Hi guys!
My old Acer E1-571 old i3 laptop is taking hours to boot. Meanwhile it stays with a blank screen. No access to BIOS, no Acer logo, no error beeps. It seems to be stuck on the POST, retrying, and retrying and retrying…
Once it boots it works perfectly, and if I suspend it, it resumes fine. As long I don't shut it down…
Since the screen's hinges were almost broken and it's keyboard was starting to malfunction, I decided to give is as almost dead and remove its motherboard, eventually to mount it externally in some other way. I have the board sitting outside on top of a wooden table (electrically isolated, of course!) connected to an external monitor, with its monitor, battery and keyboard removed. Just the minimal setup.
It's been months since I've last used it and now it took all night long and didn't boot. Honestly I don't know if it's the board or the CPU that died.
The motherboard appears to be phisically fine, with no signs of anything being burnt.
The BIOS' version is the last one, so it is updated.
The RAMs (2 x 4GB) are working fine, I've tested them on another computer.
I've removed the CMOS battery for about 15 minutes, nothing changes.
If I could least make a diagnostic to know what's damaged (the board or the CPU) I would get a replacement part, but I have no spare CPU to test. I've checked for a manual online but all the errors it states on troubleshooting are printed on the screen and I don't even get to it to turn on.
SYMPTOMS:
If I place a RAM on bank 1, it tries for some seconds and them automatically shuts down. The power LED from the power button lights up, the fan starts and some other LED on the board stays lit for a couple of seconds.
If I place RAMs on both banks, it can try to boot a few times and then shut down, or stays on a cycle that the fan spins, the power LED from the power button lights up, a LED on the board blinks, and after a few seconds it seems the system reboots, with the LED from the power button going out for a second and then the system tries again. Then the whole cycle repeats.
If I place a RAM on bank 0, it tries a similar loop like above with 2 RAMs, but it doesn't seem to make "system reboots", it seems like one continuous hours long loop. The LED from the power button stays on continously, the fan starts high and then slows down and spins for some seconds, then stops, and then resumes spinning on low revs, and some LED from the board keeps blinking.
I never get to see the screen turning on or showing the Acer logo, so I'm assuming it gets stuck on the POST. Yesterday it didn't boot and I haven't used this computer in months, but usually it kept doing this for some hours, booting eventually. And when it boots, it works happily and perfectly. Weird…
I've searched on pages and videos and tried almost anything and I have no clue of what might be wrong. Can anyone give me some hints on how to diagnose this? At least to get an idea if this could be a faulty motherboard or the CPU and to know if there's anything to be saved here or replaced eventually.
Any doubt, please just ask.
Many many thanks, guys!
B.
[Edited the thread to add issue detail]
