laptop just shut off... wont go back on!

Never had this happen before.. my acer aspire laptop just shut down. It didnt feel overheated (thats happened before but not in well over a year, maybe 2 or more years actually).

And i THOUGHT that i heard a repeating faint noise from the power adapter cord/box thing and the light was flashing on that. But then i went to the store and came back, left the laptop plugged in and now the light is solid. I believe its "normally" solid and the blinking part kind of caught my eye, but it might be of no significance.

however, i THINK i might smell something odd... but im also now shoving my nose in the laptop so.... but i opened up the bottom and nothing looks obviously friend or burnt.

the symptoms right now are that the laptop simply wont turn on. Nothing happens when i push power.
i also think i might smell something odd.
power adapter light was blinking and i thought i heard a repeating very faint noise as the laptop shut down/turned off.

its a winXP laptop acer aspire, probably at around 5 years old. i usually had it running 24/7 for the greater part of the last year and a half. Would turn it off when i left for vacation and stuff, but day to day it was running, pretty much just the internet.

please help me figure and fix this! :( :)

When you had it open, did you find any dust inside? With blinking light on the power adapter, it's quite possible the battery wasn't charging. Laptops weren't made to run 24/7.

Did you ever calibrate the battery?
http://h20239.www2.hp.com/techcenter...attery_max.htm

Remove the battery and see if it will boot up. Some will do that, others will not.

It was quite clean inside actually.

I had replaced the laptops fan in the past as well, if thats worth noting.

I actually didnt use the laptop battery because it seemed to make the laptop run some crappy propriety battery software that gave me a headache. So for the last year probably i just have the laptop sitting on the desk with no battery in it.

I tried connecting the battery to the laptop though now and i doesnt boot up still.

It sounds like your AC adapter died. If you are lucky, it didn't take out the computer as well. Your battery is probably in need of a recharge at the very least at this point, which you would need a working AC adapter for.

i am cautiously optimistic :(

scared but hopeful

i just looked it up and i replaced the fan in the laptop 2 years ago last month, so its been run pretty hard (hard as in being left on most days) in that time.

as far as the smell i thought i smelled last night its still there so i dont know if that is a new thing or just nothing at all. the laptop powercord/ac adapter thing has had a solid green light all today.

as i noted, last night it was blinking just after the laptop shut down out of nowhere. i also definitely heard a faint noise from the acp adapter last night that is not present today. it was a repeating noise faint noise.

another question now would be do they carry ac adapters at big box stores like walmart or do i need to order online? the model is a LITEON pa-1900-04 ac adapter. im going to get one off ebay now but obviously id like to try to get it up ASAP. its my main computer believe it or not. im on another laptop now that sucks!

finally, is there any way i can charge the laptops battery to see if maybe it will turn on?

If I were looking for a replacement AC adapter, I would check the reviews for any that I found. There are all sorts of el cheapo adapters that are not worth the money and might fail and damage your laptop. I'd get the highest quality one I could find. Of course, you don't yet know if your laptop is already damaged. It might be worth taking it to some place that had an adapter to see if it would boot up before purchasing an adapter. You might be able to find a local store that has one (Best Buy, etc.). You could check walmart.com to see if they carry them also.

To charge the battery, an AC adapter would be needed. I wouldn't try jumper cables or anything like that.

You could try calling any big box stores in your area and any computer repair shops you know of.

Bad news for me, the new power adapter came in, and when i plug it in (the light does turn on on the new adapter) the laptop still does not turn on at all. Its basically like i didnt push the button. (That is, there is no boot up or "revving" of parts/fans.)

What next? :(

Did you try the new adapter with the battery removed from the laptop?

Also, some laptops won't turn on unless you have a good battery installed, even if the AC adapter is plugged in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

Did you try the new adapter with the battery removed from the laptop?

Also, some laptops won't turn on unless you have a good battery installed, even if the AC adapter is plugged in.

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I tried the new plug with both the laptop battery attached and removed. Same result.

It might be worth noting that I ran the laptop via the powercord with NO laptop battery attached 99% of the time. That is, I kept the laptop battery in my drawer and basically used the laptop as a "desktop."

Check where the adapter plugs into the lapper.
Is it loose?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

Check where the adapter plugs into the lapper.
Is it loose?

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It doesnt seem loose at all. It snaps into place as well. It might be worth noting that when the laptop "died" i was sitting right next to it. Nothing and nobody was doing anything to it. I believe it had open 2 windows of firefox with facebook and thats all.

Well the reason for my question is that connection is where most of the problems exist and to replace that power section , as it is part of the motherboard, it usually requires a new motherboard. And most times, a new laptop may be the cheaper route to go.

Oh im not questioning your knowledge or advice, Im just trying to give as much info as possible to help!

If the laptop ran OK before with only the AC adapter attached, and your new AC adapter is of good quality and putting out the correct voltage and current, then most likely the old adapter fried something on the motherboard when it died.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

If the laptop ran OK before with only the AC adapter attached, and your new AC adapter is of good quality and putting out the correct voltage and current, then most likely the old adapter fried something on the motherboard when it died.

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:(

Ok, so i have another desktop computer that the hard drive failed. Would i be okay to put the laptop hard drive in that other computer and see if it boots up?

They were both widows XP.

When Windows is installed, the correct device drivers files for the hardware it is being installed on are used. The odds of your laptop drive booting up in an old desktop system are slim to none. If you wanted to try something like that anyway, I would recommend that you clone the laptop drive to another hard drive and try booting with that. If you boot a clone of the laptop drive into Safe Mode, and it works, you can go into Device Manager and remove all of the System devices, and then reboot, and, if you are lucky, the correct drivers for the desktop system might be instelled.

Ok... Is there any way for me to further diagnose what might have gone awry in my laptop without taking it to a professional store? I imagine that bill would cost about as much as a new cheap laptop :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by webmaster111

do they carry ac adapters at big box stores like walmart ... the model is a LITEON pa-1900-04 ac adapter

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Just curious. How come you have a LiteOn A/C adapter for an Acer laptop? Is it the original adapter that came with the laptop? Usually, even if LiteON makes the adapter for Acer, Acer will still brand it as their own.

Anyway, I once worked on an Acer with the same exact symptom. It was the power supply (A/C adapter.) A new one solved the problem. But like jdc says, 3rd party A/C adapters are often unreliable. I will buy another to try.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by falcon2000

Just curious. How come you have a LiteOn A/C adapter for an Acer laptop? Is it the original adapter that came with the laptop? Usually, even if LiteON makes the adapter for Acer, Acer will still brand it as their own.

Anyway, I once worked on an Acer with the same exact symptom. It was the power supply (A/C adapter.) A new one solved the problem. But like jdc says, 3rd party A/C adapters are often unreliable. I will buy another to try.

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Yes it is the original power supply cord. Nothing was ever changed on the laptop except the exhaust fan, which broke like a year and a half ago.

Interesting about the bad power cord... unfortunately I just bought this damn thing lol... money is tight unfortunately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by falcon2000

Just curious. How come you have a LiteOn A/C adapter for an Acer laptop? Is it the original adapter that came with the laptop? Usually, even if LiteON makes the adapter for Acer, Acer will still brand it as their own.

Anyway, I once worked on an Acer with the same exact symptom. It was the power supply (A/C adapter.) A new one solved the problem. But like jdc says, 3rd party A/C adapters are often unreliable. I will buy another to try.

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When you say unreliable, do you mean often they are dead on arrival or that they are simply not compatible? For what its worth, the one I bought specifically lists my laptop model number. The plug also fit in "snugly."

AC adapters vary quite a bit in quality, especially since you can't see inside them to see what components were used. The Lite-On unit should be OK, but to really be sure you would have to check the output under load. A quick and of the weight of the old AC adpter brick versus the new one can sometimes give you an idea of whether the manufacturer skimped on components.

I am still betting that the old adapter fried something in the PC when it died.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

AC adapters vary quite a bit in quality, especially since you can't see inside them to see what components were used. The Lite-On unit should be OK, but to really be sure you would have to check the output under load. A quick and of the weight of the old AC adpter brick versus the new one can sometimes give you an idea of whether the manufacturer skimped on components.

I am still betting that the old adapter fried something in the PC when it died.

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Oh I immediately noticed how much lighter the cheapo power adapter was. Probably half the weight - its dramatic.

As for what got fried... is there any way I can test that? I opened the thing up 3 times now to look around but visually there are no fries, burns, breaks that I can see.

Thanks for the help.

A lighter power supply is not good. Dramatically lighter is even worse.

Unfortunately, if you can't see (or smell) any burned components, you would need test equipment far more expensive than the laptop to find any bad component(s).
Even if you found something, obtaining a replacement part and making the repair would likely be difficult with tiny parts and a multi-layer circuit board.

For continuous use, I prefer a robust desktop system with high quality parts. Laptops are really meant for occasional use when portability is required. Even desktop-replacement laptops are not really designed for continuous use.

I agree... I pretty much knew I shouldnt run that laptop 24/7 but I kept it on a little metal heat absorber and basically thought I would be ok... it was my main computer for a long time and I guess I took it for granted that it could perform like a desktop.

Do you think I should try another cheapo power adapter?

The new fan probably failed again.
If the fan was not spinning, this would explain why it is not booting...even with the new power adapter. It would also explain the burning smell. A stuck fan draws a lot of electricity and can make a smell. Check to see if the fan is spinning by listening carefully. If it isn't spinning, replacing the fan may be the ticket. Be sure not to block any ventilation holes around the laptop, this can cause a laptop to overheat.

By unreliable, I mean from not compatible to nonfunctional and everything in between. I have bought after market batteries that won't fit the slot when they say they will; A/C adapters that won't supply electricity at all. It's pretty much a crapshoot. I agree that there is the chance that something got fried inside but for a laptop it's not that easy to open it all up to examine the guts. That's why I suggest to get another A/C adapter to test it out first, just to eliminate or confirm the A/C adapter as a factor. If you are in the U.S., most big box stores will let you return the A/C adapter. I would buy an official Acer A/C adapter to test. Or bring the laptop to a store, if they have the same model and if they are nice, they will let you plug it in just to test. It won't hurt anything to ask.

One thing I just thought of, would it matter if I bought the laptop, acer aspire 5670 in Canada?

Like.. maybe the parts are somehow different? I dont kow, just something I thought of....

Doesn't matter---that make and model is that make and model is that make and model.

That shouldn't make any difference.

new layout??? wow hasnt changed in ... ever?

anyways, I got a new power adapter that seems better quality (from BestBuy - a multi adapter type of power supply that has 7 different interchangeable attachments) and still the same problem... power "on" does nothing at all.

The motherboard got zapped when the old adapter failed then.

wow that sucks. but thank you for the help...

this means that in the last 3-6 month i have had 2 computers get zapped or something and fried! these are the first two in my entire life as well and my first computer goes back to around 1996.

What am I doing wrong all the sudden?