The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    how to test what is dead in laptop ? acer 5100

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by jerry66, May 14, 2008.

  1. jerry66

    jerry66 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    764
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    with AMD 52 turion x2 , , nothing comes up , only black screen ,tried on external monitor through vga , nothing happened . put in new hard drive , same black creen , nothinhg comes up .
    put in rescue disc , can hear dvd drive trying to start , nothing . cannot even get into bios .
    the fan runs and dvd drive get power , what else can i do to find out what ha died ?
    thanks
     
    jerry66, May 14, 2008
    #1
  2. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

    Reputations:
    385
    Messages:
    2,662
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    RAM may be?
     
    The_Observer, May 14, 2008
    #2
  3. tacomenace21

    tacomenace21 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    75
    Messages:
    1,124
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I would think more than likely your RAM is dead. Only 2 other things that can do this that i've ever seen. Bad CPU or Bad GPU but this is very rare. If I was a betting man I would probably say it was your RAM. If you have 2 sticks take 1 one out and try to boot. If that still doesn't work swap them and if that doesn't work see if you have some laying around.
     
    tacomenace21, May 14, 2008
    #3
  4. bigozone

    bigozone JellyRoll touring now

    Reputations:
    1,112
    Messages:
    2,730
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    hard to tell under those circumstances,, as i understand it you never see a BIOS (ACER) screen usually white w/ blue-green letters...

    after removing battery, and power cord... then press power button...
    then try removing ALL/BOTH pieces of RAM from the system,, now replace power cord and try to power up.... see if you hear any beeps from laptop
    the PC can't boot w/o RAM... but you may hear beeps.... if so note the number and lenght of beeps... (i.e. 1 long, 3 short beeps)

    if you get no beeps then you have a motherboard or some 'other' serious hardware issue...

    just to test you might try booting with only 1 stick of ram... then try booting w/ the other stick.... does it boot in either situation??

    i've seen cheap USB diagnostic tools on EBAY.... not sure if they would be of any assistance or if it's worth the $ to even test...

    here's a link to one that has a MINI PCI interface... most use LPT printer port which is not on today's newer laptops... so this one could probably be inserted in-place of your network card...
    http://cgi.ebay.com/Universal-Noteb...60270QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
    i can't say i've used this product,, it's been years since i fooled with a POST card,, but it's the only option i can come up with short of expensive in-shop testing

    later,
    bigO
     
    bigozone, May 14, 2008
    #4
  5. jerry66

    jerry66 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    80
    Messages:
    764
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    thanks guys , I never thought of that ! Give it a try later . seeing as all the lights and drives get power but no screeen , ram is a likely culprit
     
    jerry66, May 14, 2008
    #5