Acer laptop non-respnsive
 

I've got an Acer Aspire 7736Z-4088 laptop which is a bit over 2 years old now. Until recently it has been a really nice and dependable machine to own.

Over the past weekend I opened the lid - having put it in sleep mode a day or two before - and nothing happened. So I held down the power button for a few seconds thinking it would power off the laptop. Nothing. Blue LED light stayed on. I unplugged it, took the battery out and still nothing. Oh crap, I thought, another one bites the dust.

Later on in the day and out of curiosity I hit the power button.
Lo and behold you sprung back into action. Picked up right were it left off prior to being placed in the aforementioned sleep mode.

Last night I attempted to use it and, once again, it was unresponsive. Went through the same procedure as before: hold down power button, unplug and remove the battery. Nothing.

It's running Windows 7 64-bit.

Am I off the mark here by assuming this is definitely a hardware problem? I'm thinking perhaps the motherboard?

Any ideas, suggestions and/or comments?

My immediate thought was - software problem - but what do I know?

Sounds like motherboard to me

its an Acer, and Acer motherboards are very prone to failure.
They use cheap failure-prone components, and the multilayer boards are very prone to deliminating
As a rule, they are best avoided - especially the laptops
Of the failed laptops I see, 70% or thereabouts are Acers. Ironically the older ones with single layer boards are more reliable

Repairable? Possibly if you can find someone who has an "in" with Acer can get spares from them - possibly back doored from the USA or China

Win 7 sleep problems are well documented.

Guide Methods to Resolve and Diagnose Sleep Problems with Windows 7 | Missing Remote

Milo:

Thanks for the info: I feared as much. Actually, I was under the impression that Acer systems - desktops, netbooks and laptops - were very reliable. I'm beginning to rethink that. The laptop in question was bought in April 2010. Thus it's out of warranty as I did not buy an extended one.

Perhaps I'll just take the hard drive out of it and install it in my Dell laptop. Both laptops use 2.5" 5400rpm SATA drives so compatibility shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again.

Try switching it off when you've finished instead of putting it to sleep and see if it works ok, if it does don't use sleep mode.

Sprogget:

Thanks for that info and I would really prefer my laptop's problem to be one of those sleep mode issues. And the article you linked to has some good poop in it. However, it also assume a system which is not currently in sleep mode. (Or in a coma like mine is.)
Perhaps I'll giggle waking a Windows 7 from sleep!

green granite:

Absolutely. If I can get the damn thing out of sleep mode it will never sleep again! Nor hibernate for that matter.

Just have to figure how to get it out of that sleep mode.

There was a fairly widely publicised laptop reliability survey a couple of years ago which showed Acer as one of the worst; AFAIR Asus, Apple and Toshiba got the top three slots with 1/2 to 1/3 of the failure rate of the worst manufacturers. My Acer laptop did OK for three years other than locking up when the CPU fan filled with dust so it overheated, but then the keys began to fall off the keyboard so I replaced it with a Tosh. I'm sure I had some similar problems with the Acer refusing to wake up while running XP, but in that case I think Windows gave an error message and let me reboot.

the problem with surveys is that the biggest companies by definition will get more problems reported, and Acer are in the worlds top three or four.
However, having said that, the number of Acer laptops I've seen fail at around 14 months due to motherboard issues is far higher than you would expect, even given their high sales volume. I don't see anywhere near the same number of HPs or Dells, who are equally as big
Its almost as if the the things are on a timer - two months after the warranty expires, they expire
The same also applies to the Acer subsidiaries:
Acer, Packard Bell, Gateway, E-machines, Ei-System - they share components

The Acer group machines are very much built to a price - with all the implications that phrase brings


Ironically just to prove that nothing is absolute - I'm typing this on a 5-year old Aspire 9300 which a customer decided to scrap due to a failed hard drive (and I removated). As I said earlier, the older models were better

"then the keys began to fall off the keyboard so I replaced it with a Tosh"

that could have been easily fixed- Acer keyboards tend to be cheap and easily available

Milo:

Just a thought. If the motherboard in my Acer has gone belly up would the power button still glow blue even though, for now, it does nothing to power the machine up? The power button is glowing LED blue, as well as the indicator for the battery which is also glowing blue. I would have thought with a faulty motherboard nothing would light up? (sorry for the seeming ignorant questions but I'm a mainframe kinda guy!!!!)

thats actually quite a common symptom of a failed Acer laptop

Its charging, the board is live, it just wont actually start up

I didn't realise that. But the laptop and my desktop machine were getting outdated and I needed a new gaming and video editing machine anyway, so I either paid $1000 for a decent laptop or $1000 for a new desktop machine.

Acer laptop non-respnsive
 

Some acer laptops have an area in front of the fan that gets. Blocked with fluff . This causes overheating and hence issues . Take the panel off the bottom and check the fan is clean and turning etc !

FWIW theres a copy of the service manual for that machine at
Acer Aspire 7736Z | Acer Aspire 7540 Service Guide though theres no obvious way of downloading it

The original will be on the passworded dealers-only part of Acers website

Thanks Milo, for the service guide link.

And it can be downloaded via the download for free link next to the Owl icon!!!!

http://www.manualowl.com/images/manu...nload_free.gif

can't see the wood for the trees...missed that among all the spamvertising links

The next time it's running, change the action on lid close from sleep to hibernate, and see if it works like that. If so, it's a software issue. When you say it won't start, do you mean you get absolutely no activity, if so, see if the lid switch is sticky.

If you're a handsome prince, you could try kissing it....:E

Update on the seeming Acer doorstop.

Last night after arriving home I decided to try a few things to get the piece of !!!! running. Removed the battery, unplugged it from the power adapter and then held the power key for 30 seconds. Put the battery back in, attached the power adapter and, voila, nothing. Power key is still glowing blue and with the battery back in the batter LED is also glowing blue.

Opened it up and reseated both RAM modules as well as the hard drive. Cleaned up the fan which was slightly dusty but not too bad. Tried powering it up again and, voila, nothing.

Needless to say, I have tried everything I can think of to get the laptop up and running again, all to no avail. However, I think it's time to call it a day with this Acer junk box.

For the 2 years I had it running it really was a nice laptop. The 17" screen has a very sharp resolution and the Intel Core Duo was spunky. However, I think I'm going to give Acer a pass in the future. For a laptop, or any machine for that matter, to go belly up after 2 years is unacceptable in my view. I've had Dells which have run well over 10 years as well as 1 or 2 HP laptops which were dogs but at least had longevity.

Lesson learned.

Apples and Lemons?

Yes, Apples and Lemons for sure!

Mac Book Pro sure sounds tempting right about now. Especially with the new Retina display. Hmmmmm.

Dear? I'm home!!!!!

"unplugged it from the power adapter and then held the power key for 30 seconds."

Amazing how often you see that piece of advice repeated on the web. Its supposedly to "remove static from a charged motherboard"
I have never yet seen it work, nor seen anyone report it as working, yet it gets trotted out on help forums ad nauseum

Actually, Milo, I got that bit of questionable advice straight off of Acer's support web site. I did find it of dubious value but at this stage of the game I'll try anything. (Short of pouring a glass of water over the insides of the laptop and then plugging it back in. The thought of which I had entertained. Would definitely ensure its demise then!!!!)

At the risk of tempting fate, my 5 yr old 9300 is still soldiering on, agree with comments earlier about screen, processer etc. But it is an earlier one, will now be circumspect when it come to replacing it...

Older = more reliable
 

Wonder if that has anything to do with manufacturers being forced to change over to lead-free solder ?

It is in some cases - e.g. the well documented nVidia chipset problems

With Acer laptops it seems to be more to do with the switch to multi-layer PCBs, though they also seem to have suffered more than most with poor quality motherboard components. I wonder if their buyers are more naive when buying parts....and getting fakes?

Milo:

Is there anyway I can absolutely ascertain whether or not it's my Acer's motherboard which is at fault? I would hate to pack it away, or turn it into an aquarium, thinking in the back of my head that it's still in a self-induced coma.

Umm, without the sucking eggs thingy here, are/have you gone down the complete bios reboot/os install/ etc? :O

Mustpost:

Kind of hard to do when the system is apparently dead in the water. Even a power-cycle doesn't do any good.

rgbrock1

not a lot of options open to you
you can swap out the memory
you can remove the hard drive and optical drive and see if it powers up to a startup screen
If you can get at the BIOS jumpers you can reset those
or even replace the BIOS battery if you can get at it
you can remove any wireless / modem /bluetooth modules from the motherboard
you can visually check to see the USB ports aren't shorting

But beyond that, thats it. Everything else is motherboard related

I don't think its a software issue, because powering it down and removing the battery should have resolved any abnormal "sleep" problems: it should have powered back up with a warning message about hiberfil.sys or similar

looks like the boards are available for these
e.g. ttp://www.laptopcpufan.co.uk/Laptop-MotherBoard-ACER.htm

I've never used this company, just found them on Google, so caveat emptor!!!

Update on the Acer. Arrived home from work last night and just for !!!!s and grins I decided to hit the power button on the Acer. Presto, chango... it powered up. In between tinkering with the insides the night before and last night I had do nothing else to it.

Sat down in front of it and proceeded to do a little investigation via the 'Event Viewer'. Lots and lots of entries related to 'kernel power down' i.e., sleep.

With that in mind I modified everything possible to preclude the laptop from ever going to sleep again. Also did a bunch of Windows Updates as well.

This morning it powered up just fine but not from sleep: from a shutdown which I did last night.

So, it appears to me this is NOT a motherboard issue but the infamous Windows 7 sleep problem. Which I've mitigated by never allowing the Acer to sleep again! (Poor bast**d)

I hope you're right but I reckon it'll go again

And I hope you're wrong about it going again, Milo. I remain optimistic however.

Milo:

You are correct. Got home last night, after powering the piece of cow dung off the night before, and there was the power button glowing blue again, as well as the battery LED. No response
to depressing the button aka, dead as a gold fish in a bowl.

I'm beginning to think the piece of doo-doo is possessed. Perhaps a good drop on its' head, from about 50', will do it in permanently.

Oh well. I guess it's time to scavenge parts from it. That's about all it's worth now anyway.