Acer Aspire 7520G: screen black, but gfx and display ok - what then?

Hi,

I got an Acer Aspire 7520G here, with which I tried several gfx cards. After plugging one in, the display stayed black.

Okay I thought, card not working/incompatible. So I threw in one that works in another Acer Aspire 7520G I got - black screen.

I also tested the display - works in the other Aspire 7520G.

I am normally very cautious when (dis)assembling these things, but maybe I screwed up once ...

Well, does anybody have a clue what to do? Any options but throw it away/onto ebay?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers

 

Sounds like dead mobo...

 

Sorry, was a bit too fast before. If I plug in an hdd, it loads Win Vista.

I am sure it loads it, but of course I can't see it but hdd light blinks, etc.

However, this only works in safe mode - with enough dead laptop experience, you can get quite good in navigating without a display, hehe.

I also flashed system BIOS blind - I guess it worked.

So, I doubt the mobo is completely dead - maybe partially ... and that's my problem, how to locate this defect.

Any clues?

Thanks in advance!

 

haha I know what your mean.

Did you try changing the monitor ribbon and power wires?

Also, have you tried using the vga or hdmi out, if it has it?

Do you get any sort of sound from the speakers? beeps or anything?

 

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I plugged in another monitor, I have two 7520Gs. No luck.

I didn't try VGA/HDMI out yet. Worth a try, yep.

I can get it to make sounds, e.g. when entering BIOS and hitting "wrong" buttons. But it does not beep on its own when starting. I even tried to remove all RAM and start it, as I expected it to beep - but it wouldn't beep ...

I might not be able to do further test before next week .. maybe tonight a bit, not sure.

If I gain new insight, I will repost. In case someone has another good idea, I'd be happy to hear it.

Thanks in advance!
Cheers

 

yep? did it show on the screen?

 

Oh, sorry, with "yep" I meant you are right, checking external signals would be worth a try ... I am still at work, I'll check it later.

Sorry for the confusion.

I repost later,

Cheers

 

Hahaha, this is just great.

Okay, I hooked it to the external monitor via VGA out.

Totally dead - "no signal sign" all the time on the external monitor. It wouldn't even boot now, no hdd action to observe, of course no screen output.

The "no signal sign" was actually a proof that something is totally wrong, as normally, the screen is just black if something is incompatible.

Okay I though, clean up, put the parts together, dump it (on ebay). First thing was the ribbon above the keyboard. I put it on, of course it didn't want to get on as easy as I liked, so I pressed the ribbon hard onto the laptop, in the process making contact with the power button.

Guess what! It came back on - with a display, hehe.

Lesson learned: Hug your laptop from time to time, it pays!

Of course, I can imagine the reason. Lots of these 7520s have cold solder joints. I read a lot about pressing somewhere on the laptop to revive it - but this was just pure luck - or was it the hugging ..?

Either way, there's something severely wrong with this machine, but I doubt you can actually fix it permanently, so it still will hit ebay.

Thanks for your help - and remember, hug your laptop once in a while ...

 

... dead again ... no matter how much I hugg it, hehe.

... where's my hot air gun ..?

 

lol

hurm.. thats a bummer... sounds like its only half dead though .

The only thing else I can think of is just carefully look for loose soldering over the main board.

maybe someone else on here has a better idea...

 

I heat-guned it - works again.

Anbody has experience for how long this "fix" works?

Thanks in advance

 

Moral hazard had a VERY similar issue. AND he used a heatgun to fix it as well!
Unfortunately for him it didn't last a month.

Insight: New upgraded motherboard: under 80$ shipped.
ACER Aspire 5720 5720G MB.AHH02.002 laptop MOTHERBOARD - eBay (item 140498253010 end time Mar-08-11 08:43:56 PST)

 

Thanks for the poiter, but I never ever will repair this thing. I take it apart and sell the stuff on ebay, bit by bit.