Acer Aspire 3680 No Power, no lights

I expect that the most common answer for this problem is a defective power jack. There may be other answers as well which I'd like to hear about.

This is unusual for this laptop because it mysteriously died overnight one night, while not in use. There had never been any prior problem. It was working perfectly with no symptoms like an intermittent charging light etc. I tried to power it up the next day, and nothing!

With the power and battery off, I've held down the power switch for over a minute and then attached the power, but no difference.

I've studied the jack closely and it does not seem loose, nor does the center pin seem loose.

Before trying a new power jack, is there a way to trouble shoot the jack to see if power is coming through? I have 19v dc at the power connector on the power cord.

After some dis-assembly, I see terminals pc1 and pc2 on the back of the board where the jack attaches. I also see pL1 and pL2.

Anyone know every tried to read voltage between any of those contacts? I tried to read between pc1 and pc2 and got no voltage. Have no idea if that is a good place to try to read voltage.

Any tips appreciated!

P.S. I have a steady power light on the power supply before connecting to laptop. It blinks when connected, however there are no lights on the laptop at all. CMOS battery shows 3.06v.

 

PSU light shouldn't blink. There may be short circuit somewhere on the board.

 

No doubt, boards can go bad at any time, and at rest, and at night, and even when not in use, but asleep!

I see lots of posters with Acers who report blinking power supply lights. Based on that, I guess it's likely that so many posters have shorted mother boards!

Does the blinking power supply light mean that the power supply has tripped in response to the short, and then is not producing the 19v?

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with the PSU itself but if you could test it with another notebook or test yours with another PSU it would rule it out completely.

 

Second psu seems to work the same as the first.

 

That means it's most likely a short circuit on the mobo.
If it was just a power jack PSU status-light wouldn't have blinked.