Game crash, system shut down, no longer powers on - Acer Predator Helios 300 2020 - PH315-53-72XD

Hey everyone. Hopefully I can get some thoughts/suggestions as to what to do here. I've had my Pred for a teeny bit over a year, purchased in late August 2020. It's been fine until last night.

I've always gamed plugged in, and used it maybe once every 1.5 months unplugged and the battery seemed fine. I was playing Borderlands 3 last night, which I've done many times on the laptop (around level 30-35). I heard the boop boop boop boop of a crash and it locked. I thought 'hum, that's odd,' but didn't think much of it as I've been a PC gamer ppssshhh 30 years? and on laptops the last 13-14. So I did ctrl+alt+delete to get to the system manager to shut the game down. It did. I shrugged, waited about 30 seconds, then restarted the game. Almost immediately the system went dead. I thought that's odd again, figured it was a worse crash than it originally appeared, and pressed the button to restart the system. Nothing. Still dead. I noticed it no longer had the 'I'm plugged in' light, so decided to unplug it for 30 seconds and then try to restart unplugged. No change, still dead.

Since then I've looked around online and found some solutions and tried...

- Holding the power button for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute, while the system was plugged in. No change.
- Holding the power button for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute, while the system was unplugged. No change.
- Opening the system up and removing the cmos battery connection and battery connection to the motherboard for 20 minutes. No change. Repeated the button hold after. No change.

I contacted Acer and they, embarrassingly, said since it was a few months out of it's ONE YEAR coverage that they wanted $ 730 to repair it. That's insane. That's effectively 100% of it's current market value.

So... here's my thoughts...

I wonder if it's because this is a newer system and cannot run without the battery, then maybe I should spend $65 and try replacing the battery? The old Asus I'm currently typing this on has a corrupt battery connection and effectively is running without detecting the battery, doing a pass-through directly to outlet power. I think all the newer internal battery laptops don't have the option to do that anymore?

Or, is that theory incorrect, and even with a dead battery should I see the 'I'm plugged in light' and be able to use the laptop? (Like I am with my older Asus that I'm on now.)

Really heartbroken at the laptop dying at effectively 1.25 years old. That seems embarrassing for Acer and ridiculous. I've never had issues with previous Asus laptops this quickly, and I've had 4 other laptops before this one. (None of those changes were due to the laptop no longer functioning.)

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rabb1t

I suppose there's also the possibility it's the plug, and it somehow dropped the battery charge from 100% to 0% when the event occurred, thus why it neither works on battery nor plugged in.

I'll be taking it to a place that does free checks in about 2.5 hours, so I'm sure they could check the power supply really easily/quickly.

Still preying it's the battery or power supply. I can't afford something more expensive, and even if I could afford the $730 that seems much too high a price.

rabb1t

Confirmation from the shop after needing to pay $100 for them to investigate; it's definitely the motherboard and something they can't repair there.

Being unemployed there is no way I can afford, or get, the $730 Acer is asking to replace it. It's embarrassing and shameful to be asking so much for a laptop that is ONE year and FOUR months old. I will never be buying another Acer product again, and will be recommending against them to anyone who asks.

I was really hoping this Predator would be a solid system since I'd heard they were good, but after this... it's mind boggling the response Acer has given.

rabb1t

The post seems to have no momentum, but I thought I'd add this.

Even when the system was new the power supply brick had a very quiet 'bzzzzzzz' once the capacitors were charged. (Not completely uncommon. Of the 7 or so chargers I've had with systems over the years maybe 2-3 others did this, so I didn't think much of it.) But since the laptop has died, when the brick is plugged in to the laptop, that changes to a 'bzzzzClick... bzzzzClick... ', kind of like an old school phone line trying to connect. It just keeps cycling the buzz, click, pause. It will go back to a constant 'bzzz' tone if I disconnect the plug from the laptop.

Might be some clue as to what is causing the system to not turn on?

Again, two shops said the power supply and battery were fine. I even got a power supply and checked it myself a few days ago to be super sure (since you can return that and get your money back if you don't need it.)

rabb1t

Link to the audio of the buzz noise and how it's got a different intermittent click when attached to the now dead laptop. http://www.rabb1t.com/temp/acerbuzz.mp3

B6Miller

My acer will not turn on with or without being plugged in.

The company I bought it from said I might be able to purchase an adapter to recover the files I have stored on my ASUS Acer. I know I should have saved on the Cloud but I didn't. :( Some files I saved on an external drive.

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