Acer Extensa 4420-5237 power up failure

I had this computer for about a month until it suddenly behaves erratically. When I press the power button, the HD led blinks, silence, DVD drive blinks, then, instead of loading the Acer start up screen, the computer turns off. It appears there is some self-test failure that the bios would not even load. At first I thought it is the DVD drive, but after I took out the DVD drive bay, the machine still has hard time starting. I searched the web and it seems it is a common problem with lots of these Acer laptops. The suggestions on Acer website about unplugging the power cord or battery then reconnecting hardly solves the problem, maybe one in ten times. I am seriously thinking it is either a hardware problem or bios bug. Since in the rare occasion when the machine actually loads up, everything works fine, it is really hard to understand what the real problem is. Does anyone have good opinions on this?

 

Contingency, I have the exact same problem but with a 4420-5693. The problem is IDENTICAL. I called ACER about a month and a half ago and they said it's probably a powerboard issue. My choices were to ship it to them or take it to Best Buy, where I purchased it. Best Buy wanted $84 to ship it to ACER because they don't fix powerboard issues. That was too much so I took it home (I didn't pay $180 for the replacement warranty either since it was almost half of the price of my laptop). The problem resurfaced today so I started searching and found your post.

There is another guy in another forum that also has the problem, but he took it to Best Buy in late November. I PM'd him to see if his is fixed.

AJ

 

Follow up on this,

The Extensa 4420 manufactured in late 2008 used a batch of defective motherboard. I called Acer Repair and sent in the computer to their Texas HQ and got the MB replaced. Now everything runs smoothly. Since it is still under the one year manufacture warranty, there was no charge. In addition, they do not ask for store receipt or other type of proof.