Acer Aspire Boot Issues and Blank Laptop Screen Aspire E5-571P-5930

bluepark94

I have an Acer Aspire E5-571P-5930 that I purchased in 2015.  I recently bought a new LCD screen and battery for this model since the LCD screen was having hardware issues and the battery had never been replaced.

Just before these new parts came, my laptop suddenly shut off and would not boot up.  Whenever I pressed the power button, the computer would attempt to boot (I.e. blue light would come on) but then after a split second immediately shut off.  I tried booting up with the new battery, no battery and the AC charger, and the old battery, but the result was the same.  I then tried the trick where you remove power and “drain” the power by holding down the power button for 60 seconds, but upon reinserting power my laptop still failed to boot after a split second.

I figured I’d try some hardware troublshooting while replacing the LCD screen, so with the laptop opened up, I:
1) Re-seated and cleaned the RAM sticks
2) Unsoldered the CMOS battery, let the motherboard drain for 15-20 minutes, then re-soldered the battery
3) Reseated all cables
4) Replaced the LCD screen
I then turned on the computer with both the battery and AC charger and the screen worked and it booted up!  It did mention it needed to do some repairing, which I elected for.  I then logged into the computer and left it running for about 10 minutes.  After this, I then shut down the machine to officially close up the computer.

But sure enough, after I closed everything up, the computer couldn’t boot up again!  I then tried all the different power options for boot-up, but nothing.  I then thought maybe the BIOS was corrupted, so I attempted to initiate the built in BIOS recovery, but it appeared my attempts didn’t do anything (but maybe they did?!?!).  After more fruitless attempts, the computer finally booted up, but now the LCD wouldn’t turn on!  I verified the computer worked through an external monitor.  I then re-opened up the computer, re-seated the LCD cabling, turned on the machine with only the AC adapter and no encasement screws in, and the LCD screen worked!, but ONLY if I had the external monitor plugged in.  Yes, plugging in the external monitor made the laptop screen turn ON, and OFF when I unplugged the monitor.

So convinced the blank screen wasn’t a cabling issue, I re-closed the laptop and booted up the computer, but the LCD screen was totally off.  I then tried some more power cycles, and sure enough. the computer won’t boot up anymore.  I’m letting the laptop rest without a battery inserted for the night to see if that helps.

I know this is a TON of detail, but any ideas or insight from where I’m at now would be greatly appreciated.  Here are some guiding questions:

1) What would have caused my computer to shut off and not be able to boot-up in the first place?  I understand my troubleshooting may have further messed things up, but I’m trying to pin point the original cause.

2) Is it possible I somehow corrupted my machine during all the power cycles?  That would seem to explain the unpredictable behavior I’ve seen so far. If there’s corruption, then what’s corrupted?  The BIOS?  The OS?  Both?  What reset options do I have that don’t involve an entire factory reset?

3) What would be causing all the weird behavior with the LCD screen not showing up?  I tried several different “quick and easy” tests (power-cycling, hot-keys, etc) but no luck.  Again; I think the LCD hardware is working.

4) What next steps would you recommend I try?

Thanks for making it this far.  I greatly appreciate it!

(Thread was edited to add model name to the title)

JackE

>>>Whenever I pressed the power button, the computer would attempt to boot (I.e. blue light would come on) but then after a split second immediately shut off.>>> know this is a TON of detail>>>>

Yeah, a lotta surgery already done. And thus lots of opportunities for collateral issues on a machine that was already exhibiting video problems. The most troubling of which ended with the instant shutdown behavior.

As a best guess from afar, it does seem like a fried CPU/GPU. Possibly stemming from intermittent LCD cable connections --- almost like trying to hot swap the LCD too many times. Failure was eminent If this intermittent behavior happened too often.

I suggest a new mainboard might be the most practical way to salvage the machine. If you're willing to wait a few weeks, Aliexpress concessionaire's have them reasonably priced. I've used them and quite often they warehouse older mainboards like your's stateside so delivery can be about a week.

bluepark94

Thanks @JackE for the feedback!

A quick follow up question for you: Given that an external monitor would display the screen, and the computer was functional otherwise, wouldn’t that suggest the CPU/GPU isn’t fried?  To be fair, I can’t get it to boot up now, but I haven’t tried since I wrote the post.

Needless to say, I’m hopeful the motherboard is still okay, and I want to avoid more hardware replacement as much as possible, but if I’m wrong, then I’ll certainly investigate that route!

Thanks again!

JackE

>>>To be fair, I can’t get it to boot up now, but I haven’t tried since I wrote the post.>>>

If you can still see a BIOS POST Acer logo screen, then yes, at least the integrated GPU would likely be OK. But that's not the impression I got toward the end of your description when you said >>>but the LCD screen was totally off.  I then tried some more power cycles, and sure enough. the computer won’t boot up anymore>>>

What about trying your HDMI screen trick again?

bluepark94

My power drain did not work, and I re-tried all of the previous troubleshooting steps that got my computer working the first time (RAM sticks, CMOS battery, etc) but it still immediately shuts off.  After pressing the power button multiple times in a row, I got the the machine to turn over, but the LCD screen was still blank, and the computer shut off again after about 20 seconds of being on.

So, it looks like you were right about the motherboard.

I have a few more questions to help me make my next move.

1) How involved is replacing the motherboard from a software standpoint?  If I buy the motherboard you mentioned that was made specifically for my model, can I just replace the board and be up and running?  Or is replacing the motherboard basically setting up a new computer from scratch?  I briefly looked on line to try and find some answers, but the post-motherboard-replacement process seems highly situation-dependent.

2) Can I re-use my Windows 10 license from my old motherboard?  If so, how do I access the license key if my motherboard is toast?

For some context, if swapping motherboards in my situation would involve basically starting from scratch, then I’ll probably just bite the bullet and buy a totally new machine.  But if replacing the motherboard is relatively hassle-free, then for me spending another $100 is definitely worth not having to re-install windows, all my programs, etc.

Thanks again!

JackE

(1) It should boot as normal if the boot drive is OK.

----BUT----

(2) After about a week or two, you might (or might not) get a Microsoft message that you need to activate or transfer your OEM license. This is sometimes printed  on a label on the bottom the machine --- or on a UPC label in the box it came in --- or available on the boot drive from the elevated command prompt by entering 'wmic os get serialnumber'. If the boot drive is in fact OK, it might be automatically transferred to the new mainboard BIOS.

>>>but the LCD screen was still blank,>>>

Do you mean BLANK with the screen's LED backlighting still partially visible? Or BLACK with no visible LED backlighting? If BLACK, can you make out any faint images by shining a flashlight on the screen?

bluepark94

Thanks for the feedback!

As for the LCD screen, the screen was BLACK (no visible light whatsoever) but I didn’t try the flash light trick, and I unfortunately can’t try again because the boot fails after a split second of powering on.

bluepark94

But the LCD is new, so I’d hope that the screen is still OK.  I guess there’s a possibility a motherboard failure fried something on the screen’s end, and unfortunately I can’t test that out with a working computer!

JackE

If you decided to get a new mainboard, you might want to shop different Aliexpress concessionairs for the LA-B161P board because prices & discounts vary considerably.