Acer Aspire 5100 problems

Hey guys, one of my computer repair friends gave me a bunch of his stuff as he had no time to look at them, one of those things was an Acer Aspire 5100 (5103WLMi) so i plugged er' in and got no video at all on the LCD display, but it must have an OS installed and be working fine other than video as i heard the log on sound a few moments later. i thought that was odd, i first plugged it in to a CRT display with no luck, and then i went to my workbench to try it there and that has an old hp lcd monitor plugged into a Dell KVM, (analog) with it plugged in there, i can *See* a few things, more like a bunch of lines that you cant see anything with and they keep scrolling up. I know it's not some random picture though because i can see the lines change when i say... press the window key and see the start menu pop up.

So any suggestions before i say screw it and try a reflow?

 

If there's no output on the laptop screen and no output on an external screen, then I would say GPU problem.

 

I was given an Aspire 5100 once but ended up selling it in the end for spares as it was a nightmare. The 5100 series suffer from Southbridge chip problems which can effect the DVD drive, display, keyboard, mouse, sound, USB ports etc.

Judging by the sheer number of 5100 laptops with Southbridge problems, I can only guess that's whats up with yours. If you apply pressure on the wrist rest under the start key and it works, that means its definitely the Southbridge. You could try reflowing the chip, but it most likely needs a new motherboard. (Not worth it, as it will probably break again). Hope this helps.