TravelMate P253-M won't boot

musicrab
musicrab Member Posts: 14

Tinkerer
edited March 2023 in 2017 Archives

My 3 year old excellent condition P253 won't boot.  A friend suggested taking out battery and switching off mains then holding power button for 30secs.  Made no difference.

Symptom is no BIOS information appears and the disk indicator light sits flashing away (light blue).  I've rmoved the disk drive to see if that makes any difference - it did not.  Fan appears to be working.  Dead - totally dead.

Are there any alternative ways to get to the BIOS or initiate a BIOS recovery or ...any suggestions.

Answers

  • doughjohn
    doughjohn Member Posts: 353 Mr. Fixit WiFi Icon

    Hi

     

    That complete a failure sugests you are not seeing anything on the screen.  So now is the time to break the laptop.  What is needed is to tell the difference between a dead motherboard/cpu and a dead screen.  Because you see absoutely nothing, it could be either.

     

    If you removed the HDD and the HDD light kept flashing then it could be the HDD.  If you remove, and carefully handle the RAM memory module, and try again and listen for any beeps or a change in the flashing sequence. Remove everything you can to try and get a change in the visible/audible output.

     

    Carefully replace items 1 at a time and power on everytime.  If there is no change at all in flashing lights, beeps or screen output I fear a dead Motherboard.

  • musicrab
    musicrab Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer
    doughjohn wrote:

    If you removed the HDD and the HDD light kept flashing then it could be the HDD.

    Thanks.  That is the only real clue - the hard disk light flickering WITHOUT the hard drive installed.  The screen does flicker momentarily at startup (a very brief pale grey flicker); tried all various combinations after removing all hardware.

     

    I'm an amateur "fixer" and only occassioanlly open a laptop up (e.g. to replace cpu fan) but this one is a step too far for me.  This is not a good advert for Acers (although all budget laptops are suceptiable to early failure).  The owner had it for just over 2 years with very little use. If it was mine I'd have chased the retailer under SOGA (or whatever it's called these days); but the owner didn't want the hassle.  She has donated the laptop to me and so its off to Ebay for spares/repair...

  • nicovon
    nicovon Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer
    doughjohn said:

    Hi

     

    That complete a failure sugests you are not seeing anything on the screen.  So now is the time to break the laptop.  What is needed is to tell the difference between a dead motherboard/cpu and a dead screen.  Because you see absoutely nothing, it could be either.

     

    If you removed the HDD and the HDD light kept flashing then it could be the HDD.  If you remove, and carefully handle the RAM memory module, and try again and listen for any beeps or a change in the flashing sequence. Remove everything you can to try and get a change in the visible/audible output.

     

    Carefully replace items 1 at a time and power on everytime.  If there is no change at all in flashing lights, beeps or screen output I fear a dead Motherboard.

    if the hard disk is inserted, the LED of the hard disk blinks. if I remove the hard disk, the led of the hard disk is off. is not a hard disk problem then?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,891 Trailblazer
    nicovon---You are posting on an old thread by another person. Please start a new thread stating if you have the same model, the current Windows version installed and if you have exactly the same problems including a black screen with no ACER logo appearing. Jack E/NJ 

    Jack E/NJ

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