Acer Chromebook CP311-3H-K5GD won't turn on.Unplugged battery and computer still won't turn on

Charging light is blue. Removed back cover. Unplugged battery and computer still won't turn on (charging light goes off when battery unplugged). Charging light was blinking orange for a while, then it turned a steady blue (so assumed battery was charged fully).

Even directly pushed the power on button on the mobo (in case the external button was broken somehow or not working). No trauma or spillage according to the computer's owner and the mobo does not look to be damaged in such a way (looks like new).

Part Number: NX.HUVAA.003

Owner states that the computer has done this on and off for several months. It would not power on for a while and then powers on without any trouble without doing anything. Then it won't power on after a while.

Is it the mobo or battery or something else? Any further diag that can be done to get a more definitive answer to the problem? I have unplugged all cables to the mobo and it still does not power on.

(If a mobo replacement is the recommendation, what happens if the customer has personal data on the original mobo that is local and not in a remote drive location (if that is possible?)

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

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Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/698356/acer-chromebook-cp311-3h-k5gd-wont-turn-on

A 3-year-old battery should still have 30-40% capacity left but the amber blinking battery LED indicates low charge. I would try to replace the battery ($44) to see if that helps, if no results, have it checked by Acer Services in your country.
https://shop-battery.com/product/7249/AP16L8J

itnorm

I have ordered the battery. Thanks Puraw.

I have the mobo out of the laptop and when I connect the battery only, the power led does not turn on, nor does the light go on if I press the power button. Once I connect the ac adaptor, the power goes on and it's blue. Does that mean the battery is dead? And if so, does a dead battery prevent the laptop from turning on?

itnorm

I have received the new battery and connected it. The power led eventually turns blue, but the laptop still will not power on. I noticed that when I disconnect the power adapter, the blue power led goes off. Is that correct for these chromebooks?

Is there any other tips/tricks/suggestions for testing/steps for the motherboard to determine if it is good?

I inspected the surface, back and front, of the mobo and found nothing obvious.

billsey

The only other status LED is the camera in use LED, which doesn't help here. With the charger disconnected, you wouldn't expect to see anything on the battery indicator.

itnorm

If the charger is connected and the battery led is blue and the power button is pressed, should the battery led go out?

billsey

As long as the charger is connected the battery indicator should be lit, no matter whether the OS is up and running or not. My guess is the battery is having issues, reporting a full charge when it's really dead…

itnorm

Thanks for that.

This is a new battery that has been connected.

With the charger connected and the battery indicator being blue, should the battery indicator led go off when the power button is pressed?

When does one decide that it is a bad mobo?

billsey

Is the new battery direct from Acer or from a third party? Are you sure it's fully compatible?

itnorm

How can one tell if it is an Acer battery? It is not direct from Acer, however, all markings are identical as the original.

PXL_20240123_175415943.jpg

billsey

Yes, both of those are Acer batteries, not third party knock offs, so it's less likely to be a battery failure. I wonder if there's an issue with the power button itself? It looks like it's a micro switch soldered to the motherboard, the yellow bit between the 13 line and the 12 line here:

I don't know if putting a VOM between contacts on that is workable or not. Perhaps you could test by shorting the pins to simulate the button closing…

Commodore_1995#

OThe power button works at a low logic level. This means that the primary 3v has to drop to 0v when the button is pressed and returns to 3v when the button is released. I would check the keyboard first.

itnorm

I have pressed the power button (the yellow component as shown in your pic) and put an ohmmeter across the contacts. The contacts are shorted when the power button is pressed.

What I don't like is that when I press the power button it seems to short the voltage coming out of the ac adapter. And the voltage is still around zero after the button is unpressed. However, even before pressing the power button should there be voltages on some of the contacts across from the ac adapter? Your pic shows one side of the mobo, it is the other side that has the contacts near the ac adapter.

billsey

Here is the other side:

itnorm

Thanks for that pic. I have since received a replacement mobo (that is brand new) and the computer now boots up even with the original battery. Is it possible that the user has data files local to the bad mobo, and therefore, not accessible with the new mobo?

AnhEZ28

@itnorm

The old motherboard might have an issue with detecting the power button state or other issues. All of the user files stayed on the NAND of the old motherboard. It will require BGA chip soldering skills to transfer the NAND from the old motherboard to the new motherboard for retrieving old data.

itnorm

I verified the power button was functioning by ohm'ing the contacts when pressing it.

Chip swapping is the only way to get the data? Doesn't the data (or most of it) get saved to the user account's gdrive?

billsey

That depends on how the user has things setup. Best practice has them using their Google Drive and in that case it is, but some people set it up for only local storage.