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Black screen Acer Aspire 3810T
pawq
Member Posts: 9
Hello 
I have a problem with a laptop Acer Aspire 3810T, after reinstalling Windows 7 Home Premium, I had a problem installing the drivers from ATI graphic card (the second card Intel was not the problem). While running the installer downloaded from the appropriate Acer site, showed an error and stopped the installation. I tried several versions of the drivers, but still appear this error message.
Then in the BIOS I set the option to operate "only ATI" graphic card, since then the laptop screen was completely black, nothing on it does not show, and after how laptop works can be deduced that has a problem with the proper operation and stops booting system (probably even before attempting to access the hard drive, because you can not hear it works). An attempt to restart the BIOS settings by disconnecting the power supply, remove the battery and disconnect the CMOS battery from the motherboard also did not help. Is there still a possibility to restore the laptop to work?
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FAQ & Answers
First, see if the screen comes back on by pressing the Fn + F5 or F6 keys. If not, get an HDMI cable and see if you can re-set the bios via a TV screen again using the Fn + F6 key combo to turn it on.
Jack E/NJ
I tried this options and none of them changed anything, still only totally black screen. Connected TV and another LCD monitor did not detect any signal by both hdmi and vga connector.
Have you tried to flash the bios via a USB stick loaded with the original default bios?
Jack E/NJ
I've tried to flash with the newest version of BIOS from Acer site, but it didnt work ;/ However im still not sure if i have made it correctly. I found that have to press Fn + Esc while turning on laptop, but it dont make nothing special, while i was turning on holding power button it just turned on and after second turned off. Also im not sure if I properly copied that files onto flash drive, can you help with that?
Can you tell us what filenames are on the USB stick, including extensions?
Jack E/NJ
F.bat
FLA**bleep**.exe
JM31.128
menu.c32
syslinux.cfg
ubninit
ubnkern
Now i see that file syslinux.cfg and think if I didnt make that flash drive for linux, how that possible? ;/
Rename JM31.128 to JM31.fd
Then try flashing it again.
Report back with results.
Jack E/NJ
I tried and nothing has changed. First led on the usb drive began blinking and then burns with a steady light.
Is it correct way to do it by pressing Fn + Esc while turning on?
Yes, press the Fn + Esc keys, and hold them while pressing the power button. Try it again. The USB activity light should blink. How long did you let the light burn steady before giving up?
Jack E/NJ
I was waiting for about half an hour, nothing happend. Also I noticed the usb drive behaves in the same way without pressing this combination Fn + Esc, so theres only one conclusion, that is not working too
I'm gonna try to get you a second opinion on this because, to me, it's looking more & more like a hardware problem that may have coincidentally happened at or near the same time you changed the bios video settings. Stay tuned.
Jack E/NJ
I wonder if there is the possibility of the broken ATI graphics card, appeared the initial problem with the driver installation. And through its deactivates in BIOS, has not been lost ability to display image. But still restart BIOS seems to be the right idea
Maybe you should download the original bios and try to re-flash assuming it defaults to the other adapter.
Jack E/NJ
Sadly still nothing happend
OK. Let's wait awhile for some second opinions to chime in on this problem.
Jack E/NJ
On other forum, someone said:
"The only thing I can think of is to remove the ati graphics card,then try to restart the machine.
This used to work on tower system builds,some cards hold the software drivers on board the cards. The bios may reset and default"
It seems to be logic, but should I try to do it? I read manual service and didnt find where the ATI grapic card is located. Maby you can try to explain this on example from there?
Sorry, the graphics adapters seem to be integrated on the MB. Accordingly, I doubt that an adapter could be physically disabled without de-soldering. I'd be reluctant to try anything of this magnitude before hearing from others who might be more knowledgeable than me on this particular laptop. I agree with your previous thoughts that maybe the bios can be somehow be returned to a default video state. Let's try to wait for a second opinion on this forum.
Jack E/NJ
Hi guys, sorry about the delay. Thanks Jack for bringing this to my attention, seems interesting haha.
So to begin, let's not jump too far ahead of oursleves. It's important that we know exactly what is happening beforehand. So here we go...
When you turn on the computer, you say the screen is black, this is fine. But what happens other than that? Do you see any LED's lighting up? If you do, are they flashing when you turn it on? If they are flashing, how many times does it flash? Do you hear any beeping? Do you hear the fans turning? If you do, do they turn off at any point? If you press and hold the shift key, does the unit make any sounds?
Here's a real quick question, have you tried a power drain yet? This could be POST related, in which case we can set default values to the POST table (not the post config) by removing the battery, unplugging the unit, and then pressing and holding the power button for 30 seconds. In normal circumstances this would allow us to boot the unit.
Also, you say you removed the CMOS battery, but how long did you leave it out? This method takes a LOT longer to wipe the CMOS data. There should also be a CMOS jumper that you can use to clear the CMOS data. This jumper will likely be beneath the ram modules, will say CMOS JMPR or something of the like, and there aren't actually pins, just two points on the board you can connect with a screwdriver or a coin.
Short of that, while doing a BIOS recovery, you would press and hold ESC and FN, but don't let go for 2 minutes. It can take up to ten minutes to install and the unit should restart on it's own. We can get more into that once we have more information though.
Take care guys,
ScottyC