A "new to me" laptop won't boot situation . . .

[britechguy]

. . . or it's been so long since I last encountered something like this, I've completely forgotten about it.

Computer involved: Acer Aspire 3 15
Model N22C6

"Birthdate" is April 2024.

The thing just won't boot. You get nada, zilch, zippo, when holding the power button or pushing the power button.

The one thing I did notice is that when the charger is connected, the LED on the side glows orange, which typically indicates to me that the battery is charging and at least something on the motherboard is alive.

The one and only "action" (if you can call it that) I can get out of the thing is if I hold the power button down for approximately 15 seconds, the battery LED goes out entirely. Essentially, it gives the appearance of a hard power off. The moment you release the power button, the orange LED comes right back on.

There's no other sign of life.

I figure something on the motherboard has likely failed, particularly since you don't even get to the point of the splash screen and a boot device failure. Does this particular presentation ring a bell for anyone?

 

[ThatPlace928]

. . . or it's been so long since I last encountered something like this, I've completely forgotten about it.

Computer involved: Acer Aspire 3 15
Model N22C6

"Birthdate" is April 2024.

The thing just won't boot. You get nada, zilch, zippo, when holding the power button or pushing the power button.

The one thing I did notice is that when the charger is connected, the LED on the side glows orange, which typically indicates to me that the battery is charging and at least something on the motherboard is alive.

The one and only "action" (if you can call it that) I can get out of the thing is if I hold the power button down for approximately 15 seconds, the battery LED goes out entirely. Essentially, it gives the appearance of a hard power off. The moment you release the power button, the orange LED comes right back on.

There's no other sign of life.

I figure something on the motherboard has likely failed, particularly since you don't even get to the point of the splash screen and a boot device failure. Does this particular presentation ring a bell for anyone?

The only thing I can think of is, if it takes a flat battery and the CMOS is embedded inside the battery. I have one here that just came in today with that issue. Light went from Amber to green, indicating the battery is charged enough to power on the laptop. But it's not coming on so I've ordered a battery for it. HP is notorious for embedding the CMOS inside the battery. I don't like that at all.

 

[britechguy]

I also asked Google Gemini: [What does it mean when an Acer Aspire 3 15, when connected to its charger, shows an orange battery LED indicator, but will do absolutely nothing else when the power button is pressed? There are no signs of booting at all. If the power button is long-pressed for approximately 15 seconds, that orange battery LED goes out, but will turn on again immediately after the power button is released.]

While it gave several possible reasons and suggestions, I do know that there is no substitute for field experience of other technicians.

@ThatPlace928, thanks for the suggestion. I've already asked the owner to try the first suggestion given by Gemini if such a battery reset pinhole exists on the computer.

I don't think I can recall ever encountering a CMOS battery that's not a button cell on the motherboard.

 

[ThatPlace928]

I also asked Google Gemini: [What does it mean when an Acer Aspire 3 15, when connected to its charger, shows an orange battery LED indicator, but will do absolutely nothing else when the power button is pressed? There are no signs of booting at all. If the power button is long-pressed for approximately 15 seconds, that orange battery LED goes out, but will turn on again immediately after the power button is released.]

While it gave several possible reasons and suggestions, I do know that there is no substitute for field experience of other technicians.

@ThatPlace928, thanks for the suggestion. I've already asked the owner to try the first suggestion given by Gemini if such a battery reset pinhole exists on the computer.

I don't think I can recall ever encountering a CMOS battery that's not a button cell on the motherboard.

I'm sure you'll come across one or more. The newer laptops are being built to save space inside the case and I'm sure that's why they're being embedded. HT03XL batteries are a good example and, if you remove the battery from the laptop and just try to use the adapter, it won't power on like the older laptops will.

 

[frase]

Had these before and are notorious with Acer. It looks like it is not related to the power button itself as it turned off when you did that.
Have you dissasembled the laptop as yet? As maybe a short on the board causing the issue, only way to know is to take it apart and remove devices (wifi etc) to pinpoint the issue.

Usually in the end it comes down to motherboard DOA as sometimes this can point to a power rail issue. When I had the issue I had to put it down to dead mobo. This after checking everything else after confirming the power rail voltages were not correct during power sequencing tests using a multimeter.

Also have you checked the voltages on the adapter and DC Jack yet, or used a known good one?

 

[britechguy]

@frase, thanks much.

The interesting thing is the computer was taken home, connected to an alternate charger, and then came back on again. I don't expect that this is going to hold, as it's the same charger where all this originated.

I suspect something's going wonky with the motherboard. But for the moment, the immediate crisis is averted.

 

[dannyict]

had that once with Lenovo, hooked it up and installed everything, closed it and the thing went into "shipping mode" and did not start.
Had to use a combination of keys to get it out the shipping mode.

 

[nlinecomputers]

had that once with Lenovo, hooked it up and installed everything, closed it and the thing went into "shipping mode" and did not start.
Had to use a combination of keys to get it out the shipping mode.

All you have to do is plug it in to the power supply. There’s no keys you can press to do that.

 

[HCHTech]

HP is notorious for embedding the CMOS inside the battery.

What? Please explain.

 

[fincoder]

What? Please explain.

My explanation for laptops without a separate CMOS battery:

The main battery backs up the CMOS settings. If the main battery becomes completely flat (e.g. after no mains power for weeks/months) or is disconnected internally, the CMOS is reset to defaults. However these laptops seem to remember the last date/time before the CMOS lost power, so the time might only be out by minutes or the date only by a day. I think Windows is getting better at syncing date/time online in a timely fashion, so the lack of separate CMOS battery usually isn't noticeable.

 

[HCHTech]

The main battery backs up the CMOS settings.

TIL, haha. Based on my 28 seconds of searching, the main battery powers the RTC (and, I expect, the rest of the CMOS circuitry - IDK, I'm not an electrical engineer). I don't think the main battery itself has any backup of the settings, which would be surprising. I didn't know this, and have never taken apart a laptop that didn't have a discrete CMOS battery. I guess macbooks do this and other high-end ultrabooks. I wonder what the driver is to make this design choice....space (or height) saving or economy in some way, I expect...

 

[BlackstoneIT]

I think (and I have no electrical expertise to back this up) that when the mains power is not present (unplugged for example) the CMOS battery provides a little bit of juice to maintain the RTC and the settings. Give it mains power and the coin battery steps back to let the motherboard power rails deliver the charge.
I suppose laptops without a CR2032 just provide that tiny current from the main battery when it's unplugged from the wall socket. Little bit a space freed up. And it can recharge, unlike the CR2032.
Off on a slight tangent but something I learned last month... Apparently Dell PERC controller battery backup units only recharge when the server is powered on and running. Having a power lead connected isn't enough. That was a bit disappointing.

 

[HCHTech]

Off on a slight tangent but something I learned last month... Apparently Dell PERC controller battery backup units only recharge when the server is powered on and running. Having a power lead connected isn't enough. That was a bit disappointing.

Those backup units are probably just capacitors (at least the newer ones). You are correct though, that they don't recharge those capacitors unless the server is powered on. The twist is that they don't need to hold a charge any longer than a few seconds after the power goes out since that is all it takes to write the data they are preserving to a permanent NAND flash chip....which apparently remains viable for years. That's why capacitor-based backup replaced batteries. Neat!