try to do power drain,

1. Shutdown the unit.
2. Unplug the cables connected to the unit.
3. At bottom of the unit there will be a small tiny pin hole with a battery symbol close to it. Take a pin or a paper clip insert into it you feels like pressing a button hold it for 20-30 seconds.

You must be thinking on battery reset hole. I have looked everywhere but my Acer One doesn't have that hole. I found some videos that show this reset hole button but it was other Acer laptop model not Acer Aspire One. Are you sure Acer Aspire One has this reset hole button?

LudiMilojko

Easwar said:

Hi LudiMilojko,

Try to do power drain,

1. Shutdown the unit.
2. Unplug the cables connected to the unit.
3. At bottom of the unit there will be a small tiny pin hole with a battery symbol close to it. Take a pin or a paper clip insert into it you feels like pressing a button hold it for 20-30 seconds.

Should I remove the battery before I insert the pin into that hole?

JackE

>>>Now I tried everything with screen ribbon cable to move it and stretch it in all directions to see if correct picture will appear on the screen and nothing happened just RGB colors moving across screen - first blue, than green, than black with grey stripes as I said before. >>>

Manipulating the ribbon like this might not mean much especially if both mainboards behave the same way. The ribbon's conductor traces are printed on plastic and thus don't necessarily respond like wires to stretching & bending. The screen's LED backlight inverter seems to be OK since you're seeing lit colors & stripes. It would be unusual for the screen to fail like this. And unusual for both mainboard GPUs to exhibit the same behavior. So I still suspect the LCD ribbon cable.

LudiMilojko

@Admin
Please delete those two posts above (they are doubled) I posted them by mistake.

@JackE
New moments today. I wanted to show to my friend RGB colors on screen and in some weird way by Murphy law after power on netbook started normal like everything is alright - Windows booted normally. But just that first time, immediately when I turned off netbook and on the next boot everything was like yesterday - RGB colors and stripes. I was doing nothing ribbon screen cable in the same position and even screen lid was in the same position but nothing. I don't know what happened to netbook to produce normal picture. I'm afraid d that maybe screen is dead or is on its deathbed.
P.S. There is vga output port on netbook is there any way to overcome netbook's screen and broadcast picture via vga port to external monitor or TV?

JackE

If you still have an external VGA monitor, then yes you can check the integrated GPU. But I think the GPU is OK and the VGA monitor will look fine (maybe with the lid screen disconnected or turned off with the FN+F5 or FN+F6 toggle key combinations). I say this because both mainboards exhibit similar lid screen behavior. I still think it's the cable and/or its connectors to the mainboard and screen's inverter board. You might want to try to re-seat those connectors a dozen or so times to help clean the contacts.

LudiMilojko

@JackE
You were right again! Definitely motherboard is good - connected to netbook via VGA port external monitor and everything worked fine! I even think to return old motherboard to check will it work. So as you said issue is in flat cable or something about screen. First I'll try with new flat cable. I'll report results.

P.S. Is there any tutorial or video how to change flat cable and dissasemble screen?

JackE

>>>P.S. Is there any tutorial or video how to change flat cable and dissasemble screen? >>>

Absolutely. One of the most popular netbooks of all time. Simply google search the keywords 'd250' & 'disassembly'. Take your pick.

Jack E/NJ

LudiMilojko

Yeah I have found on youtube quite number of videos "d250 dissasembly&assembly" with screen replacement but neither one with flat video cable replacement but today I will take apart screen and assume that flat cable will be easy accessible.