Help! Acer 8920G sudden death, won't turn on!

[doktorS]

Hi everyone!
I have an Acer 8920G which I use sparsely, for internet, movies and some text processing. No gaming, no shocks (it never leaves my desk).
I recently tried to install a copy of Microsoft Office 2016 from the torrents (I know, I know, but I needed it for work and I live in a poor country...) and all of a sudden the laptop died. Now it turns on - the blue lights come on, the HDD makes a noise, the DVD turns - but all I get is a black/dark green screen. It flickers once every 3-4 mins, but that is all. Also, the HDD light comes on when the laptop starts, but then it vanishes.
I tried everything - powered it on/off with/without battery, took out and cleaned the RAMs, checked the HDD in another laptop where it works just fine. Could not flash the bios, it does not do anything at all, it just sits there and nothing happens.
I could not use the "crisis disk" either, as the laptop again does nothing, although the DVD seems to be turning.
Any ideas? What else could I do to save it? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Louise Porkolt]

Hi there,

Shame on you for using illegal copies of software for business reasons !!! ;-(

But nevertheless you have a classic issue of GPU failure.

Recently (last week) I had a laptop with the same issue Black screen.
the only thing I did was disassembling the whole thing, covering around the GPU (big non-removable chip) with aluminium tape, taped a heat-sensor on the bottom of the motherboard (exactly where the GPU is) and SLOWLY (1° per sec) heated with a heatgun to 197°C (celcius). This reflowed the balls between the chip and the Mobo.
Cool it down SLOWLY (same speed) to 50° and stop the heatgun.
let it cool down completely and reassemble the PC.

This Process made me repair around 25 of the 30 devices till now !

if you have no experience and do something wrong in this process it could destroy your PC !!!
keep in mind : I'm not responsible for your actions here !

Let us know,
Cheers, Louise !

 

[photonboy]

1. Is the DVD still in there?

If so, try to remove it with the EJECT. Not sure why that would prevent turning on, but it seems an odd coincidence.

2. Can you get to the BIOS?

3. if stuck, try creating a Linux USB

a) download MINT-> Cinnamon
https/www.linuxmint.com/download.php

b) Burn to USB stick using RUFUS

c) try to boot, but may need to change the BIOS boot order first (with stick plugged in)

The point of this is to figure out if the issue is the HDD or Windows software that's on it. We bypass the HDD entirely and boot via the Linux USB stick.

If Linux works it's some issue with the HDD or the software.

If Linux start to boot but fails you have a major HARDWARE problem.

 

[Louise Porkolt]

@photonboy, What I understood from the first message, nothing works not even BIOS or Safe mode... the screen just stays black !
is a recurring problem with most laptops: "GPU connections detached from Mobo" !

Cheers, Louise