acer travelmate p453 power on problem.

Logan57
Logan57 Member Posts: 9

Tinkerer
in TravelMate and Extensa
Hi all, i have a acer laptop acer travelmate p453, and it has a bazaar problem, when i turn it on it works flawless until i turn it off, when i come to turn it back on theres a little blue light comes on, so if i disconnect the battery and power jack reset it by holding the power button for 1 min the re-attach the battery still nothing so i reset it again put the battery back in wait between 6 to 8 hours it works flawless until the next time its turned off so i changed the hardrive still the same so changed out the ram still the same thing happens, so i totally stripped it removed all the ribbon cables cleaned them cleaned the fan put it all back together and still the same works flawless and when turned off a wait between 6 to 8 hours, i would be very gratefull if someone has any idea what it could be? sorry for this long winded post. Logan

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,565 Trailblazer
    A few questions.... When you 'turn it off' what do you do? Press the power button, close the lid, go to the start menu and select Shut Down, something else? The blue light that come on, is it the battery full light? Which P453 model do you have?
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi and thank you billsey, i click on the little window sign go to power and press shut down, as for the battery its 100% no power adapter plugged in, then as the battery wears out i plug in the power adapter with no problems, i can use it all day without incident its only when i turn it off then want to turn it on it just sits there with 2 blue light when plugged into the power adapter, i,ve tried taking the battery out and the mains adapter out the hold the power button for 1 min then plug the battery back in and try to power it up the little blue light comes on with a little pic of a lamp, so i take the battery out press the power key for 1 minute then plug its ac adapter (no battery) and try again and still no life in it except the little blue light, i was sitting thinking about it and its like maybe a couple of capacitors are charged and when they slowly lose there charge around 6 to 8 hours it comes back to life. the model number is: BA50 Iappreciate your replying bill. Much appreciated Logan.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,565 Trailblazer
    I am leaning toward it being a bad battery, even though it seems to run fine when using the battery. The caveat is that it might be too old for the battery to act like that. Your battery is a lithium-ion 6 cell design and it was released sometime near when there was the scare about computer batteries blowing up or catching on fire during plane flights. The issue was traced to the batteries growing 'whiskers' of metallic lithium when sitting in a discharged state. Think of little spear of metal growing longer and longer. When the spears penetrated the membrane between layers the residual charge was all dumped at once internally, causing the heat. The fix was to put some smarts into the battery that allowed it to not discharge fully and that's still used today, albeit with a bit more sophistication than they used back then. When the battery gets low enough it stops working, so when Windows sees a battery getting close to that point it shuts down to make sure the battery doesn't reach the threshold. If a battery does get into that low state it's disabled and you can no longer use it.
    Anyway... There are two things that monitor the battery to prevent it reaching the dangerous point. The battery itself keeps stats on it's performance so as to not allow it to get too low, and Windows does the same thing. With the older batteries there are bugs in the battery side of things and it can get really confused about itself. Windows can get confused about the battery as well, but the more recent versions don't have as much issue as the older ones did. I'm guessing the battery is thinking it's getting too close to the low state and isn't letting you use it, but when sitting for a while it gradually decides the data needs to be updated and it then discovers there's enough juice after all. That scenario would give you the symptoms you are seeing. For the near turn you should be able to just live with it, but in the longer term you might want to look at replacing the battery.
    Next time you want to test... Disconnect the battery as you have been doing and press and hold the power button. That will bleed off residual electricity in the laptop itself. When done reconnect the battery but don't turn it on. Plug the power in and wait until the battery indicator is showing a full charge, then turn it back on. The process of charging with the system off should help to straighten out the confused data internal to the battery. Next do a Windows calibration. Disconnect power with the computer running and wait for Windows to shut down due to low battery, it might be anywhere from 3-10% left depending on which power plan you are using. Reconnect power and wait for full charge again before turning it on, then repeat the cycle a few times. Each time you do that Windows will get better at displaying valid number for battery life.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey, i appreciate the quick reply and the information you have given me is quite an interesting read, i shall try what you have suggested and will come back sometime next week and let you know how it goes, i never thought for 1 moment it might be the battery but what you say makes complete sense. Once again billsey i appreciate your help with my laptop. Best regards Logan.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,565 Trailblazer
    edited August 2021
    Please do let us know how it works out.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey i will, Much appreciated Logan.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey, sorry for this late reply, internet connection problems, i have done as you suggested, but the problem still exists, i did notice at the ending of the tests if after letting the laptop run down and switch off and just plug the ac back in and let it charge up without disconnecting the battery and letting any residue voltage deplete when its fully charged and left a few hours it comes on, i just cant figure out why???? out of all the laptops i,ve had this has been the only 1 with this bazaar fault, like i said  if i disconnect the battery discharge and voltage, put the battery back plug in the charger wait about 8 hours and if i leave the charger plugged in it,ll run all day. totally bazaar. Much appreciated Logan. 
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,565 Trailblazer
    So, I am confused there... When you let it run down until Windows shuts it off, then plug in charger and fully charge it, can you then turn it on and it's working or do you have to let it sit still?
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey, thank you for the reply, i have disabled it from going into sleep mode, because if it goes into sleep mode the whole problem returns, i,ve racked my brains and cant come up with a suitable idea, i,ve had quite a few laptops/netbooks in my time and not once seen this fault, a lot of years ago i used to repair televisions 1 in particular a samsung model and what happened 1 day my sister,s tv started to make a clicking noise like a relay switching on and off i told my sister 1 day that clicking is going to stop (she asked me what would happen?...your tv does not come back on) anyway it was down to 3 faulty caps that were replaced and to this day now is still working. so my thinking was possible power supply fault but ruled that out, then while i was looking for answers to my problem (and this is how i found this forum)  someone ( not on here) mentioned they had dissembled there laptop cleaned it took out all the ribbon cables cleaned them and reassembled the laptop and bingo it worked, so i followed suit but still no joy, changed out the memory/hardrive but still no joy. i have never given up on anything as a challenge but this is getting close to it, i even changed out the power adapter yep you guessed still the same, just out of curiosity i put in another hdd in it and installed chromium on it, i had a strong feeling it wouldn't work , to be fair i was curious to the operating system that wasn't windows driven would work on a windows laptop and to be fair i was quite impressed with chromium i,ve since installed it on a different windows laptop. i appreciate all your help and suggestions billsey.  Logan.  
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey, sorry for the ramble above i didn't answer your question, unfortunately when i run it down without the adapter connected when it switches off due to low battery and i reconnect the power adapter the light for the battery comes on to show its charging and if i press the power button the little blue lamp next to the charging led comes on and nothing happens, after the battery is fully charged it wont switch on unless i remove the battery press the power button for 1 min reattach the battery wait 6-8 hours it works, as i said above while its on if i attach the power adapter it,ll work flawlessly until i turn it off, so if i was to use it all day and as the power on the battery starts to fade and plug in the power adapter before it has time to switch off it,ll sit there nicely chugging away. Many thanks billsey. Logan.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,565 Trailblazer
    OK, so the Windows battery recalibration process doesn't affect the behavior, even fully charging the battery after the draw down gives the same symptom where it doesn't turn on. What happen if you hibernate instead of sleeping? You should be able to test that fairly quickly, though you might have to enable hibernation in the power plan edit mode. If that works it gives us a possible bypass of the issue, though we'll still want to try and pin it down. We're getting pretty close to the point where I throw up my hands and have you ask Acer for a repair. :(
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Logan57
    Logan57 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    Hi billsey, the problem still remains, but having said that am not 1 forgiving up so i,ve used the screen to replace another laptop, the keyboard/memory and plastics along with the memory are now surplus to requirements. I really do appreciate your help and efforts regarding this laptop. Once again thank you my friend. Logan.

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