I have a aspire zs600 and it shows a black screen on boot, the fan is running.

rogerstripe
rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User
edited March 2023 in 2016 Archives

My aspire zs600 fails to boot with just a black screen. I can here the fan running. after many, many attempts I have had something on the screen on four occasions. At first it was a message saying that I needed to insert the correct boot media. Eventually I managede to boot up from a usb stick and got a linux Mint system running. This let me look for the hard drive, it wasnt there. every thing else worked OK, internet as well. I then tried to reboot but to no avail yet. Just a black screen....

Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    are you not able to enter BIOS pressing Del button at boot?

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Snuffy
    Snuffy Member Posts: 150 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Many times if for some strange reason, the HDD becomes corrupt it will not show, unless you actually get into the BIOS, it might simply need to be "Re Initiated" and if the boot system was UEFI and some reason you changed to MBR, I have also seen power issues cause a HDD to be converted to RAW when means it needs FORMATTED. also Windows can be reinstalled on a unformatted HDD or unallocated also. so I would try that first. or open the case remove the HDD and have it tested on another system, which is very easy to do. HDDs can be checked on any system with a USB (cost for parts to do is less than $15.00.)
  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    No, just a black screen.

  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    More info.

    I was running Linux Mint on the machine and will continue if I can get it to boot up. I think that I need to know that I can get into the bios before I buy a new hard drive. I am puzzled that I have been able to boot up off the usb drive and now I cannot. I have read that some boot up problems can be solved by holding the power button in for a while after turning the power off, There does seem to be a number of similar problems with Acer machines. Thanks for the info though, I think that I need to prove the hard drive to eliminate this as the cause of my blank screen.

  • Snuffy
    Snuffy Member Posts: 150 Fixer WiFi Icon

    I had one that I had to remove the cover and set the BIOs back to DEFAULT. remove the battery short the pins for 3 minutes. that set the BIOS to Default. so that Boot - logo and Del went to BIOS. then you can change or reset to optiosn, I usually do 1. USB (removable Device) 2. DVD 3. HDD. so if no USB or DVD is detected it goes to HDD. saves clients lots . adds a bit of time to BOOT but 2 or 4 s is better than NO BOOT. and some times it is hold DEL down when you turnon the Computer if FAST BOOT is set and remove SECURE if some reason they need to Dual BOOT then select Boot Manager as 1st also F12 lets you selected what to BOOT FROM.

     

    [inappropriate content removed]

  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    Since my last post and yours I have managed to boot from my usb stick again. I had several attempts and I toggled the HDMI in button on shutdown and startup ???? this gave me success. I am writing this from my aspire. I still think the hard drive is dead. When I am finished with this session I will power off and try again. I will let you know.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    i suggest you to do a fsck to check your HDD using the live USB Linux enviroment.

    https://www.maketecheasier.com/check-repair-filesystem-fsck-linux/

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Snuffy
    Snuffy Member Posts: 150 Fixer WiFi Icon
    HDMI in ? if you in the computer right click This PC (win10) and check manage then storage devices. see if the HDD should be listed as (only 1 HDD) Disk 0, I have 3 HDDs in mine. so I have and Disk 1. #2 internal HDD and #3 is external HDD. make sure your BOOT HDD is Active (Healthy -Boot,Page File,Crash Dump, Primary Partition and labled C:\ If it shows no Lable then give the Drive a Letter, Normally C:\ photo AIO_zps4e41yr9w.pnghttp://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/o495/Snuffy1942/AIO_zps4e41yr9w.png
  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    If I run fdisk this shows ram0 to ram15 and it shows my usb as sda, no sign of my hard drive.

  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    I am running Linux not windows

  • Snuffy
    Snuffy Member Posts: 150 Fixer WiFi Icon
    sorry ")
  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    rogerstripe wrote:

    If I run fdisk this shows ram0 to ram15 and it shows my usb as sda, no sign of my hard drive.

    neither using Gparted?

     

    try to boot to BIOS too and check if there's any HDD listed with model and serial number, if not...loose cable or dead HDD.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Jdinger
    Jdinger Member Posts: 2 New User
    What happened to your zs600? I have the same problem. Before, I could still boot into Bios at least, then reset it to default on screen. That would allow me to get into Windows safe mode and scan harddisk, which resulted to new errors every boot up until it finally refused to boot up.

    Now, when i press the power button to turn on pc, the blue led indicator lights up, fans whirl, but screen stays off. No power-on beep either.

    I already tried everything - bios jumper, remove cmos battery, remove RAM, drained power for overnight, toggle PC Mode / HDMI, and all thats advised in this thread. Even bought new RAM and replaced hardisk to SSD. My ZS600 does not have discrete graphics card.

    Im thinking of buying compatible gpu (gt640) but i'm confused whether I need to connect it to the motherboard in two ways a) pcie only b) pcie and cable to motherboard's 20 pin DVI socket.

    Service manual talks and shows nothing about the gpu to DVI.

    I dont want to waste anymore money on this. Any other suggestions om the root fix?
  • rogerstripe
    rogerstripe Member Posts: 7 New User

    It turned out that my hard drive was defunct and this prevented me from booting into the bios. my solution was to buy a small brick, an intel nuc, and use the aspire as screen only rather than a new hard drive. This works quite well as the fans dont run and the whole thing is much quieter.

  • Jdinger
    Jdinger Member Posts: 2 New User
    I found a work around. Bought a low profile pcie. From it, HDMI Out to motherboard's HDMI in. Restarting PC no problem. Cold boot is a hit and miss, so is the audio. Ill buy a real PC after my wifes birthday in August. Smiley Happy Thanks.

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