Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Black screen but fans running and keyboard light up

MiloIV · May 2022

Hi everyone,

When I started my laptop today Windows decided to update on its own, so after a couple of restarts the laptop started powering on and off quite rapidly. So I decided to press the power button to force it to shutdown. At the moment, the laptop turns on and off without even posting or showing the predator logo. What I have noticed is that this only happens when plugged in. Once I remove the charger and use the battery, the laptop just stays on with nothing on the display (keyboard RGB lights up and fans running) indefinitely.

I have no clue what is happening, I'm thinking maybe Windows decided to mess around with the BIOS firmware and something happened? Any tips would be helpful.

Is the laptop power cycling when plugged in a debug thing by Acer? Like the laptop is trying to recover itself using a USB or something?

Also, does anyone know where Acer's repair shops are in Australia?

Thanks.

StevenGen · May 2022

MiloIV said:

Hi everyone,

When I started my laptop today Windows decided to update on its own, so after a couple of restarts the laptop started powering on and off quite rapidly. So I decided to press the power button to force it to shutdown. At the moment, the laptop turns on and off without even posting or showing the predator logo. What I have noticed is that this only happens when plugged in. Once I remove the charger and use the battery, the laptop just stays on with nothing on the display (keyboard RGB lights up and fans running) indefinitely.

I have no clue what is happening, I'm thinking maybe Windows decided to mess around with the BIOS firmware and something happened? Any tips would be helpful.

Is the laptop power cycling when plugged in a debug thing by Acer? Like the laptop is trying to recover itself using a USB or something?

Also, does anyone know where Acer's repair shops are in Australia?

Thanks.

The laptop needs resetting, I don’t know if this laptop is under warranty? If it is and you have no experience and are a novice ‘don’t touch the laptop’ and send it to Acer see the Aussie Acer site here “Contact Acer” as I’m from Sydney Australia and I know as you need to make contact with Acer at the below links and/or phione number.

Service and Support

Retail Customers and Consumers:

Technical Support: 1300 365 100 - 7:00am to 9:00pm Monday to Friday AEST / Week Ends 9:00am to 6:00pm Saturday and Sunday AEST

Online Technical Support, please click here - https://au.answers.acer.com/app/ask

Service and Repair Enquiries: 1300 365 100 - 7:00am to 9:00pm Monday to Friday AEST

If you have experience then open the back cover and first disconnect the battery, then take the battery out and disconnect the RTS (CMOS battery) and leave both batteries disconnected for 5 min then reconnect and reassemble the laptop and reboot, the reboot will take about 1 min so be patient as your laptop should work if you haven’t disturbed and/or powerd off the laptop while the “Windows Update” process is still running, which it categorically tell you not to do, see how you go and get back to us? Also and if it’s a windows update problem, can you see the pre boot logo, can you get into the bios as you have to reset the laptop with pressing the F10 key just post boot numerous times to get into the Windows Troubleshooting process and other steps as all this is crucial to recovering your OS.

MiloIV · May 2022

Hey Steven, thanks for responding. Unfortunately, the laptop is not under warranty. In terms of my technical ability, I would say I am not a novice so feel free to get as technical as required. I have a feeling the bios was probably corrupted as I had already done what you told me to do twice now with no luck.

The laptop does not post at all, so no logo no nothing it just stays like that with the fans running at a moderate speed and the RGB keyboard lights on.

Here's a video: https://streamable.com/kgg69u

What is interesting is that the laptop no longer power cycles when plugged in. It now has the same behaviour when running on battery.

The Windows update I believe ran successfully, it said that it was going cleaning up and going to restart, which it did. But then the laptop started power cycling for no reason and so I pressed the power button to force it to shutdown. So, there are two possibilities:

1) I interrupted the Windows update by forcing shut down.
2) Windows installed a bad Bios that prevented the laptop from POSTing (hence the power cycling)

Also, how much do you reckon it would cost for Acer to reflash the BIOS chip for me?

MiloIV · May 2022

Interestingly enough, when I plug the USB that contains the BIOS into the laptop (the fact that the USB contains a BIOS file shouldn't matter) and plug the charger in and press the power button, the power cycling starts, as shown here: https://streamable.com/anv8pr

This is the EXACT same behaviour that happened after Windows restarted after stating it was cleaning up (then I forced shutdown because I thought it was a power issue). But, in this case, I had my keyboard plugged in through both USB and USB-C and my external monitor through HDMI.

I feel like this may be a debug feature in this laptop, where it tries to do something with the USB devices that are connected. It would be helpful if I could get someone from the Acer support team here. I would prefer to try and fix it ASAP as I need it for work.

AnhEZ28 · May 2022

@MiloIV since you tell that you know how to do technical work, did you try to unplug the battery and hold the power button for 15 secs?
Also, this power cycling problem could be the RAM issue. You can try testing with each RAM stick but will need more works because you will have to take the whole motherboard out in order to access the RAM slot.

MiloIV · May 2022

Hi Anh, those steps I had already tried with no luck. In terms of it being a RAM issue, I don't think that is the case as it is not consistent behaviour. Rather, it only happens when I press FN + ESC and have a USB plugged in. This is defined behaviour made by the designers of this laptop. Any Acer engineers in this forum?

AnhEZ28 · May 2022

@MiloIV there is a chance that the BIOS is corrupted. Do you have another computer?

MiloIV · May 2022

Yes I do have another computer. Does this laptop support flashing by USB?

AnhEZ28 · May 2022

@MiloIV download the BIOS from the support page and follow this video to get the .fd file

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwgIBjsqBIM
Plug the USB into the working computer and back up any data on that USB to a separate folder on that computer. (if you have)
Format the USB as FAT32. Put the .fd file into the USB. After that unplug the USB and plug it into your triton 500.
Make sure it has powered off completely. Hold FN + Esc and press the power button. The fans should run at maximum speed and wait for a few minutes.

Commodore_1995# · May 2022

Can you tell me the motherboard model shown here?

Maybe this file can help you:

But it can make the situation worse. The best option is to rewrite the bios with an eeprom recorder!

MiloIV · May 2022

@AnhEZ28 That worked and I was able to boot to windows, but then when I moved the mouse the screen started to artefact, so I forced shutdown (potentially corrupt drivers). Now when I try to turn the computer on I get exactly the same behaviour that I got before flashing the BIOS. What is weird is that I am unable to flash the BIOS again, whenever I try to flash it, the computer just power cycles instantly as it did before:

https://streamable.com/anv8pr

What could be the reason for this? It only does it when I plug the laptop in. If I run on battery only, the computer does not power cycle. This all started because of a Windows update. Could this be the root cause? I have no idea what Windows did that caused all of this, but it was updating and then after it reached the "cleanup" stage and restarted the laptop, the laptop just started power cycling as shown above. Is this a motherboard issue?

@egydiocoelho I will get that model number for you around tomorrow because it is late right now in Australia.

Final Edit: OK I left it in the charger for a bit and reattempted to flash and it worked this time around. Currently in Windows with no issues so far and I have restarted to confirm.

Thanks @AnhEZ28

AnhEZ28 · May 2022

@MiloIV Woohoo! I'm glad to hear it working.

Commodore_1995# · May 2022

MiloIV said:

@AnhEZ28 That worked and I was able to boot to windows, but then when I moved the mouse the screen started to artefact, so I forced shutdown (potentially corrupt drivers). Now when I try to turn the computer on I get exactly the same behaviour that I got before flashing the BIOS. What is weird is that I am unable to flash the BIOS again, whenever I try to flash it, the computer just power cycles instantly as it did before:

https://streamable.com/anv8pr

What could be the reason for this? It only does it when I plug the laptop in. If I run on battery only, the computer does not power cycle. This all started because of a Windows update. Could this be the root cause? I have no idea what Windows did that caused all of this, but it was updating and then after it reached the "cleanup" stage and restarted the laptop, the laptop just started power cycling as shown above. Is this a motherboard issue?

@egydiocoelho I will get that model number for you around tomorrow because it is late right now in Australia.

Final Edit: OK I left it in the charger for a bit and reattempted to flash and it worked this time around. Currently in Windows with no issues so far and I have restarted to confirm.

Thanks @AnhEZ28

Hey I was happy. You got an icing on the cake now!

MintyDraws · May 2022

@MiloIV it has happened to me before. prob you clicked something you should not have just click the esc button on your keyboard and it should fix. my problem was it would turn on then pretend to make it look like it randomly shutting off. i hit esc key and it managed to fix it and i never had the problem again. then i removed whatever i downloaded to make it happen then did a virus check. for you just remove the latest windows update. and do a virus check. Norton and/or Malwarebytes are good virus checkers and do pretty good job. you can also use windows virus checker. You should always check once in a while for viruses.

XdxD · May 2022

Can you check if Acer firmware was installed by Windows Update?

Commodore_1995# · May 2022

I always advise backing up this file, in case windows does the bios update automatically:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/58/j9g9d06sy3jy.png

That way you can recover the bios later!

XdxD · May 2022

Ooh. Can it be used for usb flashing for recovery?

Commodore_1995# · May 2022

@XdxD Yes my friend. See that the file is .fd!

XdxD · May 2022

Awesome

svennor · April 2023

Hi,

sorry for digging out this older thread, but I seem to be having a very similar issue. I described it in detail here:

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1193069#Comment_1193069

I tried your method to force-flash the BIOS via usb, but my laptop does not react differently to starting up with Fn+Esc, see here: https://streamable.com/ml3b5z

Any ideas what I could try? :/

Thank you in advance!

qdzjczj · October 2023

@AnhEZ28 I'm sorry for digging out this thread. I have the exactly same situation, and I cannot extract the fb file using the way suggested in the video. Here are files I got, I think this binary file should be the bios file, should I use it the same way as using fb file? Or how can I use it? Thank you very much!