M1200 stopped responding, now won't start

SidecarBob
SidecarBob Member Posts: 13

Tinkerer
edited March 1 in 2019 Archives
I have an Acer Aspire M1200 (AMD Athlon LE1640) with Win 10 Pro. It sat unused for a couple of years until I dug it out this week to set up for my wife to do word processing on. When I plugged it in it fired up right away and ran nicely, taking a day to update Windows (it needed a lot of updates) after which I installed Libre Office and a few other things she needs. I was getting ready to make a few settings changes but had to stop for dinner and when I came back it was unresponsive. None of the usual keyboard shortcuts did anything and the screen was black.

After messing around with it for a few minutes and trying to shut it off with the power button (no response) I unplugged it (I know, not the best thing to do but I couldn't think of anything else). I let it sit for a while and tried plugging it back in and turning it on but it won't boot. When I plug it in the fans in the power supply and on the processor both start to run and the light on the DVDRW drive comes on but that is all. No hard drive, no power light, nothing.

I remembered that sometimes I had to play with the power button to get it to start when I last used it so I opened it up, unplugged the cable from the power button & indicators from the board and checked the button with an ohmmeter; It gives a solid zero ohms when the button is pressed so that isn't it.

I studied electronics 45 years ago so I understand troubleshooting and I'm not afraid to work on things but I haven't had a lot of experience inside computers so I would appreciate any help or suggestions.

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,219 Trailblazer
    The unplug thing might have been OK, it's typically only a problem when the system is busy writing stuff to the disk where the power drop leaves a file corrupted. Safer is a long press of the power button which forces a power off but without completely dropping power from the motherboard. Safest is to wait it out unless you can see a disk activity light that's definitely not flashing. :)
    A system that has been sitting for a long time will sometimes give you the equivalent of child failures you see on new machines, often because static damage needs a power burst to pop the electrical paths. So there's a chance you're hosed... More likely though it's something less drastic. Do you hear any diagnostic beeps when starting up? It sounds like we're getting past the initial power routing since the fans are spinning but it might not be entering POST. If it fails early in POST the response is usually the beep code. If it fails later it's usually displayed on the screen. If it's successful in getting through POST it will attempt to load the OS and that's also displayed on the screen. So ... any chance it's a problem with the screen? Maybe a loose cable or a failed display? Are you sure it's plugged into the right port?
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  • SidecarBob
    SidecarBob Member Posts: 13

    Tinkerer
    When I found it unresponsive I did press the power button and hold it. Several times. Nothing happened.

    Someone suggested I check the main board battery; It was dead so I installed a better one. Now when I plug it in nothing happens until I push the power button but there are still no beeps and the only lights are the indicator on the optical drive for less than a second and the lights on the keyboard flash once.

    Since there are no lights and the hard drive doesn't spin up but when I turn the power bar on the "no signal" message appears on the monitor I'm pretty sure the monitor isn't the problem.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,219 Trailblazer
    Yeah, it's sounding more and more like the MB has failed. :(
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

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