Acer Apsire 7741G freezes on the Acer Bootup screen

Vinomino

 I am posting this question again because I accidently marked my post before as solved. But I am still looking for an answer!

My Acer Apsire 7741G laptop does not boot up anymore. I had this laptop for about 6 years. It worked perfectly fine until I locked it away in the attic for 3 years. Now it's laying on my desk again.

I tried booting it up and it worked perfectly. I got to the desktop and tried moving my photos from the pc onto my USB Stick. But in the process of that my laptop crashed and rebooted.

Normal - I thought and tried moving the photos again. But again it crashed and rebooted. But this time it got stuck on the screen that says "Acer - Empowering People". I waited for about half an hour and nothing happened. I pressed F2, heard a brief "beep" but then nothing. I couldn't turn the laptop off, so I just unplugged it from the socket.

I tried this a few more times the exact same way. But now it doesn't even beep anymore when I press F2. No reaction. It is just frozen.

It's operating system was Windows 7. When the laptop froze, I even tried to insert the Windows 7 Recovery disk. The laptop seemed to read it but again no response.

My laptop now sits disassembled on my desk. I removed the keyboard, the thing where you put CD disks in, the HHD and the Lithium Battery. I thought I could figure out what the problem is, but I am by no means an expert so I have no Idea what all of this stuff even is.

It doesn't turn on when the battery is inside the laptop. Either with or without the charger.

It only turns on when connected to the socket and with the battery removed.

After reassembling, it worked by battery alone. But it is still frozen.

I tried booting it up again and pressed F2. It made a beeping noise again. But then it froze there instead. It says "Entering SETUP". But nothing else happens. Just a few noises by the laptop.

Maybe I should also mention, that the laptop gets pretty hot pretty fast. So maybe that is related to the problem.

I removed battery and charger, put the charger back in and tried to turn it on. Then it didn't even turn on anymore.

I tried pressing the power button for a minute without battery or charger but still no effect.

Now Im sitting here with a reassembled laptop, that doesn't even turn on anymore

Please help me. I hope I can still fix this thing and I will provide you with more details, if you need them.

Vino

JackE

You can't assume the charger works any more just because the battery seemed to be charged up before. It wouldn't start with the battery but did start once without the batter.

Since you don't have a multimeter, a poor 2nd rate test would be to see if the charger indicator LED still lights up and eventually turns blue with the battery inserted and the charger plugged in.

Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I inserted the battery again and plugged the charger in. The LED lights up orange. So that means the charger cable does still work. I don't think that was the problem, but thank you!

Vino

JackE

Orange only means the system detects that it's plugged in. But not necessarily charging. Has it ever turned blue or blinked? Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Oh, sorry I didn't know that. Proven once more that I am not an expert, oops!
The last time it was blue was before I disassembled the machine. Now it is still orange. I can wait a few hours and see if it ever turns blue again. If it does/doesn't I will let you know.

Vino

JackE

>>>Maybe I should also mention, that the laptop gets pretty hot pretty fast. So maybe that is related to the problem.>>>

What about now when it's only supposed to be charging? Did it ever blink orange or blue? Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

It was charging for about half an hour and now the LED is blue. During the charging process it never was even a little warm. And I have never seen it blinking before.

Vino

JackE

I wonder if the power button board connection to the mainboard might be loose or need reseating due to corrosion? When you removed the battery the first time and it turned on may have been simply from physically disturbing the system and re-establishing the connection. Now it's loose again. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I disassembled the laptop again and I noticed, that the turquoise thing, that is located beneath the power button was infact loose. There is a hole in it where a screw should be. Should I screw it back to the power button so that the thing is not loose anymore?

Vino

JackE

Did you find the screw? What about the ribbon cable connectors? They should be re-seated as well. Don't put any old screw in there. You may want to order a laptop screw kit assortment from Amazon. Less than $10 for every kind of screw you can imagine that go into laptops. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

There was never a screw for that to begin with. The cable is all fine just as shown in the image. Can I use a screw, from the laptop itself? They should be the same and fit inside. I have plenty of them and won't need all of them again to reassemble the machine. These screws are all fine as they were inside the laptop all the time.

Vino

JackE

As long as the screw thread is the same. They may not be the same. Don't force it. And don't bottom out using too long a screw. I'm pretty sure the screw helps to promote a necessary ground for the switch to work properly. I'm sure the cable is fine but its connectors really should be re-seated to assure good contact.The 'latch' (2 small arrows) referred to is like a plastic wedge to press the connector contacts together. You slide it at the ends in the direction of the small arrows to release the ribbon connector contacts. The push the ribbon back in and slide the latch in the other direction to lock the ribbon. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I did it! I screwed it back in and connected all the cables. Now I can turn it back on. And I even can turn it back off with that button now! Thank you so much. Sometimes however, the screen does not turn on when I press the button. Only sometimes it does. And there is still the problem, that the machine freezes at the Acer Screen. I cannot enter the Bios Menu by the F2 key as the screen freezes while it says "Entering SETUP". Then when I press any key on the keyboard it makes a weird sound. Like when popping a bubble. It does it when I press the key and when releasing it. When I keep pressing it, it makes that sound very rapidly.

Vino

JackE

>>> I cannot enter the Bios Menu by the F2 key as the screen freezes while it says "Entering SETUP". Then when I press any key on the keyboard it makes a weird sound.>>>

Disconnect the HDD. Then try to enter the BIOS setup menu again. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Disconnecting the HHD gave me the same result of freezing while saying "Entering SETUP" and the weird sound. But after pressing some keys, the noise disappeared.

Vino

JackE

Try pressing and holding F2 BEFORE you try to turn the machine on with the power button. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Holding F2 before and while turning on the machine is giving it a blackscreen.

Vino

Vinomino

Either that, or it results in freezing again.

Vino

JackE

Did you notice if the BIOS coin cell battery is soldered to the mainboard or removable? Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I can remove the coin cell battery. On it it says Lithium Battery. Is that the right one? I removed it before to get a better look. I have read that the battery may be dead. Can that be the case?

Vino

JackE

It must have a voltage output of at least 3.1volts. Anything less is dead or near so. Shelf life is less than 10 years. Your machine should have a 2009 or 2010 manufacturing date. Usually CR2032. Widely available in food and department stores. Jack E/NJ