Acer TC-875 Desktop goes to black screen on startup Could this be a glitch in the motherboard CMOS?

ksquared27

I have an Acer TC-875 with a mysterious problem. When I power up, the "Acer" screen appears, and then quickly disappears to be replaced by a black screen. The PC appears to be responding to keyboard strokes, but nothing shows up on the monitor (which is receiving a signal). With multiple restarts, I can get it to display by going into BIOS, although this is not reliable. Once I exit out of BIOS and restart, the computer works fine, until the next time I start it up. The problem is not with the monitor, video card, or RAM -- I have swapped them out with no change. Could this be a glitch in the motherboard CMOS?

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/677471/desktop-goes-to-black-screen-on-startup

Update the bios to the last version R01-A3 "Update ME version to v14.5.32.1397v4" as the Management Engine controlls the following:

• Low-power, out-of-band (OOB) management services
• Capability Licensing Service (CLS)
• Anti-Theft Protection
• Protected Audio Video Path (PAVP)

Otherwise, you need to do a cmos reset as that will reset the bios/super IO chips

ksquared27

I updated the BIOS and then did the reset with no change, unfortunately. Note I can sometimes get the windows lock screen to appear, but it only stays on for a second or two. The computer is clearly working, but it is sending a blank screen to the video.

leonaip

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/677471/acer-tc-875-desktop-goes-to-black-screen-on-startup-could-this-be-a-glitch-in-the-motherboard-cmos

1. faulty RAM or RAM needs cleaning
2. HDD / SSD problem or needs replacement
3. a sign of malware attack
4. reset using factory image of the drive or restore using backup image of the drive
5. reformat and install new operating system

ksquared27

Definitely not a problem with RAM or SSD. Not likely to be malware. I doubt it has anything to do with Windows, because the problem appears even before the computer starts the Windows boot. (When I try to enter the BIOS menu, the screen goes to black, but I'm pretty sure the BIOS menu would be there if I could only see it.) At a wild guess, there is a bad CMOS bit which is occasionally bypassed depending on the system timer. If I can just get past that, the computer works fine -- until and unless I let it go to sleep. I hate to get a new motherboard; this model needs the specific Acer motherboard, and swapping it out would not be easy.

leonaip

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1174972#Comment_1174972

1. use original SONY or PANASONIC CMOS battery.
2. maybe you are using modded Windows operating system, use the original Windows operating system from Microsoft.

billsey

Likely an issue with loading the EFI file during POST. This happens after the drive is first initialized and before the OS starts to load. If the EFI load is having issues it's supposed to dump you into an EFI shell, which is a black screen that sometimes has a cursor. You can boot from a Windows install image and use the command prompt to rebuild the EFI partition. If that fixes it but it happens again then you are probably going to have to replace the drive itself since you are seeing ongoing corruption.