Acer Aspire 5820TG BIOS Beeps and Other Issues

[dodecthulhu]

Alright so I've been reading for weeks and figured it's time to make my own post. I recently purchased a used Acer Aspire 5820TG from my friend since I spilled water on my laptop and just needed something interim before making another desktop build. There are a few nuances to deal with but for the most part it is working.

Background: I trust my friend, there is nothing to his knowledge the matter with it. He experimented with Linux and wiped the Acer recovery partition. He later reinstalled windows and found that he needed a lot of drivers including ethernet and wifi and just abandoned it because he is lazy. He also mentioned something about taking it apart to clean the keyboard. This really bothers me because one thing I DON'T trust my friend to do, is to take apart a laptop. (I used a keyboard tester and all the keys are working except my num pad 1/End key and I know this is a huge red flag when it comes to troubleshooting my issue, but I thought I'd get some idea anyway.

Also just to note this doesn't matter I don't think... I removed the screen and lid, but all cables are intact and I could put it back together if I wanted. All this began beforehand. The following issues were all present when I purchased the laptop.

Originally when I started using my external monitor, I could see the start up BIOS splash but my monitor has been doing weird things like not showing a picture with HDMI if the source is switched while the monitor is on which it didn't used to do. Anyway I don't think this is a problem with the computer nor do I care I'm just pointing out that that screen is not visible since the picture takes about 3 seconds to appear after turning on the laptop. I can still hit F2 to enter the BIOS and it will appear.

OK the main issue: When the BIOS is loading the MBR/OS one of two things happens:
a) success! Computer starts up! (Almost) Everything is fine.
b) The BIOS will beep indefinitely. There is no space between the beeps but they are definite it is not one continuous tone. If I am booting from the HDD the HDD activity light blinks synchronous with the beeping.

There are a LOT of conditions to the beeping though so please read this carefully. I have my boot order set to DVD then HDD. If there is a disk in the drive the BIOS will beep 100% of the time. HOWEVER, if it is a bootable disk then
a) DVD drive revs up, beeping stops, the media is loaded
b) DVD drive remains idle
c) DVD drive revs up then returns to an idle state

No lights flash if the beep is due to a disk in the drive.
If the disk is non bootable, once the computer tries to load the HDD rather than DVD drive the beeping stops and may start up again if the MBR/OS fails to load. Also beeping usually stops immediately after hitting the eject key. The media does eject.

Using the F12 boot menu to load the DVD drive has never worked.

There is also a clicking noise present with the beeping. I removed the HDD and tried loading a livecd and the clicking is still present. I am 100% certain the clicking is not coming from the HDD or the DVD drive, and since the laptop has one HDD caddy I've been switching between 2 HDDs and both work fine, issue is present with both. Buying a new hard drive is not on my list of potential solutions so please don't suggest it. My best guess is that it comes from the fan, but I really can't tell.

The clicking IS AVOIDED 100% of the time when using windows 7 and forcing the windows boot manager screen. I thought maybe it was the 1/end key, but it's not stuck it's completely non functional as far as I can tell so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My other idea was that perhaps the ACER BIOS expects to load the ACER MBR, but that doesn't explain why forcing the boot manager works I don't think and has nothing to do with the DVD drive.

The other issue is with the switchable graphics. This I really do not care about but it could bring insight to the beeping? Uses Intel HD integrated graphics and an ATI 5470. After EONS of trying different driver packages and the likes, I tried one last fresh win7 install and installed all of acers drivers available for this computer (yes that includes the special graphics drivers for the switchable setup) only to find that the screen went black after the ATI driver install. Then I tried something that seemed silly to me: I tried an HDMI cable. Now I know VGA and HDMI drivers are different, but if I use the BIOS to enable only the ATI card, the VGA port (and obviously the once attached VGA laptop screen as well) will not work. (Also if you think about that I really screwed myself in that situation! Navigating the BIOS without a screen is impossible...)

I'm not sure what the BIOS was at when I got this, but yes upgraded to latest BIOS and the issues remain the same. SO YES I'm pretty sure that there are no software solutions to any of my issues. I apologize if this is confusing to read at all but thank you! At some point I will remove the built in keyboard and try a usb one and provide an update, but I don't have one which works so who knows when that will be.

Oh and in case I can't find a solution, can I at least remove/disable the BIOS speaker?

PS: I was just selecting my category and noticed under laptops and notebooks acer is the only laptop manufacturer listed. Let me just say that I am not surprised, nor do I recommend that anyone ever buy anything from them. This is the only product I have owned and I'm not about to knock them for quality don't get me wrong, but I wanted to call their support just to ask some really SIMPLE questions... There is no way to contact them for free without a warranty... The support service is THIRD PARTY and $20 to call for a single issue and the purported (still only a) single issue !SERVICE PACKAGE! (Sparkles fall from the sky as the heavens open up) is $99. I wouldn't even pay $99 for a YEAR SUBSCRIPTION of phone support, give me a break.

 

[scout_03]

this is the link for the driver on that system and was is the os it use also do you still have the win os key under the laptop

 

[dodecthulhu]

I'm guessing English is not your first language? "This is the link for the driver on that system" This? you didn't provide a link... Did you mean to ask for a link to the driver? http/support.acer.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=2113 this links to the support page for my model laptop. I have all of the applicable drivers located on that page installed on my computer. I own a windows 7 home premium OEM disk. I read that unlike windows xp, nowadays you don't need a specific vendor's OEM disk, so I used my install disk and the OS key located on the bottom of the laptop provided by Acer and everything worked. And driver for what anyhow? The graphics are the only thing I talked about that would require a driver and I'm not trying to "fix" the graphics. These issues are all independent of the OS so i'm not sure where you're going with this. I mentioned the graphics issue because it seems my friend must have jogged the innards when he took it apart. But to be clear: I included the bit about the graphics as a description of the overall condition of the laptop, if per chance the graphics and beeping are related and can be fixed in one go, great! Otherwise I don't want to spend any more time playing with drivers so that card hooks up with VGA because i don't need it.

 

[scout_03]

yes english is not my native language i will give you a link with the translator you will have to install the plug in that will detect all missing driver on your system http/translate.google.ca/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftouslesdrivers.com%2F that could the intel driver for graphic that made it beep all the time (i had to do the same last week for a aspire one )

 

[dodecthulhu]

I suppose it could be a driver since it happens right when when the OS is loaded the loading screen which says Windows with the flashing lights does appear but freezes instantly, i should have mentioned that, but I have all the intel drivers available for this computer through both acer and windows update so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I would give it a go but I don't see a missing driver detector on that site. you gave me a link to the main page, why not just give me a link without the translator where the download can be found. this also would not at all help the fact that it beeps when there's a disk in the drive before it loads the OS.

 

[scout_03]

the plug in is on this page to load http/translate.google.ca/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftouslesdrivers.com%2F this site is in french that why i use the translator i been reading the last sentence on your reply for a disk in the drive remove the disk then start the system

 

[dodecthulhu]

When you use the translator it just gives me touslesdrivers not the specific page, but it's ok because i found it shortly after I made that last post. I installed the only driver which came up the PCI Simple Communications "Intel Management," I can't tell if it did anything since the boot manager keeps loading instead of directly trying to load the OS. Back to the DVD drive, the issue is that sometimes i need to load a dvd to install linux or whatever. 9 times out of 10 the beeping noise wins and the dvd doesn't load. Not cool late at night when my family is asleep.

 

[scout_03]

got this on the forum for boot manager hope it could help http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/6358-63-stop-boot-manager-popping

 

[dodecthulhu]

Sorry I've been extremely busy, thanks for your help, scout_03, but the issue is still present.

 

[scout_03]

i been reading the post back since there was a water spill on it that could be more hard to solve because water and electricity dont mix for the bootdid you check the drive with the drive maker toll on the short test or try the reinstall of win 7 buy formating all the os drive,but if somebody else have a way to resolve this they are welcome to help.