Acer Aspire 5517 has black screen

So you're saying even without an external moniror plugged in, you still can't see an

image on THAT screen ? Will it boot into BIOS with a visible screen ? To be honest, it

sounds like an internal problem. The MB or an excessive amount of debris built up

on the cooling raditor where the fan blows out the hot air. Very seldom does the

chip fail. You could take it apart, and clean really well, reset the heatsink using

Arctic 5 thermal paste and make sure the sink is contacking both the chip and

the graphic card chip's face to transfer heat accordingly.The graphics is Radon

ATI 3200 with the chip being an AMD Athon ii. i''d try the memory one module at

a time as well and if you have a spare HD that may  help. I have a feeling

the MB is toast, but you can also reset the VGA cable from the the MB to

the LCD screen. Hopefuuly it will be an easy fix. Nice thing is MB's

are pretty cheap when shopping for them.

T

It is strange that the only thing you did was pull the ram out and placed

it back in and now it acts like this. The fan coming on and shutting off is

not a good sign. If you have a used computer parts place around you, it

might be a feasible to go buy a used ram module rated at PC2-6400 CL 5

or 6, voltage at 1.8 volts. I stick of 1 gig would do it. Install it in one of

the memory slots and see if it boots. I wish we were close, I have a couple

of used modules like this I taken out of lappy's and use for testing when

I get an older unit, and would gladly loan one to you, but we are far away.

There MIGHT be a problem with the updated BIOS flash. If you could disconnect

the CMOS battery or short it according to an Official Acer Service Manual, it

would revert back to the orig BIOS and then it might ot might not lite off.

I'd try it just to see if the updated BIOS did cause the prob. What version

did you flash ?

There's a fairly decent youtube vid on disassembling the 5517. Just do a search.

Yes the CMOS battery in a simple round affair located on the back, possibly in

one of the corners. It's about the dia of a dime. Are any of the indicator lights

coming on in the front ? Is the fan staying on all the time now ? Being as old

as it is, it may be just the thermal paste being dried up and causing a heat

issue with the main chip and graphic chip.

Well if you feel comfortable in doing so, here is the 5517 service manual that provides

in depth how the unit works, dis-assembly, trouble shorting, etc, here it is in PDF.

It has excellent info on trouble shooting as well as how to work on the unit.

IF the CMOS battery has to be changed out, it will have to be desoldered

and resoldered back into place. The manual states if the unit is over a yr

old, it should be replaced. I don't know about that as I have a number

of Acer laptop's that are still running on orig CMOS batteries after

years..Anyway >

[edited to comply with guidelines]

If you power on, can you quickly hit F2 to get into BIOS ? Or is it again the case that

you can't see anything ? Where it mine, I would prep it for a BIOS reset back to

1.09 by doing what the manual states andthat's pulling the battery, both sticks

of ram, the hard drive, and using a metal short tool to short out JP1 located

on the MB under where the bottom memory stick goes, making sure it's still

shorted, plug the AC power back in. hit the power button ans IF you see

the Acer screen, then quickly hit F2 to get into BIOS. Most important thing

is is to follow BIOS recovery in the manual.

I realize you still believe there is something going on with the RAM, but

just to make sure there is a fair playing field, setting BIOS back to ORIG

may help find the other probs.