acer spin CP713 flashing cursor/mouse pointer.

Help I have an acer spin cp713, 18 months old, it's useless, and acer don't or won't repair it free of charge despite the fault having been there since just a few weeks old. The issue is that I keep getting the mouse and cursor point flashing and disappearing causung spurious operations of Web pages, I thought its maybe caused by the trackpad dirt or dust or dirt under a key on keyboard but I've cleaned, vacumed and sprayed it with wd40, no difference, I've hard reset it, power washed it several times, run in in the beta and stable channels, run it in guest mode, if fact everything recommended has been tried, still to no avail, it seems to be getting worse, sometimes if it's switched off and cold it might behave for a while when switched on, but when it warms up that's it, its unusable, u can't click on anything, even holding down trackpad doesn't stop the shelf position screen keeps flashing on an off. What's the cause, its driving me nuts, this was £649, not cheap for a chrome book, and it's frankly rubbish and unusable, anybody had same issue? What's wrong with it, I'm convinced now it's not software, it's hardware, Acer are u listening? A quality device should last years, this only worked for a few weeks, help from anyone in the acer community on this would be much appreciated many thanks.

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billsey

This is a community support board and Acer has no one monitoring it other than the moderators. You should have had them fix it while it was still in warranty... I haven't heard of anyone else reporting the same type of problem and with a Chromebook we can't point fingers at software easily so you are likely correct in your assessment of hardware issues. What happens if you open it up and disconnect the touchpad then use an external mouse? Which CP713 model do you have, there have been a number of them over the years...

Davewills1

I have disconnected the trackpad internally inside and it makes no difference, with an external mouse connected its exactly same as it was, and further suggestions billsey

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billsey

So we can say for sure it's not the trackpad causing the issue. Which CP713 model is it? The next culprit to look at is the touchscreen, which can't be disconnected without disconnecting the display itself. You could reseat the cable ends between the motherboard and display, in case there's a little corrosion on them. If your model is the CP713-1WN it's even more complex because the screen has two digitizers, the normal touchscreen and the active digitizer for the stylus. In either case if reseating the eDP cable doesn't help we're likely looking at either replacing the cable or the display, and the latter likely isn't cost effective.

Davewills1

Hi Billsey, this afternoon I've dissembled the unit, taken the mobo out, cleaned it with contact cleaner spray and a soft toothbrush, reassembled it completely. It's the core i5, 128gb ssd nvme, 8gb ddr4 ram. Touch screen, I don't use a digital pen with it although I think it supports it. I have tried disconnecting the trackpad, I've tried an external keyboard and mouse none of these things has stopped the fault so I feel it can only be the screen or the system main board, either of those render it uneconomic to repair, so frustrating as it's done it since nearly new but I didn't take it back because of currys useless customer support, but its only 18 months old now. I've cleared keyboard, and trackpad with contact spray, and the screen thoroughly too but to no avail. When it's switched on from cold it sometimes behaves itself for 5 to 10 minutes then reverts. I really think a premium chromebook should last many years but after contacting acer customer support they're just saying it's out of warantee and send it back for £60, they'll look at it and give an an estimate on the repair, or rather at least what they think it is, but either way, if its screen, or mobo which it most likely is, then its scrap I guess

billsey

You might give Curry's a try, see if they will escalate to a higher level tech support. Did you originally start a ticket with them back when it was still in warranty, with them not responding with an actual fix? If so you might be able to argue that it's till the same issue...

Davewills1

No sadly I didn't or I'd have some chance of recourse now, on the slight plus side, I've had it powered up now for couple of hours, and it seems to be behaving touch wood, which tells me it might just be a connection issue somewhere, but if it is, then I think its in the ribbon connector for screen to mobo or a screen fault itself but if it was a hard fault it would behave just the same no matter what i did so i have some hope. How do I know which screen digitiser I have, u mentioned, it didn't come with a stylus so I'm not sure but in settings there is a setting tab for a stylus.

Davewills1

Spoke too soon, it's back again, so it really must be a hard fault or a falt thats heat related, only other thing i can try is to connect an external monitor to the hdmi socket of it to see if it behaves with an ordinary monitor on it, butvif that proves it the touch screen, results still the same, it would be beyond economic repair 😡

Davewills1

Right, after all the time spent on this now, I think most likely cause is the screen digitiser, which means a complete new screen, which is not cost economic I guess...

Davewills1

Billsey, I've found a spares retailer on ebay that sells the screen at £145, do u think that's a reasonable price, any idea? Its brand new and is correct one. I just can't see how this could be a system board issue now thinking about it...

billsey

It's more likely to the the cable between screen and motherboard, next often the screen itself and rarely the motherboard. What is the return policy fro the vendor?

Davewills1

They do accept returns, I have cleaned the mobo end of the screen connection cable several times and it's defo not that end, I will try to disconnect the screen end and spray it with contact cleaner to see if it makes any difference b4 the screen arrives

Davewills1

Hi Billsey, so I have now disconnected the connector of the screen, at the screen end, sprayed both the mail and female ends with contact cleaner and used a soft tooth brush to clean them, connected it back up to mobo and fired it up, without putting it all together again, and after a while fault has returned, flashing, disappearing cursor/mouse pointer and false spurious operations of opening and closing pages in browser and other screen presses, so unless the cable itself it faulty then I can only assume now its the screen digitiser... least I very much hope so as screen is on its way