Acer aspire c24 865 will not power on. Moved AIO PC to another location, now it will not power on.

fred64 · February 28

Moved the AIO PC to another location, now it will not power on. When I plug in the power the tiny power indicator (with the power logo) lights up and stays on. If I press the power button for about 15 seconds, the light will turn off. Press the button again it lights up no fans, nothing on the screen (no logo, no backlight etc.) Tried a different power supply — didn't help. PC is at least 5-6 years old but was working OK.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

fred64 · March 1

I tried connecting an external monitor using the HDMI port. It never even syncs up. I also put my ear next to the air vent. I can hear a fan running. I also tried plugging in a bootable USB. While the power light is on, it lights up solid (not flashing like its trying to read it). When turning the PC on the USB does not seem to try to boot, it just lights up steady too.

I'm thinking, maybe I should try replacing the CMOS battery, I'm sure iots as old as the PC. Any ideas would be helpful.

billsey · March 1

Your Aspire C24-865 was released in 2017 IIRC, so the CMOS battery could easily be the culprit. Typical life for those coin cells is around 7 years, and you are right at 8. :)

First step in replacing it is to remove the stand with the monitor face down on a clean surface, maybe with a towel to keep from scratching:

Then there is a single screw:

There might be things in the way, so verify first before removing the metal shield:

And that should give you access to the CMOS battery:

It is likely a standard CR2032, though hard to read in that image. Replace it with a new one, reassemble by reversing the process and give it another try. If it starts at all, drop into the BIOS and do a reset to defaults (F9) and then save and exit (F10).

fred64 · March 5

SO, I removed the coin cell battery. And, because it has worked on some HP laptops, I held in the power button for 90 seconds. Then replaced it with a new battery.. It did not resolve the problem. I checked the video cable to the screen (reseated both ends). I removed the memory, the SSD drive and the WiFi card. Still powers up with a black screen. I'm thinking its the video controller, since the HDMI port does not work either. Unless someone has some other suggestion. I'm really on the fence about replacing the MOBO… If it does not work its $$ down the drain.

billsey · March 5

Yes, if the issue is in the MB you are likely past the point of no return, cost wise. AIOs don't use standard motherboards, their designs are more like laptops so have custom sizes and shapes. The onboard video is a different circuit from the chipset than the HDMI, so a display failure would still leave the HDMI port working. That points more toward the motherboard itself…

PMTechnix · April 6

Hi,

I've been repairing an Acer Aspire C24-865 (D17W3, Intel i5-8250U) this week (from a friend), and like everyone, searching the internet I found a lot of questions but no solutions. So I decided to fix it myself. Of course I tried replacing the RAM, the power supply, reset CMOS, possibly disconnecting everything etc, but nothing 100%-helped.

When I compared the voltages on the IOs, MOSFETs etc in the error state with the working one, everything was OK (Input 19.5V and then 5V, 3.3V, 2.5V, 1.8V etc). The only difference was that in the non-functional state, there was no voltage of about 43V available to light up the LCD.I had the advantage of being able to bring up the bad state and then get back to the functional state. In fact, if I unplugged the power supply for about 10-20s (so that the capacitors would discharge or the MB would cool down a bit, not just turn the PC off with the power button) and then plugged it back in, the PC could be turned on. But after warming up and then turning off the PC, with the power supply plugged in, the PC could not be turned on. Even when I connected another power supply with a lower voltage of about 18.5V (instead of the original 19.5V), the PC always turned on 4 out of 5 times without any problems.

It's a bug on the motherboard (PIXBLU/EIFFEL215i, 17577), a "cold/fault soldered joint". It's temperature and voltage dependent, at least in my case. I haven't figured out the specific component, I've also looked at it under a microscope.

In the end of all, I heated all the components (especially all the IOs, MOSFETs and transistors) on the motherboard from both sides with a hot air gun (about 305°C for 10s, there is hard solder) and, world wonder, fixed it.Everything is functional.

It even solved the fact that before, when the PC was running, 1-2 CPU cores had extremely higher temperature (75-80°C) than the others (50-60°C) at rest during idle.

So now the PC is quieter and feels faster.

Hopefully this will help someone to solve this problem.In any case it takes a bit of technical and skilled experience, a layman won't fix this.

fred64 · April 6

Thanks for your help. It was surely the motherboard. The cost for a replacement was too high for this old a CPU. However, I found a C24-963 with a newer, Windows 11 capable CPU that looked physically almost the same layout. I installed it and it worked. It fits the case perfectly, all the ports lined up and most of the mounting screws as well. A few of the cable connections moved slightly, no problem there. The only issue was the heatsync screw stanchions around the CPU were missing, I just used a soldering iron to pop them out of the old board and they fit perfectly. Two other things, the cooling fan plug is for a 4 wire fan, so I had to order one, their plugs were different. Second, there is no microphone plug on the new board, that I could find, so no place to plug in the old front panel mike, making the original external USB camera limited to no audio. Not a big deal, it can be replaced with an off the shelf USB webcam, just won't look as nice… sigh.

Nice thing is I now have essentially an Aspire C24-963 with a 10th gen cpu that works great.

PMTechnix · April 8

That sounds interesting, thanks for your info.
In case of further problems I will know what to replace it with if necessary.

Jackramzan · April 8

If the power light turns on but there's no fan or display, it could be a hardware issue—possibly a loose internal connection, damaged motherboard, or faulty RAM. Try a power reset: unplug the PC, hold the power button for 30 seconds, then plug back in. If that doesn't help, it may need professional diagnostics.