Quick ! Laptop based question !

Jin Comrade

Jin Comrade

Member
Hi !
I have an acer laptop "5315"
"Quick SPEC"
3gb DDR2 RAM
250GB HDD
OS: WIN 7 Home basic
Intel Core 2 Duo T5550

I was recently updating the BIOS as I felt hard drive instability ( I might be wrong on that). Anyhow it went bad, screen froze and that was end of it. When I plug in the charger even the lights wont turn on (completely dead).

Brief explanation has been given, so now the question.
If I buy a new motherboard and replace it, will it fix the problem ?

Thank you :)
 
Jin Comrade

Jin Comrade

Member
pengipete

pengipete

Rising Star
You need to check that it's definitely the motherboard before splashing the cash - no lights at all could be the PSu or even just the fuse in the mains plug. Acer's are big sellers s there's a good chance that someone you know has a compatible PSU. Otherwise, if you have a multimeter, you can easily check the power. If not, it might be worth buying a clone just in case - even if it's not the problem, a spare PSU is worth having if you often use your laptop in different rooms - you can leave one in each room. They're cheap enough that you won't waste a lot of money.

If you are sure it's the motherboard, a couple of pointers...

You'll need thermal paste and cleaner to remove the old paste from your CPU. If you've never installed a CPU before, post back when you're ready and we can talk you through it. Same if you need advice on what paste and cleaner to use.

When it comes to removing the ribbon cables, they are ususally just pushed into a small socket with a very delicate plastic clip to hold them in place. Some of those clips are hinged and some slide - you'll need to be very careful and patient - don't force them. A fingernail is the only tool you'll need.

You may find that the motherboard is help in place by at least one of the hinges for the screen/lid. If it is, you'll need to prop the lid half-open when removing and refitting the board - a spare pair of hands is useful.

You may find that there are very fine wires running from any onboard wireless card - they'll often run up to the screen (they're actually the antennae). They are just popped.on to the wireless card - a bit like press-studs. You just prise them off with your fingernails and when you re-fit them, make sure that they are properly lined up and press them fairly firmly - you'll feel them "pop" as they connect. However - chances are that you'll need to swap the wireless card, bluetooth card etc over to the new board in which case you may find it easier to leave the antannae connected and just unscrew the cards from the old board.

I recommend not screwing the case back together until after you've tested that everything works. It's all too easy to get one of the ribbon cables slight askew and you don't want to have to undo all those screws just to put it right.

Whilst you have the cooler and fan off - take the opportunity to give it a good clean.

Whilst you're at it - how about upgrading the CPU? I bought a used T6400 on ebay last week - cost me £15 and ten minutes after the postman came, it was installed and running in the laptop I'm typing this post on - bargain Those Core2DUO's are plentiful and dirt cheap now and it's absolutely no effort to swap them whilst the case is open.
 
Jin Comrade

Jin Comrade

Member
Thank you for the reply :)
As you might know the original CPU of my ACER 5315 is "Celeron M530 1.73GHz" and I have already upgraded it to "Intel Core 2 Duo T5550" from ACER 5920.
I have tried different Acer chargers with no success, I have cleaned the laptop several times ( it's still nice and shiny ). I have tried booting it up with different hard drives and RAMS , but without any success.

Thanks for the support pengipete +rep :)
 
pengipete

pengipete

Rising Star
I've been digging around to see if there were any known problems or solutions - a couple of things came up but don't know if they'll apply to you.

There seems to be a fair old trade in power sockets - they either break or the soldered joints are weak/dry. It's possible that the machine failing during the BIOS updating was just coincidental. If you'll be scrapping the board anyway and you fancy testing your soldering skills - it might be worth a try. Info here (including some links that should be worth checking out anyway) - http://www.fixya.com/support/t5544196-disassemble

Otherwise - and this will probably depend on whether the board is completely dead or just comatose - it seems that Acer laptops have a built-in BIOS recovery method in case flashes go bad. Info here - http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
 
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