Acer Aspire 7720 "Black Screen of Death"

Hi, everyone

Can you guys help me out with my problem? I'm having trouble with my Acer notebook. A couple of days ago, I installed Skyrim in this computer, and after playing the game for a couple of minutes, it started showing some pixel blocks on the screen.

Weird thing was that, the computer itself had no trouble running Skyrim. It was pretty fast (even faster than in my brother's laptop, where I've played Skyrim for countless hours) with just a few lags here and there, but nothing else.

However, after the pixel blocks started showing up, the game eventually stopped responding along with the computer itself.

It wouldn't switch applications when I press Alt + Tab. Whenever I press num lock or caps lock, the light wouldn't even blink on or off. It completely hanged, and there was nothing else I could do but reset the computer.

Good news was that, whenever I did this, it would go back to normal. No more dead pixels; everything seemed to be sailing perfectly again, as if nothing happened before. Bad news was that, 4 days ago, when I brought the computer to school for a presentation, upon starting the notebook, the screen would not work at all - at first it started showing vertical lines for a couple of seconds, and then eventually resorted to a completely black screen.

So now, restarting no longer does the trick. Whenever I would boot up the computer, it wouldn't load up the Acer start up screen or anything at atll like it usually does when the display was still working. Instead, I get something like this:

So now, I'm at lost.

I think my computer is a victim of the ''black screen of death". What should I do about this?

I've heard about upgrading the bios, but how do I do this when the screen isn't even working?

Also, can you guys point to me where I can download the latest versions of the bios? I've been to the Acer website, but all the links for my laptop's model is down.

It would be great, too, if someone can provide me with the proper procedures on how to do this.

I really don't want to cause any further damage on my computer, so help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much!

 

I presume it's Aspire 7720G not just 7720. What GPU does it have? If I remember correctly it should have either nVidia 8400 or 9300/9500 which would fit your description of the issue.
These cards have their own issues and you are looking at replacing the card.
So called oven trick (baking the card) might work for a while but in the long run you're gonna need a new card.

As for BIOS it has nothing to do with it.

 

I think it's 7720. At first I also thought it was 7720G, but when I looked up pics of both models, I noticed there's a slight difference with the keyboards: the 7720G has a numpad, whereas the 7720 doesn't. Mine's the one that doesn't have any numpad, so I assume it's 7720 only, and not 7720G.

You're right about the GPU, it's nVidia 8400.

Just a quesiton. What do you mean about replacing the card? Like buying a brand new nVidia 8400 or really replacing it with another model? I'm sorry about the noobish question; I'm not very savvy when it comes to these things.

Oh, I see. But that's weird. Most of the threads I've read here on this same forum suggested that it had something to do with the bios, like there was something to upgrade there or whatever.

Do you think there's an alternative to replacing the video card (besides baking it)? I'm sorry if I sound naive, but I'm thinking it would be such a waste to just throw this one away, considering that I just bought it a month ago (not from Acer directly, but from a different supplier).

Would like to hear your thoughts about this.

Thanks!

 

Aspire 7720 and 7720G look identical- the only difference is a dedicated GPU on 7720G- which you have so it pretty much must be a 7720G.
Not that it's important seeing that you've confirmed that you have a 8400 which is a dedicated card in MXM II slot.

These cards have known defect (see here) so it was bound to go. Luckily for you this laptop uses MXM-II slot so you can replace just a card rather than the whole motherboard.

You can- and probably should replace it with a faster card by the way- since you intend on gaming an 8400 is terribly slow (or you have to play in low res with few details).
Apart from replacing the card or baking it- nothing you can do.

I assume the computer boots fine in the background so to speak (you can't see anything on the screen but other than that). You can also check if it works with an external screen to be sure it's not the screen itself or an inverter.


As for BIOS- for reasons that I don't understand people tend to think flashing BIOS will fix something- like it's reinstalling Windows or something like that. BIOS has two states- working (computer boots) or not working (it's a brick). You haven't changed anything in your setup so the BIOS that had correctly worked must still work correctly- it's not like you've added hardware that is not recognized or something like that that prevents booting.

If it's a used unit with no warranty- you're either unlucky or someone had baked the card already which bought it a new lease of like and you got your few months before it died.

 

Yeah, that's true. When I was playing Skyrim and Minecraft, I had to play them on the lowest resolution, and set all the details to low to minimize the lag.

Do you have any good gaming video cards in mind for a budget conscious person like me? Something that will no longer make me encounter problems like this in the future?

Thanks very much! You've been a lot of help to me.

Looking forward to your reply.

 

See this thread for cards that have been confirmed working with your notebook.
Avoid 8400, 9300 and 9500. Nvidia 9600M GT will work fine although it might need a modded BIOS (see the link to successful upgrade in the thread).