Swift 3 SF314-57G-78U6 black screen/won't boot

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice please. Have read numerous other posts to try and see if I could fix this on my own but sadly nothing has worked yet.

So the context...

Swift 3 SF314-57G-78UG, model N19H4, purchased mid to late 2020. Running Windows 10 (have declined the upgrade to Windows 11 a couple of times incase that is relevant)

Had worked absolutely fine with no issues. Then a couple of months ago (could have been a bit longer) I let it install a windows update and it should have switched off after doing so. I came back a few hours later and noticed the keyboard was still lit up and could hear the fan running. Screen was off and I couldn't do anything to wake it up or switch it off (long press off wouldn't work either). Closing the lid made no difference. I think on that occasion I just left it until the battery ran out and then it magically worked the next time I switched it on.

Then a few weeks ago a similar thing happened. This time though it had installed an update and shut down fine. The problem happened when I next tried to turn it on. Basically all I got was the keyboard lit up and the fan kicked in, no Acer logo appears, screen totally black . This time I was able to shut it down via long press on power button and I then started googling and found lots of info on this forum about how to use the pin hole button on the back to discharge the battery, leave for 30 minutes, then plug in charger and leave until fully charged. I did this and it worked, so I was really pleased and thought the issue was solved.

Today however, it's happened again, and the pin hole battery trick isn't working. The screen is totally black. The keyboard is still lighting up (as in permanently on, it doesn't go off if you aren't using it, and f8 does not turn the backlight off). The fan is still working.

I have tried getting it to boot straight to the BIOS using fn/f2 when turning on, I have also tried using Alt/f10 to do a recovery. Nothing is working. The only key that works is long pressing the power off.

I have just tried connecting it via hdmi to my TV in the hope that it was actually booting into Windows, but that the laptop screen itself had failed. This doesn't seem to be the case as nothing is being displayed on my TV either.

Is there anything else I can try that doesn't involve taking the back off as that is beyond my skillset I'm afraid!!

If (as I'm fearing) something major has gone wrong inside, is it worthwhile trying to get it repaired or would I be better off putting the money towards a new laptop? It's very frustrating as it's not very old and doesn't leave the house, and is only used lightly.

Sorry this is so longwinded but I thought it best to tell you exactly what I'd done to date 😀

Accepted answers

billsey

BTW, that's a great description of your issue! Thanks so much. So often what we get a 'my laptop won't turn on' and nothing else. The first two times it sounds as if the issues were related to the updates, and those might have been updates to the EFI images sent via Windows Update. We have seen those sometimes changing the BIOS defaults to something that doesn't really match the hardware. You might be seeing that. If so the first step does require opening up the system. Basically you open the case up, disconnect both the system battery and the CMOS battery and either let it sit for a long while or press and hold the power button for 30-60 seconds to bleed off any residual electricity. There is also possibly a set of CMOS reset pads on the motherboard (#19 in this diagram)

that can be used instead of bleeding off the electricity. I don't see those pads in the pictures of the actual motherboard though... Once you have it bled off, reconnect the CMOS battery, reconnect the system battery, reassemble the case, plug in the charger and wait for a full charge indication, then try to turn it back on. If it starts to come up enter the BIOS and do a reset to defaults with the F9 key followed by a save and exit with the F10 key. This is a fairly simple process for a tech, so you might just find that it's not too expensive for a local repair guy to do it for you.

All comments

Leostat

You can try shing a bright light up through the screen to see if its a backlight faliure, but the fact the external display doesnt show, i have a feeling it wont show. After that pulling out the SSD and trying to boot as sometimes a broken drive can cause a total boot faliure but that would need opening it up

Repair / Replace is a hard one, if its in waranty, 100% repair, outside of that ive found prices can be very high compared to jsut buying a new laptop :(

billsey

BTW, that's a great description of your issue! Thanks so much. So often what we get a 'my laptop won't turn on' and nothing else. The first two times it sounds as if the issues were related to the updates, and those might have been updates to the EFI images sent via Windows Update. We have seen those sometimes changing the BIOS defaults to something that doesn't really match the hardware. You might be seeing that. If so the first step does require opening up the system. Basically you open the case up, disconnect both the system battery and the CMOS battery and either let it sit for a long while or press and hold the power button for 30-60 seconds to bleed off any residual electricity. There is also possibly a set of CMOS reset pads on the motherboard (#19 in this diagram)

that can be used instead of bleeding off the electricity. I don't see those pads in the pictures of the actual motherboard though... Once you have it bled off, reconnect the CMOS battery, reconnect the system battery, reassemble the case, plug in the charger and wait for a full charge indication, then try to turn it back on. If it starts to come up enter the BIOS and do a reset to defaults with the F9 key followed by a save and exit with the F10 key. This is a fairly simple process for a tech, so you might just find that it's not too expensive for a local repair guy to do it for you.

Spacey_1

Thank you @Leostat and @billsey for your replies 👍

Sorry, shining a bright light at the screen was another thing I tried but I forgot to include that in my original post!!

I think I'll try finding/contacting a local repair place and asking them to try the above suggestion if it doesn't cost to much. Then if that doesn't help I guess it's going to be replacement time (sadly no, it's not still under warranty 😕 )

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