[rustyagain]

Acer Aspire 3000 laptop with windows XP, 14 months old Acer’s response is tough – out of guarantee.
The laptop has been used as a permanent fixture with the power supply plugged in to the mains all the time.
The fault that I have is it refuses to start when pushing the “ON” button. In order to get it going I have to remove all the cables, turn it upside down, remove the battery and the snap the battery with some force back in. After which the :oN” button works, the computer starts working and Windows starts loading.
One peculiar fact is if Windows shuts down for a reboot (after a update etc) then the computer dies as well and will require the battery treatment again to get it going.
Any help gladly received
rusty

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Hi rusty

Out of interest, have you tried running the laptop with the battery completely removed? If so, do you still experience the same problem?

[Samm]

Hi rusty

Out of interest, have you tried running the laptop with the battery completely removed? If so, do you still experience the same problem?

[rustyagain]

Hi – thanks for the reply
Removed the battery and hay presto it started up – got all excited until I tried a re-boot and then back to square one. Switched it all back down and tried again with out the battery – no luck, slammed the battery back in and on the push of the button it started up. !!!

[Samm]

Hmmm, strange.

Ok, you may have followed this exact procedure already, but if not, then try it :

Power the laptop on without the battery again, then reboot.
I'm assuming the same problem will occur so shut the laptop down after the failed reboot & disconnect the power lead from the laptop.
Don't reinsert the battery, just wait a few seconds then reconnect the power lead & try to turn the laptop on.

What I am trying to ascertain here is whether reinserting the battery is crucial to this, or whether simply disconnecting all power sources for a few seconds (i.e power lead as well as battery) is enough to make it turn on again.


When you get the problem of the laptop not switching on at all, do any of the LEDs come on when you press the power button? If so, which ones, what colour are they & do they flash?

[rustyagain]

Hi, thanks for coming back
Started your procedure by
1 Removed battery and pressed the power on button - lo & behold it started up.
2 Pressed the Windows Restart button - lo & behold Windows shut down and restarted.
3 Pressed the Shut Down button - Windows and computer shut down, pressed the power
button and lo & behold it all started up perfectly.

All of the above where done with the battery out and the power lead left in

If it carries on like this then the problem is solved but I have a nasty feeling it might be an intermittent electrical problem – only time will tell. If it is then I guess an expensive visit to the repair shop might be required.
One thing I can not understand is when Windows did a reboot (after a down load) then I thought only Windows should have shut down and the computer should have carried on working. However the past experience was that the reboot was enough to shut down the computer as well entailing the “kick the battery routine”.

Thanks for your help and suggestions, only time will tell if it’s a permanent cure.

Much regards Rusty

[Samm]

Hi Rusty

Let me know obviously if the problem re-occurs.

Re. the reboot thing - you're right of course, the laptop should not shutdown completely during a reboot. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to determine the cause of that. If you can do a proper reboot now with without the battery, then the problem was obviously being caused by a dodgy battery. If it still can't reboot properly now even though everything else is working, then it could be caused by the ACPI system, in which case it could be a bios (hardware) issue, or a windows (software) issue.

[rustyagain]

Hi Samm, back again

After all the excitement yesterday its back to normal today – ie had to kick start the computer with the battery out and snapped back in.
I don’t know if yesterdays success was due to a “warm” machine as opposed to starting up cold after an over night lay off.
I think its looking like I might have to bite the bullet and go off to a repair shop ?.

Rgds rusty

[rustyagain]

Hi Samm, back again, again

Today’s attempts

1 Had to start up with the battery kick procedure.
2 With computer running and power lead connected I removed the battery and did a
Windows restart Windows shut down - and then computer died.
3 With battery out and power lead in tried restart – no luck.
4 Snapped battery in and computer started up.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the power lead is in or not as the only way to get in going seems to be snapping in the battery.

Rgds rusty

[Samm]

Hi Rusty

Ok, I'm going to get you to try a full reset :

1) Disconnect the power adapter & remove the battery
2) Press & hold down the power button for 20 seconds, then release
3) Reconnect the power adapter - the power LED should light up when power adapter is connected
4) Try to power on the laptop.
5) If you can't power it on, then remove the a/c adapter & insert the battery. Reconnect the a/c adapter & make a note of whether the battery charging light comes on.
6) Power on the laptop


Can you also tell me what the battery life is generally like? i.e how long does the battery normally last if you run the laptop with the power is disconnected?
Roughly how long does it take to charge the battery fully?
Do you still get the power on problem if the laptop is running from the battery alone?

[rustyagain]

Hi Samm

Sorry for delay, spent the last few hours discharging and charging the battery.
Now, back to your last email.

1) Disconnect the power adapter & remove the battery. - Done it
2) Press & hold down the power button for 20 seconds, then release. - OK done it
3) Reconnect the power adapter - the power LED should light up.
when power adapter is connected. - No LED
4) Try to power on the laptop. - YES it worked

Battery Life : As the laptop is used as a fixed item it has always been plumbed into
the mains so don’t have any record of battery life – However :-
Removed power lead and working with battery and running defrag
The battery lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes (20% left -10 mins)
It then took 1 hour 30 minutes to recharge back to 98%.

Then with power lead & battery in tried a Windows Restart – Windows shut down and so did the computer - RIP.
Then with power lead & battery in tried pressing the button - No lights power or life.
Removed power lead & using battery tried pressing the button - No lights or life.
Removed battery connected power lead tried pressing the button - YES it worked

So far today that’s two successful start ups with the power lead in and the battery out.
It would seam at the moment the computer will run on the battery but not start up with it in ?.

Rgds rusty

[Samm]

If you run the laptop without the battery, are you able to:
1) reboot normally?
2) shutdown the laptop normally (i.e by selecting shutdown instead of reboot), then successfully power the laptop back on again a few minutes later, without having to reinsert the battery?

[jane-f]

Hi,
don't want to but in but i've just been through similar problems with my laptop,
having to snap the battery back in cause it wouldn't start,

now it wont even start at all, it wont recognize any power supply,
not the battery or the power lead, no lights come on at all now, although the power lead is working fine,
if i leave it a week or so, sometimes it will work for a few seconds, but thats it
luckily i got a extra service guarantee out on it so its having to go back to be looked at.

jane

[Samm]

Hi Jane

Thanks for letting us know. It would interesting to hear what Acer say the problem is with your laptop, so if they tell you prehaps you could post again & let us know?

[rustyagain]

Morning All
Sorry for delay in replying due to long weekend away
Jane-f - Thanks for your depressing message, is your machine also a Acer. Could
you find out from the repair guys what the problem was ?
Also had a email from a guy on a talk sight who has the same problems with a Acer

Samm – thanks for your last, below is Monday morning update

Removed battery and with mains plugged in
1 - Pressed start button - Hooray it worked
2 - Did a windows shut down re-start - Hooray Hooray it started back up
3 - Did a complete shut down - Hooray Hooray Hooray it started back up

So, Monday morning score is three out of three with out the battery.
As the laptop is used as a fixed non portable machine not having the battery is no big deal – If it continues.

Thanks for your help so far and I will update daily unless it all falls in a heap again

Rgds rusty

[Samm]

Cool, let me know if the problem returns