Question Need help fixing a laptop!

[ibex333]

Need help figuring out whats wrong with my laptop. It's an Acer Aspire E5-571P-55TL


When powered on, it just flashes like shown in the video for about 10-20 minutes. After that, it will boot normally into windows and at that point its rock solid. No problems whatsoever. But once the machine is turned off or restarted, it will blink for a random amount of time again, before booting into windows.

Things tried already:

1)Removed the battery, and turned on with power adapter only.
2)Powered on on battery only
3)Connected external screen(no signal)
4)Disassembled laptop and reseated all 3 ribbon cables.
5)Cleaned out with compressed air inside.

Things I did NOT do yet:

1)Reseat RAM stick. In order to access RAM, the motherboard has to be removed, which I do not wish to do, since I find that roo tedious and difficult. Besides, if RAM needed reseating, laptop would never boot up at all!

I uploaded a video to demonstrate the issue:

My guess? It's something to do with the actual "touchscreen" part of the screen. These touchscreens are more trouble than they are worth. They are useless, and I hate them.

EDIT: I now really doubt it's the touchscreen or anything to do with the screen at all. Once the machine gets into windows, the screen is excellent and touch functionality works great!

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's pretty weird. Seems like it's boot-looping somehow. Is that an AMD or an Intel platform? If it's an Intel platform, see if you can re-flash the ME firmware, once it boots properly.

 

[bbhaag]

Have you replaced the HDD with an SSD or is is still the stock HDD?

 

[ibex333]

That's pretty weird. Seems like it's boot-looping somehow. Is that an AMD or an Intel platform? If it's an Intel platform, see if you can re-flash the ME firmware, once it boots properly.

What do you mean by ME firmware? It's an Intel. i5-4400u or something like that. Gotta check when I get home.

Have you replaced the HDD with an SSD or is is still the stock HDD?

Still on stock HDD

 

[VirtualLarry]

ME, Intel Management Engine. It's kind of like, a mini-processor within the chipset, that runs it's own, secret, embedded OS. Intel doesn't tell much about it, and many people consider it to be a built-in spying feature for the TLAs. But it also features in how the processor and chipset communicate and boot. If the ME firmware (separate from regular mobo firmware), is corrupted somehow (can happen), then an Intel system can fail to boot.

I'm not saying equivocally that's the problem, only mentioning it as a possible, if esoteric, cause.

It could just be DRAM incompatibility, DRAM settings in BIOS, or a dead CMOS battery, if it's an older laptop.

 

[ibex333]

ME, Intel Management Engine. It's kind of like, a mini-processor within the chipset, that runs it's own, secret, embedded OS. Intel doesn't tell much about it, and many people consider it to be a built-in spying feature for the TLAs. But it also features in how the processor and chipset communicate and boot. If the ME firmware (separate from regular mobo firmware), is corrupted somehow (can happen), then an Intel system can fail to boot.

I'm not saying equivocally that's the problem, only mentioning it as a possible, if esoteric, cause.

It could just be DRAM incompatibility, DRAM settings in BIOS, or a dead CMOS battery, if it's an older laptop.

Hm... I will look into this more. Thank you.

 

[mrblotto]

It sounds to me like a possible loose connection that gets ‘connected’ after things heat up/expand a little bit inside

Just my guess

 

[ibex333]

It sounds to me like a possible loose connection that gets ‘connected’ after things heat up/expand a little bit inside

Just my guess

Hope it's not some sort of those issues that require reflowing/reballing. If that's the case, I rather toss this thing.

 

[C1]

If the reported issue prevents entering the BIOS, then in all probability it is a circuit issue.

Sometimes a wire in a flat ribbon cable can separate due to long term constant lid flexure and sometimes there can just be a cracked component solder joint on the MB.

Id start buy pulling the battery and HDD, then via plug in power, attempt to enter BIOS.

If the screen proceeds with the flashing issue then while it is ongoing, rotate the lid and flex the main case to assess whether any of these operations seem to affect the flashing. If so, that suggests stongly a broken/intermittent circuit connection.

If there is concern about a temperature effect, then put the unit in the sun to allow it getting very warm and/or cool the unit by putting it in a plastic bag and setting it in the refrigirator before again trying the boot process.

In such case, you probably should give it to a repair shop to assess and repair the unit.

 

[Scarpozzi]

PC's boot in a specific order. In the old days, the system would do POST ( power on self test). Only after that completes does the BIOS kick off the boot loader.

I'm thinking the POST is getting tripped on something and perhaps not completing the test rather than throwing an error as it should. I would recommend disassembly and reseating the RAM and video connectors because the memory is likely shared. If it has dedicated memory on the video card, it may have a bad block that's causing the video test to loop.

I'm just guessing here. Laptop disassembly isn't as bad as it used to be, but the ribbon cables are delicate and I recommend having lots of small screwdrivers on hand. I typically use a small flat blade to flip the ribbon connectors open.

 

[mindless1]

I vote bad solder joint or PCB crack, then eventually thermal expansion causes it to work. You should definitely pull and replug components and connectors and examine them for problems.

If you happened to have a hot air rework station you might try reflowing quadrants of the mainboard, but otherwise I would look into what a new mainboard costs and decide how much it's worth it keep it running, and research whether this is a common problem. If it is and you buy a new or cannibalized/pull/used mainboard with this fault looming in its future, it could be a bad investment.

 

[ibex333]

If the reported issue prevents entering the BIOS, then in all probability it is a circuit issue.

Sometimes a wire in a flat ribbon cable can separate due to long term constant lid flexure and sometimes there can just be a cracked component solder joint on the MB.

Id start buy pulling the battery and HDD, then via plug in power, attempt to enter BIOS.

If the screen proceeds with the flashing issue then while it is ongoing, rotate the lid and flex the main case to assess whether any of these operations seem to affect the flashing. If so, that suggests stongly a broken/intermittent circuit connection.

If there is concern about a temperature effect, then put the unit in the sun to allow it getting very warm and/or cool the unit by putting it in a plastic bag and setting it in the refrigirator before again trying the boot process.

In such case, you probably should give it to a repair shop to assess and repair the unit.

Interestingly, laptop enters BIOS just fine after it's "bliniking" game. What I did is, I hit the key to enter BIOS, and after it blinked for several minutes it proceeded into BIOS.

 

[fire400]

Did you swap RAM and reset CMOS?

 

[daveybrat]

When the system does boot and run fine, have you tried downloading and installing the latest bios?

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6207?b=1

Current version is 1.32

 

[ibex333]

When the system does boot and run fine, have you tried downloading and installing the latest bios?

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6207?b=1

Current version is 1.32

Kind of hard to do because of the way system boots... But I will try to do that...