acer 5920g black screen problem

Hi everybody my pc the Acer 5920g stopped working without apparently reason. When I try to turn it on the screen doesn't turn on. I read lots of post in this forum as well about this problem and already tried different kind of fixes. First I connected it to an external device and nothing appear, so then I put the video card in the owen several times but this didn't help. I finally decide to buy a new video card and today I received the 9500m gs but it didn't work as well. I was thinking about flashing the modded bios but I was not able. In your opinion which is the problem. in one of my test I found out that trying to start the pc without the video card the lights of the lcd turn on maybe can be helpful please give me something to try I'm desperate

 

Why you wasn't able to flash the modded BIOS? It most likely would fix your problem. As for the LCD turning on, it just means that the rest of the system is fine and you have to fix the GPU.

 

what is the full spec of your laptop??
is the graphic card separately placed or is it onboard?

remove the HDD and restart, and try to enter the BIOS, if you enter, the hard drive has the problem, test the hard drive on another laptop if you can or connect it through usb and let Windows test it.

 

Because it didn't work I think I'm doing something wrong. First I tried to flash the modded bios '5920G_MXM_V3.WPH' using the procedure founded in this video the problem is that my firmware has the .FD extension and the modded bios has the .WPH extension, so I just tried to rename it in zg5ia32.fd but didn't work the lights on my pc just continued to blind for like 20 minutes so I decided to turn it off. After this I tried to put the original bios in the right format with the same result. Do you know the right way for doing this?

 

The graphic card is separately placed. I already tried to remove the hard disk but same result. The HD works I have it in an external hard drive adaptor at the moment so this shouldn't be the problem the spec of my laptop are:
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2 GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo)
Memory : 2048 MB, DDR2 PC5300 667 Mhz SDRAM
Video card : nVidia VG.8PG06.005 9500M GS 512MB
Hard disk : WD 320GB SATA 2.5"

 

boot the pc without HDD and see what it shows

 

Yes I've already done this and nothing appear because the screen is dead, that's my problem

 

do you see any lights on, hear the fan cooler when the pc is turned?

 

yes everything seems to be ok except the screen as usual. I'm not sure because I have the dual boot at start but I think the operating system starts in fact after few minutes the wifi led turn on because it is connected to the wifi

 

remove the CMOS battery, and insert Windows cd and restart and see if you can perform a repair, to me it sounds like a driver/software issue.

 

I tried just now but still the screen is dead I would like to know which is the right procedure for flashing the modded Bios in this condition anyone can help me?

 

Here, read pages 10 to 15. Good luck!

 

Thank you but on what I read unfortunately they say that I can't flash modded bios without using window. Only the original bios can be flashed that's very bad for me because I can't see anything on my screen

 

have you tried tapping F8 or F12 repeatedly after a restart or when you turn on the laptop? it should get you to a boot menu where you can choose a repair.
can you locate the CMOS jumper? if so can it be pulled out (or it might be soldered)
what version of Windows is installed on your laptop?

 

No I didn't try but why I should do this if cannot see anything? Yes I tried to reset the CMOS but it didn't work. On the pc there was windows 7 but also linux mint and the grub was installed as well for selecting the operating system

 

replace the bios chip with a new one, it helps

 

It didn't work for some of them, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it won't work for you. Give it a try and try with different versions of the Phlash utility. The last option is to either ask someone with programmer to flash the BIOS on a new chip, then you'll have to desolder the old one and solder the new, or do all of the work yourself. Or buy a new COMPATIBLE WITH THE DEFAULT BIOS GPU, that's the very last option. I have nothing more to add, so good luck!

 

Thank you for the reply guys I'm actually trying to flash the BIOS. The only problem is that I only have USB drive of 4gb anyone of you can post the image of a 2gb drive or less with the bios for the 5920g I read that I can copy it with DD on a 4gb drive and it should work

 

get the correct BIOS from Acer so you get the correct one, was the bios previously set to boot from usb? format the usb in FAT32.
I don't know what type of drive file you are asking for, can you give a link to that site that suggests it?

 

Yes I have everything except a usb drive less or equal to 2GB I need it because of this http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/435277-phoenix-bios-crisis-recovery-no-floppy-yes.html#post5528931 and the image that I need is this http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/575866-acer-mxm-bios-mods-discussion-x920g-vs-9600m-gt-11.html#post7548253 but the link is no longer available

EDIT: I found one

 

I think you should try this
Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source: Phoenix BIOS Recovery

 

tell us how it went after you update it, I am curious, good luck

 

Yes I was trying this procedure but for some reason the pc doesn't read the usb device. I can see this because of the light of the usb device I'll try with another one or with an usb floppy if I can find one

 

are you going to place the modded bios or the original one from acer?
make sure to format the usb to FAT32

 

The modded one. Yes it's in FAT32 the problem is it the PC didn't try to read it at all. I decided to buy an external USB floppy drive because I'm desperate

 

what software do you use to make a bootable usb? there is a HP software that is usually used for this type of work.
are you sure that bios is correctly modded?

 

I used winicrisis. Yes I have the HP software but I didn't tried yet. I downloaded the bios from this forum and lots of people are using it so it should be ok I'm gonna do more test tomorrow just to be sure also with the original bios from acer and maybe using the HP tool

 

You need 2GB or less USB drive. Buy one, they are pocket money nowadays.

 

Yes you're right but I decided to spend that money for a usb floppy drive that would be better (I hope). Anyway I already tried with 2 different usb drive of 2GB without success

 

several other forums have said that you should format a USB recovery drive to FAT (not fat32, not NTFS, not exFAT), as this is best match for the version of the prompt you get when booting outside of the GUI.

 

Well I'm not sure about which format the wincrisis use but I'm gonna make more tests later with the HP tool as well that use the FAT format(I think) and let you know

 

remember there are only two FAT a 16 and 32 bit, where the common one is 32 and it is usually referred to as FAT.
I guess its better to use the HP software as it is generally used for this type of work.

 

I finally received the external floppy drive. I make a test using the original BIOS flashed with the wincrisis and it seems to work. As usual I press fn+esc and light start to blind and after few seconds the pc was starting to read the floppy disk. 3 minutes later the pc end to read the floppy and probably start to flash the BIOS. The pc don't restart automatically so I just unplug the ac power and turn it on. The screen was black again. So I tried with the modded BIOS and unfortunately I have the same result. I really don't know what to now any suggestion?

 

flash the original bios, I guess the modded one doesn't work properly for some reason, if the original one from Acer works, then you know that the modded one is the cause to black screen.
are you using a Windows Vista/7/8? is it OEM or retail?

 

Wait longer, like 30 min, just to be sure.

 

The first test was made exactly with the original Bios but it didn't work. I have windows7 but I don't remember if it is OEM or retail

Yes I'll definitely try

 

see if this method helps
Restore the firmware of the laptop Acer - Acer laptop BIOS recovery procedure

 

Well I tried again and this time I wait for 1 hour but it does't work. Maro12 I'm using exactly that metod but unfortunately it doesn't work. I'm starting to think that the problem is something else, any idea?

 

it can be the bios chip is corrupted, I think you need to buy a new chip it should cost about 9 euro, plus you need a tool to remove it

 

Yes but this is hard to do for me, I should find someone that can do this for me. Maybe it's not important but I forgot to say that I bought a new battery for my PC around 2 weeks before all this mess happened. What do you think about this?

 

a new battery has not caused you this problem, I think its the modded bios that wasn't made for your system has caused the problem. somehow bios becomes corrupted after setting a modded bios and thats why you cant boot in windows. replacing a new bios chip with the right program helps.
its a simple operation to replace a chip but you need to buy a tool, that saves you a lot of time it is not expensive about 5 pounds,

what is your bios manufacturer? Phonix? Insyde?
when did exactly this happen, right after you flashed the modded bios? could you use the pc after flashing the modded bios?

 

No but my PC didn't work even before flashing I'm just trying to change the BIOS for fixing it. I have the Poenix bios and this particularly one was already tested by people on the same PC and according to people on this forum it works fine. That's why I think changing the chip wouldn't fix the problem

 

if the problem started before flashing the bios, then how did it all start? did it occur suddenly while you were using it or did it stop turning on after you had turned off the laptop?

can you take the HDD out and set it to another pc, f.ex through a usb as an external drive and then run a HDD test?
do you have access to an extra HDD that you can replace it with the existing one, and then try to install Windows?
what happens if you put the Windows installation dvd and restart on the existing hard drive? can you see the installation screen?

have a look at this tutorial
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/recoverybiosupdateinstructions.pdf

its always a good thing to use a can of compressed air to clean the internal parts for dust for pcs that has been used for a long time,

 

Ok after long time I finally fix the Notebook. At the end the problem was surprise surprise the video card. I mounted a nvidia 8400m g and it works. I really don't understand why the 9500m gs that I bought doesn't work and that's a problem because I should resell it now. I have another small problem...the key "u" doesn't work anymore this is very annoying

 

So you fixed it by a different video card, it might be the BIOS you used wasn't supporting that card.
as for the U key use a can of compressed air to clean for any dust and other things that prevent it to work.