Acer Apsire 7741G freezes on the Acer Bootup screen

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

Accepted answers

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Vinomino

Wow, the machine was indeed manufactured in 2010. And the Battery says CR2032 on it. But it has only 3 volts. May that be the problem? I mean it has been there for at least 6 years. So I should change it. Can you recommend me one?

Vino

JackE

Yep. Try changing it. New ones should be available in same section of stores that alkaline batteries are sold. CR2032 lithium batteries are very common. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Then that is what I am going to do. Will a 3V one do? It did all the years. I will inform you if I can enter the BIOS with the new battery! Thank you very much.

Vino

JackE

CR2032 is the one you want. It's labelled as nominal 3v but should be more than 3.3 volts when new. It slowly degrades. Below about 3.1 volts it's starts to lose its ability to keep BIOS charged especially if the machine is rarely turned on. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I finally got my hands on one of these CR2032 Batteries. I replaced the old one already and tried to enter the BIOS settings again.But it still freezes on "Entering SETUP". I thought the battery would be the problem, but it turns out it wasn't. I also reinserted the HHD again. Maybe it has something to do with it. I dont know what to do anymore.

Vino

JackE

Remove the charger. Remove the battery pack. Remove the new coin battery. Remove memory module #2 if it's installed. Look for two small triangular-shaped gold-colored bumps on the mainboard. Short those two bumps with a screw driver for about 30 seconds. Also press and hold the power button at the same time. Then button it back up with the new coin cell. Jack E/NJ

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/qy/gja5uc5z145z.jpg

Vinomino

What does shortening those two bumps do? I'm afraid I could break my laptop when doing that.

Vino

JackE

Sorry but your laptop may already be broken. As long as the battery pack, coin cell and charger are removed, no additional damage can be done. Shorting the bumps are an attempt to discharge the mainboard so that it returns to a default state and does not freeze. If you are reluctant to do this yourself, I suggest that you take the machine to a local repair shop for an evaluation and estimated repair cost. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I attemped to short the bumps. I hope I did it correctly. I scratched them with the screwdriver a little. But now the screen doesn't even show anything anymore. It is just black
Is there any other thing I could do or is my laptop dead by now?

Vino

JackE

Wait till the battery charge LED light turns from orange to blue. Then press & hold the F2 key again. Then turn the machine on. Release the F2 key after about 5 seconds. Report back with results. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Either with battery and charger, with battery alone or charger alone. In every way it results into a black screen.

Vino

JackE

When the machine is on, press the FN+F6 and FN+F5 toggle key combos to try to turn the screen on. If still no response, HDMI out to a TV set to see if it shows a screen using the FN+F5 toggle combo. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

It has no effect. The monitor does not show any image.

Vino

JackE

>>>It worked perfectly fine until I locked it away in the attic for 3 years. Now it's laying on my desk again.>>>

Have you ever tried to update the BIOS firmware either before or after locking it away? Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I don't think I ever accessed the BIOS ever with this laptop.

Vino

JackE

Not access. But update.

If you don't recall, then download and unzip the following compressed BIOS zip file on another machine.

https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.26_A_A.zip?acerid=634436396647565996&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE 7741G&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

(1) Then in its unzipped DOS subdirectory, copy ONLY the WPH file & bigger EXE file to a USB pendrive with an activity light.

(2) Then google 'minidos.sys' and 'download'. Click on the download site for 'minidos.zip' and download this file.

(3) Unzip the minidos.zip file and copy ONLY minidos.sys onto the same pendrive.

(4) The pendrive should now only have these 3 files. The WPH file, the bigger EXE file and the SYS file. No other files must be on this pendrive.

(5) Turn your machine off. Insert the pendrive with the 3 files. Plug the charger in.

(6) Then press & hold the FN+ESC. Then while still holding the two keys, press the power button to turn the machine on.

(7) If the BIOS chip is undamaged, the pendrive's activity light will start blinking. You can then let go of the FN+ESC keys.

(8) After the pendrive's activity light stops or the machine automatically shuts off, you can remove the pendrive and try to boot the machine again.

Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

I am afraid I do not own an USB pen drive with an activity light. It seems like I have to get one if I want to proceed. I will answer when I got one.

Vino

JackE

They are not too expensive. The smallest 4GB to 8GB capacity USB flash drives available today with an LED activity light are only a few $USD. It may not work but seems worth the gamble to try to save the machine. Jack E/NJ

Vinomino

Hello!
I finally got my hands on a USB Pendrive with an activity light.
I am about to copy the files to the stick. With "bigger EXE file", do you mean by file size or do you mean the letters (.EXE or .exe)?
Could you please also provide me the link to the minidos.zip file?

Vino

JackE

(1) Bigger file size (uppercaseEXE & lowercase exe & mixedcase Exe mean all the same thing in Windows)

(2) Then go to this link and download the compressed 7z recovery file. http://www.mediafire.com/?do1zlnrgnd1

(3) Decompress the downloaded 7z file. In the directory created copy the SYS file and only the SYS file to the USB stick.

(4) The pendrive should now only have these 3 files. The WPH file, the bigger EXE (exe, Exe) file and the SYS file. No other files must be on this pendrive.

(5) Turn your machine off. Insert the pendrive with the 3 files. Plug the charger in.

(6) Then press & hold the FN+ESC. Then while still holding the two keys, press the power button to turn the machine on.

(7) If the BIOS chip is undamaged, the pendrive's activity light will start blinking. You can then let go of the FN+ESC keys.

(8) After the pendrive's activity light stops or the machine automatically shuts off, you can remove the pendrive and try to boot the machine again

Jack E/NJ

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