Dead Laptop

[vincent]

My laptop has gone kaput Currently using a spare.
It's an Acer Aspire 9304WSMi and a little over 2 years old but out of warranty.
On boot up the power button light is on and the indicator lights on the front for power and battery are on but that's it.
No activity from the hard drive and nothing on the screen,the dvd drive is trying to read but again nothing on the screen.
I'm thinking maybe the hard drive(Hitachi) has had it.

Any advice from technical wizards greatly appreciated

Vince.

[Urrell]

If it was just the hard disk dead you should see some error messages on screen from the BIOS when trying to boot.

Can you hear the fans running?

Are you sure the power supply is working?

[Hawkeye]

Do you get the post message, anything on the screen at all no matter what. You should have some message like press F2 to enter setup. If you can see this message then it points to the hard drive though i would have to see it to be sure.

If you can see SFA then it sounds like a problem with the screen. If you need to get info off your disk send me a message.

[Roger]

The first thing to try with a laptop is to remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, refit and try again

After that

Run hard drive diagnostics: Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Make sure, you select the tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: The Official ImgBurn Website to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

[Compo48]

If it's trying to read the dvd drive, it suggests that the lappie isn't finding the hard disk to boot from, but you'd normally expect to see something on screen.

First thing is to get something on screen. I'd try and get into setup mode (as already suggested) - normally by pressing a function key just after switching on. I think which key may vary from machine to machine.

If you still can't see anything, I'd try and attach an external monitor to the VGA port.

Try these first, and Roger's suggestion to remove the battery.

I'm a bit puzzled though - if it was a hard disk problem, I'd expect to see a message on screen, and if it was screen, I'd expect the laptop still to boot so you'd see the normal hard disk activity light buzzing away.

Other than that, I'd try and trawl some forums for others who have had the same problem. I've posted a few links that may help - either with advice or access to others who've had problems with Acers. How far you want to go with some of the suggestions will depend on how comfortable you are with working with your laptop.

Let us know how you get on

Neil

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...wont-boot.html

Acer Aspire won't power up - Building and Trouble Shooting - Forums - www.atomicmpc.com.au

Acer Aspire won't power up - Building and Trouble Shooting - Forums - www.atomicmpc.com.au

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288941

[Bilbo]

Originally Posted by Compo48

Try these first, and Roger's suggestion to remove the battery.

Removing the battery and leaving it unplugged from the mains for a little while has worked twice for me, on my laptop with similar symptoms.

If it is a completely failed battery that is causing the problem, you should be able to start it up via the mains with the battery out.

[vincent]

Many thanks for all the replies,having exhausted all possible solutions without any change and with my limited ability I hatched a cunning plan.
It hardly seems worth the bother these machines are so cheap now....so

Hard drive,optical drive and memory now salvaged,the rest obliterated beyond all recognition and I feel so much better.....

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by vincent

Many thanks for all the replies,having exhausted all possible solutions without any change and with my limited ability I hatched a cunning plan.
It hardly seems worth the bother these machines are so cheap now....so

Hard drive,optical drive and memory now salvaged,the rest obliterated beyond all recognition and I feel so much better.....

A man after my own heart , my video camera went tits up after getting back from the St Tropez rally, screwed up all my footage of ride out on the bike with my mates. Sort of felt better, but it wont make trouble for me again,it bounced across the floor

[dodgyloner]

Thank god for that - I thought it was just me who flew into a smash-everything-into-little-pieces rage.....

[BaZa®]

Originally Posted by vincent

Many thanks for all the replies,having exhausted all possible solutions without any change and with my limited ability I hatched a cunning plan.
It hardly seems worth the bother these machines are so cheap now....so

Hard drive,optical drive and memory now salvaged,the rest obliterated beyond all recognition and I feel so much better.....

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

A man after my own heart , my video camera went tits up after getting back from the St Tropez rally, screwed up all my footage of ride out on the bike with my mates. Sort of felt better, but it wont make trouble for me again,it bounced across the floor

Originally Posted by dodgyloner

Thank god for that - I thought it was just me who flew into a smash-everything-into-little-pieces rage.....

.................................