Acer TravelMate P645 - almost starts but doesn't show anything on the screen

I've got an Acer TravelMate P645 Model A4DBH (it's an i5). I loaded Linux on it and it's been running fine for months (it flies in fact!).

Being ten years old or so the battery charge doesn't last too long. I hadn't used it for a couple of months, got it out to use it, and the battery was totally dead.

I charged it and the orange charge light turned blue (so the battery is fully charged).

It has a backlit keyboard… When I try to start it up the Power and Wireless buttons both light up blue for only a couple of seconds, then both go off again. Nothing appears on the screen at all.

I have tried the paper clip in the battery hole for 30 seconds - no difference.

Any ideas as to what could be wrong? Thanks!

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Accepted answers

All comments

Alejandro_AC

Hi @Flopsy If the power reset has not worked, it means that the battery is not working even if it appears to be charged, but I have a question: does the equipment work connected to the power supply?

Flopsy

Thanks for the reply.

No, exactly the same thing happens if the power supply is connected.

The Power and Wireless buttons do both light up blue (only for a couple of seconds), even if the power supply is disconnected, so the battery must be working?

Flopsy

Ah… looking at the inside reveals a problem. This is near the battery, but is actually the ribbon connector that comes from the USB sockets (right hand side when using the laptop). The green looks like copper corrosion - how can this have happened? I had left a wireless mouse dongle plugged in to one of the two USB ports but surely this shouldn't be a problem?

Flopsy

BTW I cleaned it up as best I could but there is still some corrosion damage there (even on the black push-down connector).

I tried booting it, with and without the ribbon cable in but it's still the same. Presumably it's failing some low level boot test. Looks like the laptop is toast unfortunately.

Alejandro_AC

For some reason the equipment has moisture, hence the green sulfate. The bad thing about moisture is that when the equipment is turned on, it can cause electronic damage, which is possibly the reason, although I cannot be sure.

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 105

Alejandro_AC 75

StevenGen 65

Kno63 60

Jack22 55

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™