My Acer Aspire 3003 laptop has been running fine. Recently it stopped working and will not boot.
I recently (only a few months ago) bought a new Acer Aspire 3003 laptop and it has been running fine. Recently it stopped working and will not boot. When I turn it on, the power buttons lights up (green) and CD/DVD drive spins, the fan runs for a few seconds and then stops and the hard disk light will flash a few times.
I have heard that these are common symptoms for broken memory. I haven’t changed the memory in the laptop, I haven’t even opened the case at all, but why has it now stopped working. People have said to me that it may be the memory that has gone bust. If so, does that mean that I have to change the memory, and if so, how? If it is not the memory but the memory socket on the motherboard, does that mean I have to replace the motherboard?
Isn’t it still under Acer warranty?
I would also recommend checking the memory module first. When a memory module goes bad, a laptop acts exactly the way you described above. I cannot explain why a memory module goes bad, it’s like a light bulb, you turn it on and it doesn’t work anymore. I’m not familiar with this model and not sure if it has onboard memory (integrated into the system board) or it connects to the motherboard through the socket. If onboard memory goes bad, you’ll have to replace the motherboard. If the memory socket goes bad, you install it into the second socket and use it this way or you’ll have to replace the motherboard if you want to use both sockets. It’s possible that the memory module just not seated properly, it got dislocated when you moved the laptop. In this case reseating the memory module can fix the problem. To reseat the memory module, remove it from the socket and install it back. On most laptops you can access the memory modules through a hatch on the bottom (for example, Toshiba Satellite 6100 step 3). Some laptops have a memory socket located under the keyboard (for example Toshiba Satellite A25 step 5), and you have to remove the keyboard to access it.
August 1st, 2006 at 7:21 pm
“If onboard memory goes bad, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.”
Not so! Replacing onboard RAM is difficult, but possible if you have good soldering equipment[0] and some experience using it. Factory techs and chain stores will never do repairs like this, but your local geek might. If you don’t have a local geek, contact me through my website.
[0] Good, for purposes of this comment tends to include anything made by Metcal and higher-end Hakko stuff. It doesn’t include anything you can find at Radioshack or even most local electronics stores.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:18 pm
That’s right. They will never replace onboard memory because it would be more cost effective to buy a new system board. How much time it takes to replace onboard memory module and at what rate? How much new memory chips would cost you?
August 2nd, 2006 at 11:16 am
I suppose it depends on the laptop. An Apple iBook G4 motherboard costs over $500. Replacing all four memory chips on it takes me about 2 hours. The chips themselves cost about $15 (8 chips on a $30 dimm). At my usual rate, that’s $105 instead of $500 plus installation. I could (and probably should) charge more, but even at $100/hour, it would be a good deal.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I have an HP Pavilion zd8000. It was working fine, but recently, I noticed it was working very slow and couldn’t load certain things as usual. I tried defragrmenting, tried anti virus, uninstalled a few big games, but nothing helped. Then I noticed that my memory went from 512 mb to 256, therefore I checked to see how my memory sticks are set up, I have 2 256mb. I booted my computer with different combinations, and i found out that both of the sticks work, but none of them work in the second slot. Please, help. What should I do about this. Thanks in advance.
November 28th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Alex,
I know it sucks but if you have a faulty memory slot on the motherboard you’ll have to replace the board in order to get both slots working. I wouldn’t go this way because it’s too expensive.
Also you can buy a bigger memory module and install it into the working slot and use only one slot. That’s what I would do.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for the answer. I went through many sites and I found out I might just have to clean it. I took a cotton swab and soaked it a little bit in vodka, and than I cleaned the slot and the memory connectors itself. It worked like a charm. People, try doing this before buying or doing other modifications.
February 21st, 2007 at 8:50 pm
hi!I bought a laptop acer aspire 30031.5 yrs ago, and bought extra ram with it, which my friend put in for me and was fine for 6 mos, until the lcd screen light went off, acer fixed it and replaced my lcd screen and took the unoriginal memory (1 GB) and put in the 256 MB back. finally, after a year later, i triedto put in the 1GB back into the memory slot, taking my 256 MG out, and the LCD screen went dead again!!! I tried to put the old memory back and still not working. I am sooo frustrated, and the laptop is not under warranty. The computer looks like it is running and CD ROM goes, but will not go any further. THE green light on the power button is on, but that is about it. You can still hear the computer noise, but I don’t know what is going on since the screen is out. What should I do?
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Grace Paik,
Maybe nothing was wrong with the LCD screen in the first place and the screen went black because of defective 1GB RAM module? I don’t know how not original memory stick can “kill” the LCD screen.
When memory goes bad, the laptop will not boot up and the screen will be black. It’s possible that 1GB memory module fails intermittently and the technician who was working on your laptop misdiagnosed the problem and replace the screen as a precaution. Later he found the real problem and that’s why he removed this module from the laptop.
Now you installed it into the laptop again and of course the laptop fails.
Make sure the original 256MB memory module is seated properly, all the way down into the slot.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I think it is seated properly, but I am not too sure, I pushed it as far as I could. The other question, should the GOLD trim be showing once the memory is placed back on the motherboard? If so, about how much? I will see if I can take apicture of it.
Thank u for your time!!!
Grace
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I GOT IT TO WORK!!! WOW! you were right! It was not seated properly. The gold trim on the memory should have not be showing!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!! SO MUCH.
Grace Paik
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am
I have a Acer Travelmate 4150.
When i boot it, it goes OFF in about 15 secs.
No issues with battery, i tried on AC adapter as well.
HDD is also working, i tried removing it and booting.
The fan works for about 2 secs and goes off.
I suspect overheating, but 15 secs seems a very small time.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Abhishek,
Yep, 15 seconds is not enough to overheat the CPU. I don’t think it’s heat related issue.
If the laptop powers off (I mean turns off completely) on its own, there could be a problem with the motherboard.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:04 am
Abhishek,
It sounds like it could be a bad ground. I had a similar action on a desktop that the post had come loose and the board was not getting a good ground. Don’t know if this applies.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:42 am
hey i got an acer laptop and i let my friend use it for a day and when i got it back as soon as i turn it on the screen is black and it asks me for a password… i dont know the password and nor does he.. what can i do to fix tis please?
August 31st, 2009 at 3:10 am
tried this with an acer aspire 7000 series, didnt think that it was a ram issues and I was correct.. Seems to be motherboard failure.. apparently the laptop is only just over a year old!
May 18th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I have a similar problem. I was trying to boot in Safe Mode. I tapped the F8 key when the acer screen appeared. The screen suddenly went black. Now when I turn on my system, the power light flashes yellow but the screen never lights up. I have had some experience with computers. Always before if the motherboard was bad, the system fan would run for a few seconds then shut off. This one seems to run till I hit the power button.. I have removed the RAM and receive no BIOS beeps. I have tried removing the battery and unplugging the system and holding down the power button to drain the power from the board. ( a suggestion of the HP people when I had trouble with the CMOS on an HP laptop) But still nothing. The heat sink is getting hot. Could this be a problem with the Video chip?