screen problem on my aspire 5920G

Hello,

I have a problem with my Acer Aspire 5920G laptop.
Recently, the laptop crashed during a program, where sound and image stuck (blurred image with colors). The only way to put my laptop off was to press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.

If I wanted to boot again,the light in the power button lights up, i hear fans running and the control lights blink in the beginning sometimes.
But the screen stays black and dark. Nothing to see, no backlight, no flashes, no-acer startup screen, no blinking cursor ...
When I press the power button now one time, the laptop is immediately turned off (so i think Windows does not start up).

If I try to boot with an Ubuntu live CD, i hear the CD-ROM drive turning, and the laptop seems to end up somewhere in a menu, but the screen does nothing.
When I press the power button now one time, the laptop keeps running. To turn off i have to press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.

I tried to boot with an external screen (once with a VGA connection, once with an HDMI connection), but this makes no difference.

I have disconnected power and battery and pressed and holded the power button for 45 seconds (to reset bios). It does not matter.

I have changed the RAM from position (the other slot). It makes no difference.

The screen shows nothing (at any time), not even a backlight.

Does anyone know a possible cause of this?
- Is the screen broken?
- Is the graphics card broken?
- Is this another known issue?


What can I do to detect and solve (eventually) this problem, without sending it directly to the Acer repair service.
Maybe some simple checks of a checklist in order to exclude somethings.

Can someone help me?

 

Maybe your graphics card (8600M GT?) died.
This is a very very very (one more?) very common problem.
Replace it yourself with a ATI HD 3650 or even ATI HD4650/70.

Read about replacing it here, most people had the same problem: The Acer Guy Blog Archive Morris’ Aspire 5920 GPU Swap/upgrade

Read the comments, not the guide, the guide is outdated.

You need to:
Get a MXM II ATI Mobility HD 3650 from ebay or a local site.
Get a copper shim/heatsink of 0.7x15x15 mm (possibly from here Copper Heatsink, Absorb Heat, Electrical, 0.7mm) , not sure about the size, check the comments.
Remove the old heatpad and replace it with the copper heatsink.
Use a minimal amount of thermal paste like Artic Silver 5 on both sides.

They say the HD3650 is a bit better than the 8600M GT and should run cooler.

I could hear the sound of windows starting up & the media keys and other lights would change from how they are during startup to how they are after startup.

I got all this material, but I still need to replace mine, I got my 8600M GT replaced while I was still in the extended 3 year warranty period. If you don't have that, they'll charge you a lot more then this will cost, plus they'll just get you a new 8600M GT that one day might die as well, because this a factory mistake.

 

You say you hear sound of windows starting up.

I don't hear sound when i boot, and i am pretty sure windows does not start up.


Yesterday i removed the graphics card, and booted.
Result: after 5 sec backlight of screen lighted up and stayed on. Nothing else happened. So i have only a gray screen.

If only the graphics card is broken, is it normal that windows don't start up? I was thinking it should.