Acer Aspire notebook stopped running off the mains, and will only run off the battery
I have an Acer Aspire 1670 that’s about a year and a half old. Basically what happens is that the machine stopped running off the mains, and will only run off the battery. The only way to charge the battery again is to turn the computer off, and then it will charge again. That began happening about 2 weeks ago. Then a few days ago the charging when turned off became really tempremental, and then it just stopped.
The power adapter says that power is getting from the mains to the adapter, but then the battery still won’t charge. Does anyone know what the problem could be?
I think it could be a bad DC jack. I do not work with Acer notebooks, so it would be only my guess. Try to plug in the AC adapter and wiggle the plug inside the jack. Can you make LEDs to flicker by wiggling the jack? Try to press on the power button while you are wiggling the power jack. If you notice that you can start the laptop when you apply some pressure on the power plug (and power jack), then most likely you have a power jack issue.
The problem you’ve described is very similar to a Toshiba Satellite A70 and A75 power jack problem. A crack occurs between the positive connector on the jack and the system board. As a result, the laptop battery charges only intermittently or doesn’t charge at all, the laptop will not run on AC power or the laptop will not turn on at all. Usually you can solve this problem by re-soldering or replacing the power jack on the system board.
I’m not sure if the power jack is a part of the system board on Acer Aspire 1670 laptop, so remember it’s just a guess.
I would also test the AC adapter itself. May be the adapter is bad even though an LED lights up.
Try to remove the battery and run the laptop just on AC power. Does it make any difference? Can you turn it on?
November 7th, 2006 at 9:24 am
I HAVE TASHIBA SATELLITE PRO IT APPEARS TO BE DEAD. BECAUSE IT WONT START UP BUT THE GREEN LIGHT IS ON FOR POWER. BUT THE BATTIRE LIGHT BLINKS AND IT SOULD NOT BLINK WHEN I PRESS THE POWER BUTTON TO START THE LAP TOP. THE POWER LIGHT GO OUT AND COME BACK ON AND THAT IS IT. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS SOUND OR FAN NOTHING HELP
November 9th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
My Laptop’s AC Power light blinks on and off when ever I have the AC Adapter plugged into the PC and it is on… When the Laptop is off I can plug in the AC Adapter and it will charge the battery just fine. It only blinks between AC Power and Battery Power when the laptop is turned on.
November 20th, 2006 at 2:02 am
I have an acer travelmate, and about 2 weeks ago I noticed that it would not charge when the laptop was turned on, and when I shut down, the ac light would then come on.
Now, the ac light will only come on when I wiggle the connection, and only when the machine is off – it sounds like the exact same problem to me!!
Does anyone know how easy it is to fix this yourself (soldering??), or is it best to take this to a repaor shop?
November 20th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
David,
If you have no soldering experience I would take the laptop to a repair shop.
Before you take it for a repair, test the AC adapter itself. The adapter power cord works under a lot of stress. If you plug/unplug the adapter a lot, the wire inside the cord (close to the power plug) might get damaged. If the wire inside the cord is damaged, it would explain why you have to wiggle the plug to power up the laptop.
Test the power cord, may be it’s something simple.
November 26th, 2006 at 5:49 am
Hiya! Wonder if u can help, I have a compaq armada M700 and it’s gettin on a bit. For some reason I have the opposite problem to the guy with the Acer Aspire. It will run off the mains fine but when i try and turn it on with the battery, absolutely nothing happens. Thing is once or twice it has, n has had quite a good charge on the battery but 95% of the time it just won’t turn on. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Chris Tann
December 1st, 2006 at 4:13 am
I have had the same thing happen with an Acer Aspire 1670. The power supply would charge the battery but dot power the computer. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the power connector (though it is almost impossible tp get at). I measured the voltage out of the power supply as I switched on the computer. With no load (the computer off) the voltage was 19 V but as the hard disk spun up the voltage dropped to 0 V or so and the computer went off. I replaced the power supply and everything works properly.
December 2nd, 2006 at 4:22 pm
help please i have a acer aspire5002wimi.
just lately it has been turn off wihle it is plugged into the main . it only happens when i stop using or when i need to go out for a minite or too., it starts up fine . i do leave the laptop on most of the time.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:10 am
Dave,
The laptop turns off or it goes into hibernation mode? Enter the power management software in the control panel and check settings. May be somebody changed power settings and now the laptop hibernates if it’s unused for some time.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
hi there. I have a FSC V7010 with a similar problem. About a month ago,seemingly just after I had attached many USB peripherals,my laptop suddenly stopped running off power,and would only charge the battery.I thought it might be the power supply so I bought another with correct voltage etc. This worked for about a month, then I had to move the cable for it to charge.
Stupidly, I ignored this growing problem and last week the replacement power supply stopped working. The plastic inside the adapter has melted around the pin of the power connector, fusing it to the laptop.
I acquired a port replicator, and my original power supply is now kind of working with that. As I am writing this, the power has died, I unplug the power supply and leave it for 15 minutes, plug it back in, working for 20 mins. I am wondering whether replacement of the unusable mainboard power socket is worth it…
help me please any advice
thank you
December 6th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
I have the same problem. Now my laptop is a Acer Aspire 3002lci and it is totally dead. I remember it running when I still have power in my battery. Once my battery is drained, the laptop is paper weight. I’ve been thinking that it’s the power adapter so I bought a new one but it did me no good. I just found this website and am beginning to believe it’s the power jack.
My question then would be what kind of power jack do I purchase as I have no idea how to find the model or size or whatever. Help?
December 17th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
I got an acer aspire 3003LCI. Suddenly, the battery won’t charge! Shows charging up to 8% but never beyond. Once I remove the AC adapter, an X marks the battery, saying I’ll lose my work. Thought it was the adapter, changed it, nothing improved. I just changed the battery but the problem persists. what else can I do?
December 18th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Hi I have an ASUS A2500D which is 2 years old.
It runs fine from battery power but whenever it is plugged to the AC charger, the fans start to spin really fast and the computer turns off in less than 10 seconds. When the battery is removed and the computer plugged in : same story. The only way i can use it is to charge the battery while leaving the computer off, unplugging it and run it solely from battery power. Any clues about how to fix this?
December 19th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Benjamin Bem,
Will it actually shut down (of hibernate) if you continue running the laptop on the battery power? If the laptop still runs fine after you unplug the power even though there is an X mark, then it could be a software issue. If the laptop actually shuts down (hibernates) then it’s a hardware issue.
I’m not familiar with Acer laptops but here’s what I think. Usually the AC adapter and battery plugs directly into the system board and if you replaced both parts, then there must be something wrong with the motherboard itself. I would try re-flashing/upgrading the BIOS. It’s possible that the BIOS got corrupted and it causes the problem. Make sure that the laptop is connected to the main power when you reflash/upgrade the BIOS. Read user’s manual. If upgrading the BIOS will not help, then I would assume that you have a bad motherboard.
December 19th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Brice,
I’m not really sure what’s going on with your laptop, never seen a problem like this before. I would guess that you might have a faulty AC adapter. Not sure. I would find a test adapter and see if it makes any difference. Find a multimeter and test voltage on the AC adapter, make that the adapter outputs correct voltage.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:43 am
Hi i was woundering if you guys could help me. Ive been trying to find a solution to my laptop problem. Watered down orange juce was spilt on my laptop about a year ago and i had to replace the inverter to get the backlight working again. However, since then when i have the power cord pluged in the back and try to turn on my laptop the inverter lights light up but nothing happens. Then when i pull out the power cord it will boot up. If i plug the power back in it will work for about 15minutes before giving me a black screen and crashing. I then need to remove the power cable and the battery before the system fully powers down and then i can boot it up again.
When running the laptop on just the battery it works fine unless i put alot of stress on the computer such as running a game it will also crash. Other than that it can run on the batter for basic internet browsing for hours untill the battery has ran out. The laptop near the power cord also makes a hissing noise when i have the power plugged in to it.
Laptop model is an MEDION MD95454 WIM2070, have you any idears what could be wrong for what i cud replace to try fix this? i have tried putting a new cpu in but that makes no difference.
Thanks in advance as i have been trying to sort this for over a year now.
Thanks You very much
i also have a laptop wim2030 with faulty gfx the screen is all garbaged and pixely. am sure the gfx has over heated and died out is there anyways i can fix either of these with eachothers parts?
thanks.
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Jason,
There is no way that I can troubleshoot a laptop with liquid spill over the internet. It’s necessary to take it apart and found all parts damaged by the liquid. According your description I can assume that the juice went down to the system board and probably damaged it. Not sure, it’s necessary to open it up for more accurate diagnosis.
December 24th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Thanks very much for your reply, i know alot about computers i have been building them for a long time. However laptops ive never really taken apart. I have had all of the laptop apart down to its bear bones and have not seen anything noticeable, like i said i thought it was a CPU hissing but i changed it and it never made a difference. You think you could shed some light on:
1) What is making the hissing noise? it makes the noise when i have the power cord plugged it makes a high and low pitched noise. Kinda like when a hdd seeks to find somthing it makes the noise loud when u open somthing and does not make it very much when you are doing nothing.
December 29th, 2006 at 7:33 am
Hi
I have a toshiba satellite m50 and lately it will not run off AC power. When above around 90% charged it will run off AC power but anything below it will not charge or run of AC power. When i turn it off it will charge normally.
Does anyone know the problem?
thanks
December 29th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
John,
What if you remove the laptop battery and start the laptop from the AC adapter (without battery installed). Will it start at all?
December 31st, 2006 at 8:09 am
Dear all,
This seems to be a real Acer problem.
I’ve been fiddling with my Aspire 1670WLMi, about 1.5 years old as well, since it’s been experiencing the exact same problem as the original writer.
If the battery is charged and connected to AC power it will run ‘forever’. When I, however, disconnect from AC my system tray icon for the battery status comes up and starts counting down (normal behavior). If I re-connect to AC power, it doesn’t respond to that and remains sucking up battery power. Until that’s dead, too.
The only thing to do then is power down completely and wait until the battery is recharged. If the battery is full, and the laptop is connected to AC power is will again run ‘forever’. As long as it’s not disconnected for AC power.
Making my laptop effectively a desktop PC. It only runs on AC power and has to be connected ALL the time to AC power.
I’ve already bought a replacement charger, but with all the same symptoms.
I thought it could by the battery itself and was about to purchase a new one, but as it turns out in all the stories above, that will have no effect either.
One other issue that’s probably related, is that DVD’s that are played from an external DVD-player (USB2) will cause the machine about half-way the movie to die on me.
It doesn’t stall, doesn’t hang, no error messages, no BSOD, just dead. As if the battery has dropped to 0% instantly.
I’m a programmer and have intermediate experience with computers (bought my first Commodore 64 in 1984) but before I replace every part in this laptop (or throw it out the window …) I’d like to hear a tech’s opinion.
Could it be an overheating issue ? Or a power drain issue ? (PC runs at 2.8GHz, normal cooling, not overclocked).
Does anyone know of runtime monitoring software for battery life and system status (sort of like SiSoft’s Sandra, but for temperature, Voltage and stuff like that, my BIOS helps me no further).
Appreciate any reply as this issue is bugging me big time (I’ve already passed the point of EVER buying or recommending an Acer again).
Regards,
Gerard
December 31st, 2006 at 11:30 am
small update:
I’ve found a blog that discusses energy consumption, that gave me some pointers to software discussed in my earlier post.
For those interested: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/index.php?cat=71
Now the update:
I noticed that in my Device Manager I ’suddenly’ (don’t know how long, as I didn’t expand the folder tree earlier and both are working) found TWO device drivers for my ONE laptop battery:
One ACPI compliant adapter (might be named slightly different, as I have a Dutch language XP Pro) and one Microsoft AC adapter.
The latter was never installed by me manually, but if I remove it and search for new devices it pops up again.
Both are installed and running properly, but when checking different combinations, I found that the Microsoft AC adapter ALWAYS says ‘AC power’, EVEN if I remove the AC jack.
I disabled the Microsoft AC adapter and am running on the ACPI compliant adapter. The tray icon is now a battery, but remains stable at 100% (equals AC power, but without the correct icon).
Haven’t tested the durability with this situation, but I’m enclined to believe that the TWO adapters played a trick on me.
The Microsoft adapter was the reason I kept my ‘AC power’ icon in the system tray, leading me to believe I was indeed on AC power, where the battery was actually running down.
I’ll try a DVD later on and let you know, for those interested, how it holds up.
Acer batteries are known for their short runtime, and it may just have been that 45 minuted lifetime of the battery on DC power was the point during the movie (halftime) where it just ran out of juice and shut down. No meessages as it was ALSO running on Microsoft’s AC power adapter.
Techs, am I talking a lot of rubbish, or could this be the issue ?
Again, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Gerard.
December 31st, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Thanks you for the replys.. i have the power cord in now without the battery this is what happens:
Power on:
Freezes for about 5 seconds like it would if it had crashed, then it begins to boot.. im running it now with just the power cable in it to reply to this.
I just want to figure out the hissing noise aswell because it never used to do that.
Thank you for your replys much appriciated.
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:32 am
I have an Acer Aspire 1640 and am experiencing a very similar problem.
For a few weeks when powering my laptop i have had to wiggle the wire around to find the right position for it to charge continuously. Then eventually it became impossible for me to find a position that it would charge. The best that could be found is a position that it would charge intermediately. But it would charge for a second then the screen would flash (the acer ePower settings which means that brightness is lower on battery power) and would then flash on for another second and so on. This wasn’t good enough to keep the battery running. And now eventually my power has completely ran out and it doesn’t seem to charge when off either so i can’t turn it on at all.
I have found no solution and this laptop is sitting there useless. I’m pretty sure it’s not the cable as i have tried the cable in an identical laptop and it works fine in that. So it must be my laptop. I have read around the internet so many accounts of this and similar.
Acer need to sort this out, it seems to be happening to a lot of people, but no solid solution annoyingly.
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Gerard,
I don’t work with Acer laptops and cannot say exactly what is wrong but here are some guesses.
Enter the laptop setup and find out what version of the BIOS is installed on your computer. Make sure you have the latest one. It’s possible that one of the latest revisions fixes this problem.
Does it happen only with the external DVD drive or the laptop also shuts down when you run intensive applications (like video editing)? It could be a heat related issue. Make sure the heatsink is not clogged with dust. Find an air compressor or buy a can of compressed air and blow off the cooling module. Test the laptop again and see if the problem is gone.
Check out notebook hardware control utility. It’s free and might be helpful for you.
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Gerard,
Here’s an update regarding the comment 21. I don’t have a Windows XP machine in front of me right now (I’m running Vista), but in my device manager there are two different entries for the battery too. One says: Microsoft AC Adapter and the second says: Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery. I assume it’s normal to have two different entries in there (never paid attention before). As I mentioned before, check if there is a newer BIOS for your laptop.
January 2nd, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Hey Jason,
There is no way for me to guess what is causing the hissing noise on your board. Sorry man, I don’t work with motherboards on the component level. If the motherboard is bad, I replace it with another one but never repair.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:29 am
hi all
I have a Acer 1670 and a problem as mentioned above.
If the battery is charged it will run on the AC power supply however, if the battery loses charge it will continue to discharge even if the AC power is plugged in.
I have flashed the BIOS to ver 1.12 also I have noticed that if I remove the battery the laptop runs ok on the mains, also while checking out the BIOS with the battery in and the AC power cable in, the machine stopped due to lack of power so this may discount a XP problem (on my laptop) does anyone have any ideas ???
P.S. I have also tried a power supply from a Packard Bell which gave the same results as the Acer power supply
January 10th, 2007 at 4:26 am
I also have an Acer 1670 and I too have the exact same problem. I’ve contacted Acer, at first they recommended I try a full system recovery, suggesting it could be a driver issue. This provided no effect. Now they’ve recommended I send the laptop in for repairs.
I should point out I bought the laptop in Decemember 2004, the problem occured around 8 months later, and I hadn’t used the laptop since then untill one week ago, so its a very very old problem.
January 10th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Hi
I have a fix for my Acer now : )
Further to my comments yesterday about the problem not being linked to XP, I decided to try loading XP Home OEM on NTFS (not FAT32), with basic Acer drivers but not the Acer launch manager and ran the laptop battery down to 80%, then plugged the power supply in, the laptop battery then successfully started recharging.
The only issue I encountered was havng to phone Microsoft to re-register the serial number.
Hope this helps if you have had the same problem.
Regards,
Roger
P.S. a friend with a Dell lent me a copy of Windows OEM
January 11th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I had the same problem. I just removed acer drivers, now the power supply is handled by XP, and when I plug the ac while on the computer with my battery at 20%, tadaaa it’s charging.
But there’s one problem, acer drivers handled cpu speed, and since I have a core duo cpu, the second core now runs, and i can’t just set this through XP.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:27 am
I have the same problem with my Acer Aspire 1670. I have put it in for repair at my local computer shop, but to be honest they don’t seem interested in resolving the problem, just telling me that it ‘may be’ the battery. Obviously I don’t want to buy a new battery if this is not that case, and they don’t have any in stock for me to try.
I’m about to get it back and see if I can check the drivers as other people, like Sean, above, has, but when I submitted it for repair it wouldn’t charge at all, and as the battery had run down, I didn’t have any way of turning it on.
Should the unit run on AC power normally even when the battery is dead or removed? Mine won’t.
Any advice gratefully received, as the computer shop have been so unhelpful!
Thanks
January 15th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Hey, I have a HP zd8000 laptop. One day, out of the blue, comp stopped running off of AC power, would only run off the battery. When turned off, I would unplug and re-plug in the AC adapter, it would then charge battery. Also when comp was on, the AC light would not light up or anything. The light would come on if the comp was not running. I assumed I had a bad AC adapter. I got a new one. Now the new one…The light comes on, but it does not power up the comp. I thought it would be the software, I flashed the BIOS, but it did not work, I went into device manager, I uninstalled the AC adapter and the battery and restarted the comp. Did not work. Out of curiosity, I uninstalled the battery only to see what the AC adapter would do, the comp stayed running, It said in the taskbat that it was running off of AC power……then when the battery went dead the comp shuts off….I also tried taking out the battery and it won’t start up on AC power only. If I take the battery out the comp shuts off even when the AC is plugged in. I hope I am not rambling, I just wanted to list everything I have tried. Thank you in advance…..
January 15th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Hi,
I have Acer Aspire 3000 series laptop. My charger pin was having some problem. I replace the pin with new one. Now after that replacement my battery is not charging. IT always shows the battery charger status as 7% remaining. I have tried it with a new charger but faced same problem. Also, sometimes my os also hands, i format and install it again but face same problem of hanging. Please suggest a solution.
Thanks
Gurdev Singh
January 16th, 2007 at 9:47 am
I have a Toshiba A70 laptop. I shut it off last night and heard a high pitched whine for a few seconds. This morning I turned it on. The power LED (blue) came on, but NOTHING happened. I couldn’t turn it off. I held the power button for about 15 seconds, still nothing. I tried CTRL/ALT/DEL, nothing. I even called the ‘tech’ at Staples. He didn’t have a clue. I eventually just pulled the power-pak (battery in bottom), put it back in, hit the power and the computer works fine. What happened?
I always leave the charger plugged in when using the laptop at home. Can the battery get over-charged and cause a freeze-up??
January 16th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Stacy,
Plug in the AC adapter and gently wiggle the AC adapter plug inside the notebook, can you get the power LED on the notebook flashing when you wiggle the plug?
I guess you might have a problem with the power jack, very common for Toshiba Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75 notebooks. More information regarding the power jack issues.
January 16th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Jean Bastien,
I never unplug the adapter at home either and do not see anything wrong with that. The battery cannot get overcharged.
If your laptop suddenly stopped booting try this before anything else: remove the battery, unplug the AC adapter and hold the power button down for about 30 seconds. After that try turning it on again. In some cases this trick works very well.
February 5th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Hey everybody,
I have a Acer Asprire 3003 LCI, for a year and half and since the last month, my computer is going crazy. First the fan started to do a strange noise like it’s goin’ to explode.
Second I cannot used my mouse touch pad anymore. Suddendly it stops working anymore.
Third I cannot read anymore DVDs, CDs by using my combo reader.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Desire Woi,
I think you’ll have to replace the fan. If it started making noise, cleaning will not help.
It’s very likely that your mouse/touchpad/DVD drive problem is software related. Try booting the laptop from a bootable CD or DVD (Windows OS, recovery DVD/CD, etc…). If you can boot from it most likely there is nothing wrong with the drive itself and reinstalling the operating system will fix the laptop.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I’am buying a new laptop for the first time.Should I leave it on 24/7 or shut it off every night. Worried about it over heating .
February 13th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Don,
You can prevent overheating if you blow off the heat sink one-two times a month. You can use canned air widely available in any computer store. I run my laptop 24/7 without any problem.
February 19th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Hi,
I’m having the same problem with my Acer 1670 laptop. It’s about 18 months old and I am about to call Acer to send it away for repair for the third time. It’s the same problem every time – works fine for a while, then begins to switch to battery even when it’s plugged into the mains. Wiggling the wire makes it work for a while, then it all stops working.
I’ve had 2 AC power adapters and 3 internal power supply units so far, about to get the 4th. I’ll advise them to check the software drivers as well as just replacing the hardware.
I bought the extra 5 year cover – thankfully! But this is their final attempt at fixing this problem. Any more, and I’ll expect a replacement or my money back – or we’ll go to court. I paid good money for this computer and it’s been more hassle than it’s worth. Next time I’ll fork out a bit more and go for a decent name…
February 19th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I too have an aspire 1670 and i am having problems with vista. I cannot use my lanexpress wireless card as vista cannot use its original drivers can anybody help me out with locating drivers that will support the card with vista. Vista also takes a dislike to the mobility radeon 9700 and will not use the unsigned drivers needed to use the card :S Please leave comments on similar problems or any ideas for fixing these. Any help is much appreciated.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Ozzywadd,
I think you are not alone. Unfortunately I cannot help you at this point because I don’t have a lot of experience with Windows Vista either. I published your comment here so more people can see it and share their experience.
February 24th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I have a acer 3000. I have never had a problem with it previous, I’ve had it for little over a year. I was placing it down on a table from my lap when suddenly it went out. I had been using it for about 30-45 minutes, batter was at 100% and the ac adapter was in. Now the ac adapter flashes when I plug it in to the laptop. It will not power on. There was no wiggling to make it work, no warning- just went out. I have had it plugged in and it will not come on with the ac adapter and battery in, the battery out and adapter in or just the battery. It would be nice to at least have it die on me after this semester.
Any thoughts?
February 26th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I have an Acer 5002 and just encountered a problem with the AC Adapter. It’s plugged into the wall socket and into the laptop, but won’t recharge the battery. This occurred suddenly and without prior problems. I wiggled around and it began to work and recharge the battery, but hasn’t worked since. I went out and bought a brand new Kensington Universal AC Adapter ($120) and Acer plug ($10) and it worked fine. So I’m guessing it has something to do with the metallic connectivity in the AC Adapter (the male end that plugs into the laptop). Any suggestions? I would like a cheaper alternative to $130 Kensington Universal Adapter.
April 7th, 2007 at 11:18 am
hi i have an acer aspire 1670 which will not run on ac.
The computer runs fine on the battery but will not charge when the computer is turned on.(will charge when turned off)
Also will not turn on with the battery on, it turns on for A split second then turns off.
i have tried replacing the jack and the ac adapter works fine on another acer notebook.
any help would be great as acer want to charge me to tell me what iv just told you.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I have an acer Laptop aspire and today it just stopped working. it will not boot with power connected i have tried a various ways with battery in and out. when i push the power button lights on the front flash but nothing else starts. computer is a year and a half so no warranty damn. So if you have any ideas would appreciate it.
July 5th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Shane -
That sounds very much like a Power Good failure, although it can be a bad cpu.
The cpu has to tell the power supply that it has power or the ps will turn itself off. This all takes around 1 second. On desktops, you have to pull the power cord, wait about 15 sec, plug it in and watch the ps fan as you hit the power button. If the ps is sending power, but not receiving the power good response, you will see the fan jerk.
On a laptop, you will usually see the power light blink.
I am not an Acer fella, so I can’t tell you if you need to replace the MB or the power supply module…..if, indeed moden laptops even have such a thing.
I’ve been at this for over 20 years, but mostly to servers these days.
Mark
July 8th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Hi,
I have a small problem. I have an Acer 5570-2792 and it works fine. I am running Windows Vista Basic. I have 2 user profile. One for me and one for my wife. My user profile and works fine, no problems at all. My wife, after unplugging the power cord from the laptop, the wireless internet disconnects. She needs to press the wireless button again to locate and connect our wireless connection.
Everything from both profiles are identical. I have no clue what could cause this.
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:28 am
Hi,
I bought my acer 1672 in jan 04 and am having the exact same problem as the others..a few months ago, my laptop battery stop charging and the battery light always blinked green..however it was working fine with the AC power plugged in. A couple of days ago, the Laptop stopped running on AC power all of a sudden! So the laptop wont power up if the battery is removed, and the battery wont charge when the laptop is on! the battery only charged for a little while when the laptop is completely turned off but then after 10 mins or so, i start getting a blinking green battery light again. When i turn the laptop ON at this stage, it gives me a warning saying that the battery is out of charge. The laptop runs for about 10 mins or so and then completely dies down again !!
Please help !!
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:36 am
actually i bought the laptop in jan 05 !
August 1st, 2007 at 12:18 pm
this is so funny cuz. . .i had the same problem with my Aspire 3000 and it was really weird so im gonna go get it checked out soon
August 4th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I’m having the same problem, but my DC jack finally came out. Turns out it was loose in there causing my problem. Can it be replaced or should I chunk the system?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:27 am
Wow. I also have an Aspire 3000 and for me, it was pretty clear that I had a problem with the pin in the DC jack because I literally watched it fall out. So anyway, I took it to a few places which had no idea what was wrong with it (and this is Australia..). So anyway, at present I’m waiting for a replacement DC jack to come so I can replace the broken one. I’m not absolutely great at soldering but I think I can do it. I was wondering if anyone knew where to find instructions on how to dismantle (safely!) an Acer Aspire 3000 laptop?
Thanks
October 5th, 2007 at 3:13 am
I HAVE A NOTEBOOK MODEL ASPIRE 1640, IT BECOME SOMETIME DISPLAY OR NOT, AND SOMETME GETTING ON/OFF PROBLEMB , I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS THIS , IAM COMPUTER ENGINEER , I HAVE TEST OUT COMPLETELY , BUT I DONT UNDERSTAND WHERE IS PROBLEMB I THINK PROBLEMB IN MOTHER BOARD , BUT MOTHER BOARD IS OK , THAN WHERE IS PROBLEMB, I WANT COMPLETE SOLUTION , IF YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PLESE SEND ME IMMIDIATE REGARDING ANSWER,
FOR THANKS
CHIPSET COMPUTER LTD. INDIA 09872310227
October 19th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I have a gateway mx7515 that does what a lot of poeple seem to be describing where the battery will charge while the laptop is turned off , but not while it is on, and the laptop itself will not run on dc power alone.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:04 am
Acer 9110 bought just over a year ago and cost enough! Exactly the smae problem – constantly having wriggle the cable in the socket to get mains power. Tried another tested (and working) adapter with same issuse.
It seems nobody has found a solution so does it look like a sending off to be fixed sort of problem?
November 17th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Luke,
If new adapter doesn’t fix the problem, there is something wrong with the power jack.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:15 am
It’s been almost a year since my last comment, and I’ve not been able to sort things out in the meantime.
I’ve sent my laptop in for repair about a week and a half ago and the estimate from Acer just came in: € 503! According to the service department it needs a new charger AND a new motherboard!
Needless to say this has been my last Acer product, no matter how low they price their stuff. With these repair charges you pay the higher price after all !
I’m trying to get them to reduce the costs, and will point them to this log, but I rate my chances very low …
Just to let you guys (and dolls) know.
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 am
Similar problem with Acer Aspire 1640 however mine works fine off AC power. The battery would not charge. Ordered a new battery thinking it had come to the end of its life. It does not charge either. Took case apart to look at board but there doesn’t appear to be any cracks, etc. Put a meter on each of the battery contacts (at the mother board). There are about six of them. They each read about 5 volts when the adapter is plugged in. The battery output itself is about 14 volts on each of them. Not familiar with how battery charging is done so I don’t know whether the low voltage is correct (I assume it “trickle” charges the battery and does not dump the full 14V into the cell).
November 24th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I have a acer laptop – aspire 3680. Has been working fine for approx a year, but now although the battery is showing as 100% remaining, when I take out the power lead, it just turns off straight away. Have I changed a setting accidently or is there a problem?
Thanks
November 25th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I have acer Aspire 3000 if I on it, it will on d power but not display on d screen
November 27th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I’ve had similar problems recently, I have a Aspire 5102
The power plug would need to be fiddled with in order to work, once you found the right spot it would work great.
For about a week that worked, then it got harder. It’d take twice as long to find the sweet spot, then it would last 5 minutes to 12 hours and suddenly it was no longer charging.
I looked around online, and was told by a repair shop that it is definately the power plug, Acers & Toshibas seem to have a problem with the power plug being crappy, he said to send it in & for $100+shipping he’d have it taken care of.
Here’s how I fixed this problem myself: Acer Aspier power plug problem
November 27th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Hey Tanner,
Thank you for a great comment, I published your comment as a post (see the link above). This way it will not get lost between other comments and more people can find it and benefit from your experience.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I have an acer 3000 series laptop. The power won’t turn on at I’ve purchased a new AC adaptor same thing…its not under warranty anymore. What can I do?? Is it worth fixing??
January 4th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Well i had the same problem with my acer 4152.. it only charged when it is turned off.. and while chargin turned off it used to turn off charging for a second and then again start charging..and if i take out the battery and turn it on ac power it only runs for 5 seconds and then turn off.. i borrowed a charger from a guy and the pc worked fine so it means it was the charger problem.. i opened the whole charger used hammer here and there squeezed some stuff,, hahahaha after putting it back together it still didnt work but after an hour its working fine now,, perfect
March 7th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
my computer is turning off it started about 3 weeks ago its not getting hot and i’v seen in side its clean and the fan was drity but clean now and the fan in working fine so i would just like to know what else it could be
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:10 am
Hi, I have a Toshiba Tecra 9000 laptop. Was working perfectly then wouldn’t boot up after plugging in Ac adapter. Noticed first 2 indicator lights light were blinking amber. I unplugged adapter and light kept blinking amber. I removed battery to stop the blinking light, then put the battery back in and tried start up without plugging in adapter. It works perfectly running on battery alone. I had a spare compatible ac adapter and tried using it, again I got blinking amber light. Original ac adapter worked fine on my other laptop. I plugged in adapter and booted laptop on battery power, as soon as I turn power on at wall laptop shuts down. I assume from all that its not the battery or ac adapter. Can I assume since it works ok on battery power its not the system board (motherboard)? Would appreciate any help or suggestions you are able to offer. Thanks, Ray
March 24th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hi everyone I beg you for help, I have acer Aspire 3000, so I try to clean up, so after cleaning it up, I put all back but I forget to put the Hard Disk back then I try to turn on the power in a few second the laptop turn on and then black out. So later I put back the Hard disk and when I try to turn on the laptop can not power on nothing happen but only the Light of the power blinking as green.
Any one idea that what is the main cause of this.
thank
August 11th, 2008 at 3:56 am
dear all,
last nite, my acer aspire 5572 suddenly shut off by itself. on that moment, i was still using the power jack to recharge my battery and simultaneously doing my work. i think just after ten minutes, it just went off…and can never be switch on again until now.
no water were spilled on it..nothing at all, the laptop wasn’t even hot as i just started to do my work and i’m exactly in a very cold temperature (AC ..i mean)…
this has never happens to me and this is truely my first time experiencing this kind of issue.
please help me with this…..
thanks and regards,
zul
August 26th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Short sum, it’s quite a drawbacks kinda laptop though! Yes, it’d might be selfish to say this but it’s true. Every ACERs laptop user I bumped into were in such rambling state about theirs’, myself too! I’ve been using this ACER Aspire 5572 NWCXi with Centrino Dual Core for two months time, and I’d say that sticker ‘DUO’ is crap. My sounds system too giving me headache and if this still persist to run on longer time, sure it will kills me. My colleague alone made his personal record of keeping his ACER laptop reformatted … for 10 times in two months! Hell it did.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:57 am
Ive got Acer Aspire 5310 a couple of weeks ago i had my laptop plugged in while i was using it then the battery light which was amber starting flashing and next minute my laptop shut down. I started back up but within a couple of minutes it shut off again. I had 80% battery so i thought ill try and run it just on the battery so i unplugged it and the laptop wouldnt start up at all on the battery and still doesnt now. I even took the battery out and plugged my laptop to the mains to see if it works without the battery its was working fine then it shut down again. I dont know whats wrong with it help!
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
We have two Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi at home and both are the biggest crap we have ever owned. Slow, don’t shutdown properly, you get black screens sometimes, things just don’t work.
Just today we have both experienced black screens, and one of those two machines is not even used very often.
I will never ever buy any Acer computer again.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Acer Aspire 1670, this ac mains drop off problem has been nightmare for a while now but at last I may have found a solution which does’nt result in added expenditure or the need for the ultimate stress busting action of throwing my laptop at the wall which had almost become a reality.
I came upon this by accident, like most I’ve bought extra power supply adapters which did’nt really make much difference, checked my mobo for damage, especially around the input socket (dry solder/ loose connection ) nothing wrong there.
But a strange thing happened in the proccess of stripping and cleaning the fans, heatsinks and mobo. My AC adapter has resumed it’s function and now runs on mains…Weird!!!! And this is not an isolated case I have mentioned this to other peeps whom have had simular problems with and the result is the same.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I have a DELL 9400 Inspiron.
I had recently purchased a 130 watt AC Adapter, replacing the 90 watt that sparked and suddenly burned out. When i plugged in the 130 watt there was an error
that stated I could use the laptop,but the battery would not charge.
Anyone have any ideas
October 7th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Hi,
the same problem with Philips (Twinhead J12S based) not running off the mains.. It started running only off the battery, even when the power cord is inserted.. Power led is dead unless i shut down (sleep) notebook, then it’s orange while charging and green when completely charged. Wiggling the jack/cord results nothing, removing the battery shuts the power off (whith the cord inserted!).
1. It worked fine for a couple of days after stripping it down by a guy who fixes electronics, but he couldn’t find anything obvious to fix.. He said, although it’s working fine now (he did nothing, just stripped it down and assembled), the problem will occur again and it did..
2. I’ve noticed once how the power LED started to blink in a chaotic manner as if there was some fault contact problem, but stayed OFF (LED, not notebook) after 15 secs of blinking..
3. When the battery is removed and the power cord inserted, pushing the power button makes the power button LED (blue one sircle shaped, just around the button itself, NOT the power LED) blink once for a part of a second and then nothing happens..
Can anybody help, please? Thanks in advance..
P.S.: FREDDY, could you explain what is the problem you’ve found the solution (cleanind dust from fans and heatsinks) for????
November 4th, 2008 at 11:37 am
hi i have an acer aspire 3000 i removed the battery to clean the computer and when i plugged it in again it turn the notebook on but the screen is black and a yellow led is blinking, when i press the power botton it turns off the notebook but when i press it again to turn it on, the same thing happens the screen is black the fan is on and the yellow led is blinking any help
December 18th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
hello, I have a qosmio g25 with a power issue. It was on a tv table while plugged in and it was knocked over and onto the plug. The plug snapped, but fortunately it still worked with the battery. I bought a new transformer with the exact same volts and amps, pluged it in and no charge, and no run. As you must know, the qosmio battery dies very quickly, so no laptop for me. I thought that it might be the power adapter knocked loose from the mboard, but after opening, i see that it doesn’t connect directly to the mboard, it has 4 wires to another connector. Is there a fuse or other part that would likely be the culprit? The PC works perfectly from the battery (which now has absolutely no charge)
January 6th, 2009 at 3:26 am
i have a acer aspire 3630 and can not make it up working. the battery led seem working , when u try with or without battery to turno on it just flash half second the power led.
i suspect hard disk but seem wired that no life signal on the monitor.
forget acer is the second time….
i already replaced hd and original memory unit….
January 24th, 2009 at 5:37 am
Hi ther, i have an acr aspire 3680 WXMI, this computer has been a devil ever since i got it in December 2007,
This happned YESTERDAY
i turned the laptop down, normally.
in the moring, i went to switch it back on, nothing, held the power button for about 20 seconds, nd i left it standing for about half an hour, cam back to it and things had changed,
1 the battery charge light was green(normal)
2 the power up light was on (also normal)
3 the switch light as on (again normal)
4 there was no noise coming from the system (no fan, nothing)
5 th LCD light was on, but no display.
i have researchedthe internet and have found that i am one in approxamtly 1,449 people who are alsm dissapointed acer aspire 3680 users
the person who can come up with a soluion to this will have saved 1,500 acer users douments and settings, not to mention their laptops,
Please, of anybody has a solution, let it out, WE NEED YOU
Regards to all
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I have an Acer Aspire 1640, it’s been off for a few months because the power connector snapped. Now it’s been fixed it won’t power on. The power light flashes orange but nothing happens. The adapter has a light on it and it gets warm.
Any help appreciated! I miss my machine.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Acer Travelmate is doing exactly the same, bought a brand new battery and brand new power pack. The laptop charges perfectly when switched off but as soon as i switch it on the power light begins to flash and battery power starts dropping pretty quickly. So same issue that it won’t run off the mains!!
I’m guessing i must be right in saying the battery is required for a mains connection as it makes up the circuit?! Only the laptop is totally dead with the battery out and the mains plugged in.
These CRAP Acers!!
April 10th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I have searched high and low for an answer and I can’t seem to find one and usually I can troubleshoot these problems myself, but this one has me puzzled. first off I should mention that the lid switch went out some time ago, so I don’t rely on that. Ok here’s the problem, most of the time I can’t just push the power button and power down when the system hangs, I have had to unplug the power and remove the battery to get it to power down, then when I go to power up it won’t start at least not right away for months I have thought that the power button is faulty but just the the other day, I reset my power settings and then it was working just fine like it should, but then the other day the core temperature was high and there was some overheating and it started again, I don’t know if there is a connection with that. So I really don’t know what is causing this and would like to figure it out before it gets much worse.
Thanks
April 14th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Bought an Acer 5920 less than a year ago. Seemed to get the same problem as described here…
1.Plugged in to mains and working as normal.
2. Laptop stopped using mains power for no reason and started using battery power.
3. When battery becomes exhausted laptop shuts down (while still plugged in to mains).
4. Eventually after unplugging it, leaving it for a while and then plugging it in again, the laptop would boot and start working normally using the mains power and start charging the battery again.
I removed the battery from the laptop and used only mains power for a couple of months. I reinserted the battery over a month ago and the problem has not reoccurred since. Not very scientific I know but this has definitely worked for me.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:40 am
I have had the same problem with my Acer 1670 laptop. Hence, it being switched off for nearly a year. I have bought a new charger and that still hasn’t solved the problem. It sounds strange but I turned the laptop upside down and put it on charge and it is now charging. I am sure that there is a manufacturing fault with these Acer laptops.
June 7th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Hi,
Had the same problem with Acer Aspire 1670.
The socket that the mains adapter plugs into has a 1.5mm central connector that inserts into the centre of the adapter.
This overtime separates from the mother board and creates an intermittant connection.
To prove this, remove the battery and start the laptop.
If the laptop starts wiggle the mains adapter connection.
If the connection is intermittant the laptop will die.
If the laptop does not start put slight upward pressure on the connector and turn on again. If it starts there is a good chance you have this problem.
If this is the fault its a pain. I am an electronics engineer and its not easy to dissasemble. I removed the socket from the mainboard and broke the centre pin to create a wire connection to the motherboard to stop this happening again.
When this was connected I resoldered the socket to the motherboard.
You will need a decent soldering iron, a hobby one wont do it.
Please dont attempt it if you are not confident.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I experiences this same problem on an Acer Aspire 3000. After reading your fine posts, right before I tossed it in the parts closet with 22 other laptops I’ve burned through, I disassembled it and inspected the power jack solder points. I’m a software engineer and found it easy to take apart.
The connections looked solid under a magnifying glass, no wiggle, no black marks. I cleaned everything with alchohol and built up the existing solder with a fine point 15-watt pencil and .015 silver bearing solder. I put a dab on top of all powerjack connections too.
I reassembled it and it runs perfectly. Even the battery I though was depleated now holds about an hour of work time. It took about an hour and a half and cost just over $15 for the low-watt soldering pencil and super thin solder.
You can say whatever about Acer quality, but it’s the only brand not represented in my junk closet. If any of you want help, or want to sell an Aspire with this problem, I would be interested.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:52 am
Hello. Im having problems with my acer aspire 3680. After turn it on and after the acer logo screen, it doesn’t do anything else it doesn’t start windows all i got it’s a black screen with a blinking dash can you help me?
July 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
I too have a power problem with an Acer Aspire One notebook. It works fine elsewhere, but in one particular house it will unaccountably switch over to battery power while plugged in. Then when the battery is drained it shuts down. And here’s the really strange part: it will not start up again while still connected to the same wall outlet. But… if I plug into a different outlet it boots up fine and starts charging.