Acer 5552g corrupted bios

[Razeh]

Hello.

Excuse me if I'm posting in the wrong section but I'm in need of help and I'm not sure what to do anymore.

My Acer 5552g laptop died yesterday. It doesn't show anything on the screen and only one led is lighting up: the one that has a little lightbulb icon above. The cooling fan starts for a few seconds but then it goes into idle. I haven't done anything special with the laptop prior to it malfunctioning. I've just shut it down (it told me that some background software needs to be closed first but I was in a hurry and clicked the force shutdown button) and the next day, when I tried to turn it on it started behaving like I mentioned.

I suspect it might be a corrupted BIOS problem even tho I haven't tried installing a new version of BIOS on it. I have tried the recovery mode technique which involves pressing FN and Esc and then powering it on while having a BIOS.fd file on an USB stick but that didn't work. Today I have disassembled it in order to find and take out the CMOS battery but I am not able to locate it.

I have attached some pictures of the motherboard. Maybe you can help me find the CMOS battery. Or suggest a solution.

Thank you very much!

Spoiler

 

[Razeh]

Also, in the guide it says that I should remove the RTC battery. And I'm unable to do that.

 

[Razeh]

I'm not sure I did the F2 thinghie since I've tried quite a few methods this days. Also I haven't noticed whether or not my HDD still works.

 

[WR2]

I can't think of anything else you need to check before putting it back together.
The main things you work with in troubleshooting are accessible through the logic door and the HDD bay door.

 

[WR2]

Was the "Clear CMOS jumper" instruction to remove the RTC battery? (RTC battery = CMOS battery).

 

[Razeh]

Here are the exact instructions. They were mentioned as a solution to remove the BIOS password.

 

[WR2]

That looks like it. Touch a screwdriver to those two contacts and BIOS will reset.

 

[WR2]

It says you can disconnect the battery instead of removing it. Can you see how to do that?

 

[WR2]

OK.....lets back up..... it's saying Clear Password only?

 

[Razeh]

Yes. Also after a bit of researching I have found out that the little thing you pinpointed from my first set of pictures is in fact the CMOS battery. It is soldered to the motherboard and I don't think there's a way to remove it.

 

[WR2]

If you can find a section on CMOS or BIOS reset (and not Password reset) I think it will work pretty much the same way.

 

[Razeh]

Found nothing in the manual

 

[WR2]

I'm not finding a whole lot more than what you already have using Google.

 

[WR2]

What you might need to do, Im pretty sure you can do with the laptop reassembled and continue troubleshooting through the removable panels on the bottom.

 

[Razeh]

Will start to put it back togheter then. Tho I'm not sure what else could I try. I hate it that I hadn't extended my warranty.

 

[WR2]

I've looked through the Troubleshooting guides in the manual.
The one that seems to fit the best is the LCD failure chart.

 

[Razeh]

I'll try to follow that chart then.

 

[WR2]

When the power comes on can you hear/feel the HDD spin up? Is there any more activity on the HDD you notice? 30-40 seconds of HDD read activity like the system is trying to boot from the HDD?

Do you have an external monitor you can attach? There might be a Fn+Key combo needed to activate the external screen.

 

[Razeh]

I tried connecting the laptop to an external LCD but it doesn't do anything. I have also tried booting it up without the hard drive and then without the DDR.The hard drive did heat up a bit.

I tested the USB's by plugging in my phone and it did charge. Could this mean that it's not hardware related?

 

[WR2]

You should be able to hear or feel the HDD spinning, plus hear/feel HDD activity like read/write operations.

A phone taking a charge off the USB port would not mean that some other component on the motherboard might have failed.

 

[WR2]

You can test using a bootable CD or DVD if you have one.
That should allow you to bypass a possible problem with the HDD.
But a problem with the HDD alone should not keep the LCD from displaying or keep you from entering BIOS with the F2 key.