Acer Laptop Power LEDs & fans come on, but no video.

[Jamesreeves_2007]

I have an Acer Laptop that when turned on, will display power on LEDs, but will show no video and the fans will be going. So power on lights, no HDD LEDs and fans going. This is with or without a charger. On the rare occasion I do get it started, it will revert to this quite quickly after. I've used an external display too, but I don't get a signal. Please help! It's an Acer V3-531

 

[Intel_man]

Probably the first thing you want to do before writing it off as dead, is to replace the cmos battery and see if it'll post.

 

[Jamesreeves_2007]

There were two 4GB sticks inside. I removed each one and now with only one, it powers up. Could it have been that?

 

[Intel_man]

Could be. That is a symptom of a dead/failing DRAM.

 

[johnb35]

Yes, bad memory or sticks not fully seated well will cause this sometimes.

 

[Jamesreeves_2007]

It has returned to its old ways during use. I replaced the BIOS battery, and ran just the 4GB module and after two hours of use, it basically lost video and power, yet the power button was still lit up. Any suggestions? Running out of hope here.

 

[johnb35]

It's just possible that the motherboard is failing on you.

 

[Jamesreeves_2007]

Seems like that's the problem. I've read multiple threads detailing a update/reflash of the BIOS. That apparently brings it out of the black screen and sorts it. If that doesn't work, then looks like it has met its fate

 

[Intel_man]

Yep, if swapping cmos battery, swapping ram, and updating bios is still causing your computer to not post reliably then its most likely your mobo failing on you. In some cases, it could be the memory controller in the cpu that's failing too.

Usually for a laptop, after the initial troubleshooting indicated above doesn't fix your problems, its not worth the time and effort to see where the problem is and just cut your losses and look for a replacement. Unless, it's under warranty.