Acer Aspire 6530G - won't boot, only power button flashing

Hi,

okay, this is a little weird, I know, but maybe someone can do me a favour and has knowledge about this ... e.g. Aspire 6530G owners ...

Thing is, I want to upgrade my laptop with a new gfx card - ATI 4650 MXM II would be nice.

They sell pretty high, 200€ or so, and I don't manage to find any cheap one on ebay at all.

So I have "Plan B" - get a broken laptop and remove it from that one, and resell the broken laptop. Should be cheaper, I hope.

So I found this laptop on ebay. All I know is, that it does not boot, and that the power button is flashing.

I had some Acer 7520Gs with the same behaviour (reboot loop), having a motherboard failure. Of course, if I would buy this laptop, the worst that could happen is, that the graphic card is broken.

So, does anybody have an idea what's wrong with that Acer 6530G? I didn't find anything on the web regarding this - for the 7520G the web is full with this kind of error.

Maybe someone can comment on this.

Thanks in advance!
Cheers

 

No one willing to comment?

More a motherboard thing or a video card thing - or how high are the chances that this behaviour is video card related?

I am also happy for wild guesses and dirty lies - just tell me to buy that god damn thing, hehe.

Thanks in advance!

 

OK. If it was a GPU thing it would try to boot and either succeed in the background or give a BIOS error beep code and stop.
What you've described looks like a mobo failure or some kind of electrical failure- the latter could have affected the GPU but is quite unlikely.

So if the price is right it seems it's worth taking the risk.

 

Thanks for the reply!

A great - now I have a reference to point to in case my girlfriend is giving me the bird again for buying trash, hehe.

The reason why I asked this kinda strange question is that, as stated above, many other Acer Aspire models (mainly 5520, 5920, 7520) have similar problems, stemming from mainbaord failures.

So I thought maybe its also common for the 6530 series.

I would also tip on a mainboard, battery/power cord/power jack problem, which of course could also affect the VGA adapter.

I'll see if I buy it, thanks again!

Any more opinions?

Cheers

 

Okay, bought it, got it, removed 4650, "works" - I just shuffed it in my FL90, had a bit of trouble with "incompatible" mounting brackets, and the heat sink would need modifications - but I saw it POSTing, and turned it off.

Anyway, I checked then on the Acer 6530G. I put in an ATI 3470, just to have VGA card in there.

The problem now looks like this.

Without power, it does nothing, altough battery is in (it could be dry/dead).

As soon as I plug in the power supply, the power button starts flashing - quite fast, multiple times per second.

Even if I unplug the power from the wall socket but leave it in the laptop, the power button keeps on flashing on the same pace as before - fast (is that a hint for someone - looks "fishy" to me).

It only stops once the light of the adapter of the power supply goes off.

The light of the power supply looks normal - it goes on once I plug it into the wall socket and stays on when I plug it into the laptop - when I unplug it form the wall socket it takes a while untuil it dimms.

I can't relly test with another power supply, as I do not have one that outputs 3,42A, only 4.74 (I shouldn't try with these, I guess?)

I have a multimeter here to check voltages ... it's in its orignal wrapping, hehe, I never used it ...

Any tips how I could tackle that one ...

Guesses are on power supply, power jack of laptop, or mainboard failure/short - what are your guesses?

Any help would be great!

Cheers

 

Okay, I am thru with the multimeter tutorial and manual, so I gave it a try.

The adapter brings 19.something volts, which is okay, but when meassuring current, the readings were "strange".

It was no constant reading, but everything from 0.something, 1.something, even 2.something once, but never 3.42, esp. not constantly.

Now, as you might have learned, I am not the multimeter guru, but that's awkward, right?

Any pointer would be great!

Thanks!

 

No ideas? Anyone?

I also checked another working power adapter, and the multimeter also showed non-constant readings, so I guess the above "problem" is no problem really.

Any other ideas/guesses ..?

Cheers

 

Really no one ..?

Thanks in advance!

 

My 5720 stopped working from the mains a couple of days ago, when I plug in the power cable with a battery installed the power light/battery light both flash roughly 2 times/sec, doesn`t stop untill the power cable is unplugged. Laptop runs fine on battery so probably something on the motherboard has blown (not looked yet) Do you have another battery you could try in your 6530G? same battery in loads of Acers.
May be a long shot but taking the laptop apart completely may be worth a try too, bought 2 dead (no lights) 6530g`s about 3months ago and both worked after stripping and rebuilding. Using one of them now since my 5720 is sick.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I had several 7520G's at home, but sold them all just recently. But a new, i.e. defective, 7520G is coming to me right from ebay, hehe.

I will try exactly what you suggested, as I had the same in mind - first try the battery of the 7520G, then dis-/reassemble the 6530G.

I already began to disassemble a bit, may I continue that before trying the battery (7520G won't come before next week) - I removed some parts and connection, and also a battery (not CMOS battery, I guess) between VGA card and WLAN card - after removing that, the blue light did not come on at all, but I could hear a very light buzzing sound when plugging power back in. Reinstalling the battery again made the blue light come on again, blinking like wild.

Not sure if that's relevant, but perhaps it is ...

Anyway, thanks a lot for you reply ... and any upcoming!

Cheers

EDIT: a pic of the battery, the dark red thing between VGA card and WLAN card, lower right corner - no idea what this one is for ... (picture not taken by me, hence, not showing my 6530G, found it online)
http://i44.tinypic.com/2112x5t.jpg

Edit: sorry about that large picture!

 

A lot of acers have 4 wires running to the actual power jack. Maybe 2 of them simply are shoddy and touching conductive materials?

 

Hi niffcreature,

hmmm, the connections/connectors looked good.

If I am bored, I might dig deeper today, but I think it would be better to wait for the 7520G battery to arrive, and see if it runs on battery power - but as I said, I doubt the 7520G will arrive before early next week.

I'll see what I do ...

Thanks anyways - keep that suggestions coming

Cheers

 

That is a capacitor between the graphics/wireless cards, cmos battery is between cpu and memory.
You may have found something faulty there because my power light works ok if I disconnect it. It might just be the cause of your flashing power light if it is charging/discharging rapidly.

 

We are talking about this (red framed) thing, right?

If so, what to do about that? I am still new on the job, hehe. Electric circuits and switchings are not really what I am familiar with.

I tested it my multimeter, it had a voltage reading, but I don't remember its value ... around 2 volts, maybe, could be wrong, though.

Btw, is there a problem if I strip the laptop down to the bare motherboard, connect it to the power and hit the power button? Might this break something, granted I do not short something "manually"?

Thanks a lot for your help, guys!

Cheers

 

Yes that is a capacitor 25v 1000μF, hard to properly test with just a meter but very cheap and easy to find if you want to replace it (any tv/radio repair shop).
From a quick look it appears to be smoothing the power supply to the graphics card. I suspect(not certain) you will get the same flashing light when using the battery to power the laptop.
Board will run fine out of the case, but if you havn`t done this sort of thing before you should find yourself a copy of the service guide before you start.

 

Yeah, I have the service manual, and I already took apart several laptops - in fact, I did it so often with my Compal FL90s and Acer 7520s, that I am now in line for doing it blindfolded standing on my head live in a game-show, hehe.

Thanks for your help, I guess I'll be waiting for the battery to arrive, then do some more testing/taking apart.

Thanks a lot, again!

Cheers

 

Good to hear you have the skills/manual. and more patience than me...would have been strripped and rebuilt a week ago if it were mine.

 

Well, be sure, I do not have the patience, hehe, but I have another FL90 laying around all open with a new HD4650 to put into.

And I think it could safe me tons of time to first see if plugging in a battery would resolve the issues all together - so force myself to do so, as if I were patient, hehe.

Cheers

 

Hey cashwo, you were right, partially. With a battery from a broken 7520G, the laptop starts!

I only did a very short test this morning, I didn't had the VGA card and RAMs installed, but the power button came on and the fan started - it stopped shortly there after, but it looked/sounded VERY promising.

So, fact is, it starts on battery, but does not load the battery (or the one that come with it is dead, too) nor will it start with the power cord attached.

Easiest thing would be to check if the power adapter is broken. I guess I could use anyone with the same volt and current output to test this, right?

But what to do if the same happens? I can't run into the next electro market and get myself an Acer internal power cord/power jack, or whatever might be broken ...

Cheers, and thanks a lot for your help!

 

Okay, I put in RAM and video card - first, it didn't really boot, for whatever reason.

I was fiddling around some more, basically doing nothing, and now it boots ?!?!?!

The fan spins, then it takes a while, it spins up again, and it posts. Maybe the delay comes from using a non-default vga card.

Anyway, it still only works on battery power. It also works with battery inserted, and power supply connected. I think it even charges the battery when its connected to the mains. At least the lights indicate that, and when booting Ubuntu 10.10 from an USB drive, Ubuntu also indicates that the battery is being charged - however, I didn't have the time to really see the battery bar increasing, just the symbol changes.

Anyway, when removing the battery and plugging in mains, the flashing power button is back.

I am trying to get another adapter - anyone with the same volt and current output will do, right? Given it fits the power jack of course.

Any other suggestions/ideas what could be wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

 

Okay, as said above, Ubuntu indicates that the battery is being charged when plugging in mains, so do the light on the laptop.

But the battery is not getting charged. I let it drain, and Ubuntu decided to shut down the laptop. I restarted, and it shutdown again, until the battery was "empty" - back on came the flashing power button.

However, not for long. It stoppd blinking, not sure what I did - maybe remove and reinsert the battery. However, after restarting, the battery would "fail" again pretty soon, bringing back the flashing power button.

I am still not have a spare power adapter, but I shoul get one soon.

And I continue this thread, in the hope someone might help out here, and in case some poor guy faces the same problem again, so that he/she have a nice tutorial to read thru.

I hope you gus don't mind.

Any help or pointers are very much welcomed.

Cheers

 

This long story's end is here.

Maybe it's helpful to someone else in the future.