Acer Aspire 1410 (1810T) 11.6" Boot Problem

Hi.

I have an Acer Aspire 1410 11.6", circa 2009. It had been working fine, except for the battery reporting that it only has 45% capacity left.

About a week ago, I turned it on and it wouldn't boot. Specifically, the blue power on button would light up upon pressing, the bulb blue light would come on, the number lock blue light would flash once, the fan would spin up, then the netbook would turn off after about 2-3 seconds. The LCD panel did not light up. The hard drive light never flashed once.

Thinking it was the battery, I plugged it in. Everything happened as before, with no boot, and after it powered off, the orange battery charge light would go on.

Things I've tried...

- No battery, just the power brick. No boot.
- Battery and power brick. No boot.
- Remove battery and power brick. Press power on button for 1 min, press power on button on/off for 30 seconds. Put battery back. Put power brick back. Power on. No boot.
- Looked for battery reset button. None found.
- Bought a new replacement battery. No change. No boot.
- Did the remove battery and power brick, button pressing, and resat the the memory module. No boot.
- Did the above and also resat the hard drive. No boot.

What could have caused it to not boot? Even if there were memory and/or hard drive issues, wouldn't it at least boot to the BIOS settings?

Could the RTC battery be dead and in need of replacement? (Wouldn't still boot and just not be able to save BIOS config and time?) Do I really need to remove the memory module, hard drive, keyboard, upper cover, LCD module, LED board, I/O board and motherboard to get at the RTC battery? (I do have the disassembly guide, so can do it, but it's a lot of work to get at.)

Is there something else that could be wrong, so that it's not worth debugging and repairing? (I know it's not worth much at this point, but I've kept in great condition and still have use for it.)

Thanks! I would have written to the main Acer Aspire 1410 thread, but it's been long locked down.

Acer Aspire 1410-8913
2009/07/30
Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 1.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
2 GB Memory
250 GB HDD

 

Try replacing BOTH the memory modules (or module, if it's single slot) and the RTC. I've had an Aspire 5536G that would not POST until I replaced both memory modules (both were defective) and the RTC battery.

 

Thanks! I hope the memory module is good. At worse, buying another one would boost the memory and improve its use. It's been 11 years, so the RTC battery would likely be bad at this point. I wish it wasn't a chore to get at it. Well, there goes the weekend...

 

I dismantled the netbook today, to get details about the battery, which isn't listed in the repair guide. It's a Sanyo ML1220 MnO2-Li Rechargeable 3V.

I tested the voltage and it was 2.90 V. I hope this does mean it needs replacement, versus just needing recharging.

I ordered a new battery, FDK brand, from eBay for about $4.50.

Looking into memory modules, another 2 GB would cost only around $10/module, but moving up to 4 GB modules raises the cost to $40-$50/module. Really crazy. I guess 4 GB DDR2 modules are pretty rare now? (4 GB PC2-5300S DDR2-667MHz)

 

RTC batteries are NOT rechargable.

As for 4GB DDR2 SODIMM modules, I've personally have seen only 2, of which one I actually use.

The one I have is a Hynix module, rated at 800MHz, running in one of my Acer 6930G, and the other was for sale for an stupid price, and IIRC it was a Elpida stick. Same 800MHz speed though.

 

Perhaps not all RTC batteries are rechargeable? The ML1220 has the word "Rechargeable" embossed on it. (I would post a picture, but I don't seem to be able to yet on this site.) If you look up ML1220 battery, Sanyo, Maxell and FDK brands say rechargeable too.

 

I just received the replacement battery today. A quick multimeter check resulted in 2.79V! This is even lower than the 11 year old original with 2.9V!

Did I receive a dud or does this battery need charging first? Which means reassembly before knowing... erg...

 

I bought a new SODIMM RAM module and tried it in both slots without anything changing.

I bought some thermal paste and replaced the old, dried up, thermal paste under the heat sink. No luck either.

The netbook turns on, then off, as before.

So at this point...

- replaced the battery pack ($20)
- replaced the CMOS battery ($3)
- replaced the RAM ($12)
- replaced the thermal paste ($14)

 

I'm making an attempt at recovering the BIOS with BIOS Recovery mode, as described here in the service manual...

https://tim.id.au/laptops/acer/aspire 1810t 1410.pdf

BIOS Mod thread...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...nex-1410-1810t-1810tz-bios-mod-insyde.566142/

which post #32 points to a modded BIOS, which I grabbed. Inside the .rar archive, there's a readme_mod.txt, that points to the original, unmodded BIOS zip file.

I unzipped the file, then used 7z to extract the unmodded BIOS from the Windows .exe.

The BIOS was named ZH7_3314.fd

I've tried ZH7_3314.fd and renaming it to ZH7X64.fd, according to the service manual.

The flash drive light never seems to blink, an indication that something is being read.

- plug in USB flash drive
- Fn + Esc held down
- plug in AC power, but the power button light doesn't flash once, as mentioned in the service manual
- pressed power button
- no light on USB flash drive
- power light comes on, stays on for 6 sec, along with bulb "computer on" light
- numlock light flickers on quickly once
- fan spins up and off, in the same 6 sec

Anyone successfully recover the BIOS? Does the USB flash drive indicate it being read?

 

To round out my attempt at fixing my Acer 1410...

I finally found a used one on eBay that was complete, minus the hard drive. It didn't include the charger, which I already have. It had already been upgraded to 4 GB. The CPU was an exact match. $40 + $10 shipping.

I swapped in the motherboard into my Acer 1410, just so I'd have mine back. Works!

So, in the end... $99 to have a working Acer 1410 + spare parts for everything but a duplicate working motherboard.

At the time of this writing, there's an Acer 1810T for $99 on eBay. It's got a better CPU and bluetooth. C'est la vie!