Swift 3 SF314-511 Won't power on, tried reset, charge, etc

schwinn

I have a Swift 3, model SF314-511. Had it for about 1. 5 years, very gently used.

Last week it was running, and then the same afternoon it refused to power up. I went through various posts here on the community to try to get it to power up but nothing has worked. Specifically, I have tried the battery reset (held for a few seconds, 30 seconds, and 60 seconds), made sure the battery is fully charged (it is and it's not that old and works very well normally), removed all peripherals, held the power button down for a few seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc. I have even left the laptop reset and off power overnight, and it still won't power on.

Every time I try to power on, the power LED turns on (blue) for a few seconds, then turns off. No flashing LEDs or anything else anywhere else. I also tried connecting it to a working HDMI monitor, and nothing shows up there either. Only indcator that shows is the blue power LED for a few seconds, and nothing else.

Any other troubleshooting I can try?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/683308/wont-power-on-tried-reset-charge-etc

Do a Hard Reset, undo the back cover and take the battery out, disconnect the bios battery and take the ram out, leave all components disconnected for 15min and reconnect all and reboot laptop, this should reboot your laptop.

If it doesn’t then its an internal power stage at either the 3.3v or 5v as there could be circuitries that are shorted or blown and a user like you can't fix, you need to take your laptop to technician that has all the tools to diagnose the laptop and replace appropriate circuitries which require a microscope and micro soldering tools.

schwinn

Got it. Pulled battery, CMOS battery. RAM is soldered. Only other things I could pull are the WIFI card and the SSD… do I need to remove those?

schwinn

Unfortunately, pulling the battery and CMOS, then plugging them back in didn't fix it. Still does the same thing (LED for a few seconds, then off).

Anything else I can try?

billsey

Any chance you did a BIOS update just before the issue showed? It sounds like it's not getting started on POST.

schwinn

No, no update on the BIOS.

Yeah, it does look like that to me as well, but I don't have any ideas on what else to test or try. I may try pulling the drive and the WIFI just in case and see if that helps… but I can't think of anything else to try?

schwinn

Well, that didn't help either. I also tried pulling the BIOS battery during the power up - still nothing.

Is there any way to force the BIOS to reset? In older computers, you could put a jumper to force the motherboard to load factory defaults… I'm guessing there may not be such an option on these new laptop boards…

I can also probe the voltages if necessary - I just don't know where to probe. Any ideas on where this can be tested from?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194315#Comment_1194315

If you cannot power up nothing will help you, the blue light going on/off is telling; on my Aspire5 laptop that would mean trying to start on battery only but failed. Power adapter charge light is initially orange and turns blue when the battery is full. Those two items plus your 5 year old MOBO/PSU/DC barrel port and power switch are probably the cause. If you are willing to spend $25, buy a new adapter fully compatible with your system (measuring the voltage is one thing but the Watt is equally important, not to forget the tip of the plug, color code and ID and OD of the pin). Then disconnect the battery and try to start with the new adapter only. Or send the laptop to Acer Services for checking.

schwinn

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194370#Comment_1194370

I have two power adapters. Both fail to boot the machine.

You mention 5-year-old, but this laptop is 1.5 years old, gently used, and not used as often as other machines in our household… so none of those should be the issue. The battery charges fully, and ran for multiple days with our limited usage of this machine as well… it wasn't worn and held a good charge.

I don't believe this is an external PSU issue, as both chargers can get the battery to charge to "blue" without issue. That is the current state of the battery, and how I've been testing, based on recommendations for this problem, but if you have a better test idea, please do let me know.

I have started the process for Acer services yesterday, but I haven't heard anything back yet. We'll see how that goes as well.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194413#Comment_1194413

Good decision.

William_mk2

@schwinn

I am really sorry for the inconvenience. It looks like a hardware issue.

You might have to take it to local tech.

It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet.   Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet.  Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet.    Try to use an alternative charger if possible.    Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it  ( as long as the battery is not drained out )  

It might also be a issue with motherboard or loose cable connection , hdd or memory. You can try your luck. Try to reseat the components one more time and check it.

Let us do the basic steps first..

Doing the power drain and bios defaults will really help.  Kindly follow the steps given below:

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down.  On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a  pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer.  Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery.  Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down.  On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door.  Just below that you can find a latch.  If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer. 
 
If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop.   Hold the power button for 1 minute.  After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

Connect all the cables back and restart the computer.  

While turning on the computer, tap f2. It will go to bios. Press f9 once. It will show load bios defaults with a yes or no popup. Press enter. Popup screen will disappear.  Press f10 once. It will show save changes popup with yes or no. Press enter. Computer will restart and it will load into windows.   
 
It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet.   Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet.  Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet.    Try to use an alternative charger if possible.    Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it  ( as long as the battery is not drained out )  

Try windows x 
go to device manager 
expand Battery
right click on all the items below battery – uninstall 
Restart the computer 
 
It should work fine.. 

It might also be a issue with motherboard or loose cable connection , hdd or memory. You can try your luck. Try to reseat the components one more time and check it.

If it is still not working , it looks like a hardware issue. Kindly take it to local service tech.

schwinn

Thanks for the detail, William. However, I have already said I did the majority of those tests. Battery reset, hard reset (as recommended by @StevenGen ) and other things. The machine is not even getting into BIOS POST as noted in the rest of the thread, and I implicitly asked if there was a way to reset that (beyond the battery removal, as that hasn't worked)… there has been no reply to that.

I have tried other power chargers - one of my chargers is a USB-C PD charger which also works well. Both the OEM charger and the PD charger work to charge the battery properly (and has allowed the battery charge indicator to go from orange to blue as expected). So, it shouldn't be a port issue either. I have also used multiple outlets (thought I didn't mention that explicitly).

I have also tried the loose component theory - only batteries (CMOS and main), SDD, and WIFI card are removable (RAM is soldered). I have tried to power the machine with all of these disconnected for 30 minutes, then reconnected the BIOS and main battery - still the same issue. (Again, the issue is it shows a blue power LED for a few seconds, which then turns off… now that the case is open, I can also confirm the fan doesn't rotate at all during this time either, though I don't think it ever does on power up anyway).

I also just tried running any/all of these with the main battery removed, and the barrel power only connected. I also just tried reseating the video cable and the IO cable (note, the laptop won't power up with the IO cable disconnected).

Again, looking for other ideas, but it seems like this is a MB issue so far. But I'm happy to test more/deeper - I'm quite technical, I'm just not familiar with the ins-and-outs of this custom motherboard and this brand.

schwinn

Quick update, just got a VERY disappointing email from Acer service. Basically, they want to charge me $470 (+ tax + shipping + whatever else) to even look at this laptop. I dealt with MANY laptop manufacturers, and I can say this is the WORST support I have ever seen for a product. I get that it's out of warranty, and I get that things break… but Acer has provided ZERO support on this (only this community has provided any support) and they want me to pay basically to buy a new laptop, and basically have no intentions of repairing this one at all. I mean, I would get if they said they could look at it for a fee or something, but this is ridiculous. What's more, they have provided no info or support, which is awful as well - I can still get FREE support and info on many other brands of laptops, even after 4+ years of ownership… yet Acer provides nothing!?

Again, I have worked with pretty much every brand out there and none have ever said anything like this. Needless to say, I will not be buying another Acer ever again, and I will be telling anyone what has happened here.

I'd still like to try to fix this old one (I may try buying a replacement MB on ebay or something) but Acer has lost my business and drawn my ire.

Thank you to the community here, for trying to help. Again, I'd love to get this machine running again with your help, but without documentation, info, etc, I don't think it's going to happen. I appreciate the support given by you all… and I will stick around to see if there are any other ideas. Thanks in advance!

billsey

You might try a local repair shop to see what they say. They likely have the ability to reflash the BIOS chip, which might fix it and might do nothing. It's acting like the BIOS doesn't get loaded at power up though so I'd guess that is more than likely the issue.

schwinn

@billsey Yeah, that's a decent thought for sure… I might have to look around to see how that can be done. Hell, I'd consider buying hardware to make that possible as well, as it could come in useful in the future. Any ideas on what type of flash tool would be needed to do this?

billsey

Ana Amazon search for bios programmer seems to have a lot of options. Not that I've used any of them…

Surge08

Did you ever solve this? I’m having the same issue and I’m beginning to suspect the CMOS battery needs replaced as the time and date constantly needs resynced when it eventually does come on after button bashing for 20 minutes. Apparently CMOS can affect booting.

billsey

The SF314-511 models are a little new to be having CMOS battery issues, they were released at the end of 2022 IIRC. Date and time resync needs do point toward that though. A bad CMOS chip could cause it as well…