Acer Aspire A515-52-536H won't turn on. Screen blinks then dies.

Hello!

I'm trying to solve my mother's laptop issue, but couldn't find a solution or a thread about ir so far. When I try to turn it on absolutely nothing happens. When I try to turn it on connected to power, the blue light of the battery flashes amber once then turns blue again. I can breifly see the monitor blink when this happens, like it's about to turn on and then it dies. There's nothing displayed on the screen.

The laptop is 2 years old.

I've tried:
1. Pressing the battery button on the back for 15s;
2. Turn it on while pressing other keys on the keyboard. This works rarely, like 2% of the time and then it works perfectly until suddenly it turns off by itself when it's not being used.
3. Leaving it charging overnight.

I've generated a battery report and it looks fine to me. Here's what it says partially (can't attach it):

COMPUTER NAME	LAPTOP-KSCKIIR3
SYSTEM PRODUCT NAME	Acer Aspire A515-52
BIOS	V1.14 05/24/2019
OS BUILD	19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
PLATFORM ROLE	Mobile
CONNECTED STANDBY	Not supported
REPORT TIME	2021-11-2916:49:07

Installed batteries

<table class=" Quote"><thead class=" Quote"><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote"></td><td class=" Quote">BATTERY 1</td></tr></thead><tbody class=" Quote"><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">NAME</td><td class=" Quote">PABAS0241231</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">MANUFACTURER</td><td class=" Quote">LG</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">SERIAL NUMBER</td><td class=" Quote">41167</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">CHEMISTRY</td><td class=" Quote">Li-I</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">DESIGN CAPACITY</td><td class=" Quote">48.944 mWh</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">FULL CHARGE CAPACITY</td><td class=" Quote">34.823 mWh</td></tr><tr class=" Quote"><td class=" Quote">CYCLE COUNT</td><td class=" Quote">-</td></tr></tbody></table>

Thanks in advance!

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

(1) Press and hold power button till laptop shuts off
(2) Unplug charger. No LEDs should be lit.
(3) Insert paper clip into reset pinhole on bottom for about a minute
(4) Plug charger back in but wait till battery charge LED turns from steady orange to steady blue
(5) Only after battery charge LED turns steady blue, turn laptop back on and immediately press the F2 key to enter the BIOS menu
(6) Press F9 in the BIOS menu to load defaults. Press F10 to save defaults and exit the BIOS menu

(7) Laptop should start Windows login normally and charge properly

bsiq

Thanks for answering so fast, Jack! The proposed solution did not work, unfortunately, but I do have added information and am managing to turn it on, although in a very weird way:

Initial status: laptop charged and plugged

1. Press on/off switch
2. Blue battery light goes out, turns on again, rapidly blinks amber and stays on blue again as if charge is complete. Does NOT turn on.
3. If I just press on/off again the same happens.
4. Press on/off switch and immediately press another keyboard key (e.g. spacebar)
5. Battery light stays blue and Power Indicator light turns blue. Nothing else happens.
6. After some seconds blue Power Indicator light goes dark. A few more seconds and it goes on again. This cycle repeats.
7. If I randomly start tapping keys this cycle goes on until unexpectedly the Acer logo appears and windows turns on again.

However, this is not a reliable way to turn on one's laptop and nor it's expected behavior.

Any ideas on what might be causing this weird Battery status amber light, and/or this Power Indicator light cycle that doesn't turn the computer on?

Restoring BIOS to defaults didn't change anything. It was never changed before. So, it was already default.

Thanks again!

JackE

If you're booted into Windows, open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable' near the top of the next page. Scroll down and UNcheck the box for fast startup. We don't want fast startup! Then follow this procedure again in the exact order. When you're in the BIOS menu, please note if the HDD0 is described in the BIOS Information tab.

(1) Shut down Windows normally Press and hold power button till laptop shuts off
(2) Unplug charger. No LEDs should be lit.
(3) Insert paper clip into reset pinhole on bottom for about a minute
(4) Plug charger back in but wait till battery charge LED turns from steady orange to steady blue
(5) Only after battery charge LED turns steady blue, turn laptop back on and immediately press the F2 key to enter the BIOS menu
(6) Press F9 in the BIOS menu to load defaults. Press F10 to save defaults and exit the BIOS menu

(7) Laptop should start Windows login normally and charge properly

bsiq

Hey there. I managed to disable fast startup, but that didn't fix anything, unfortunately. Even after doing the battery pinhole thing and restoring BIOS to defaults. HDD0 is correctly described in BIOS Information tab.

I can now turn the computer on consistently, but it does NOT work without the charger plugged in, even with battery charged. I'll link a video showing how I do it (described at previous answer) and you can see battery is 100% charged as soon as I plug it and how it's a brick without the charger. Below an image os the BIOS information tab. I've redacted the serial numbers since I don't know if they're sensitive information.

Link to video showing how I turn it on: https://youtu.be/nPBTUcNyDyw

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/hx/8d77gufj8wx8.jpg

JackE

>>>

DESIGN 
CAPACITY 48.944 
mWh FULL CHARGE 
CAPACITY 34.823 mWh>>>

As long as it consistently boots plugged in, that's a good sign. The battery pack, however is still suspect. While it has lost about 30% of its original design capacity(fairly typical after a year or two), it seems to have developed a very high internal resistance which prevents it from getting the amps out fast enough to keep the laptop on when the plug is pulled. Amazon has the pack for less than $30 so I think it'd be worth trying to replace it.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ek/bk1z5t60sd08.jpg

Easwar

Hi @bsiq,

Try to update the battery driver and check.

bsiq

Thanks for answering Easwar. Unfortunately, there's no updates available in Windows Update. Also, a new situation has appeared:

Now the computer will randomly lock the screen and shut down when power is plugged in. This happens as soon as 30 seconds after logging in Windows, or even before, which makes it boot again in the Windows "restore" screen.

Managed to make it boot without the power cable. Didn't log off anymore.

Also, plugged an USB light on it and it clearly shows the light turning on and off when I try to boot the computer. It goes on and off at least 3x before finally botting up. And I still must click power button and immediately click something else, or it won't turn on.

JackE

As long as it consistently boots plugged in, that's a good sign. The battery pack, however is still suspect. While it has lost about 30% of its original design capacity(fairly typical after a year or two), it seems to have developed a very high internal resistance which prevents it from getting the amps out fast enough to keep the laptop on when the plug is pulled. Amazon has the pack for less than $30 so I think it'd be worth trying to replace it.

bsiq

JackE said:

As long as it consistently boots plugged in, that's a good sign.

Yeah but why would it turn off by itself during boot (or as soon as it loaded) while plugged in if the problem is the battery? Is the battery involved in supplying power even when plugged in?

StevenGen

bsiq said:

JackE said:

As long as it consistently boots plugged in, that's a good sign.

Yeah but why would it turn off by itself during boot (or as soon as it loaded) while plugged in if the problem is the battery? Is the battery involved in supplying power even when plugged in?

This is an internal power charging circuitry fault to do with various mosfet integrated circuitries or a switch or a resistor and/or a capacitor that has either shorted or burned out and has interrupted the power delivery to your motherboard and laptop. My suggestion to you is this, as no matter what you do you will not be able to fix this problem by doing the usual consumer diagnostic steps that are instructed in a user manual which and you have taken so far.

Take your laptop to either Acer Service in your area who will probably change the faulty board all together for a new one (as they don’t fix/change individual circuitry problems and components faults, hence the high costs. Another step is to take your laptop to an experienced tech in your area that has the experience in these sorts of problems and does micro soldering and has all the proper tools to diagnose this problem.

This is nothing complicated as and with all power on problems its all in the laptops circuitries that power on and charge your laptop. Just as an example, have a look at the intricate way that these sorts ofproblems are fixed by looking at this clip of one of the best in this field on YouTube from NorthridgeFix (who are in California USA) and this clip “Asus GL504G Repair - Laptop Won't power On - Hidden Short circuit” as Alex the owner is the best in this field.

JackE

If the battery has an internal cell short, the short will overwhelm the charger's ability to provide enough voltage to keep the mainboard in the on state. Furthermore, a cell short can possibly cause a fire. For less than $30, I'd get a battery replacement now if it were mine.

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