Acer Aspire laptop was shutdown during windows update, now system is inaccessible


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My niece has a Acer Aspire A515-54 and according to her, it decided it need a windows update, and during the restarting (the updating, do not turn off your computer) the laptop started to fall, and she grabbed it, and it the process somehow shut it down. When I plug it in and attempt to power it up, there is nothing on the display, and the back light on the keyboard comes on for around 20 seconds or so, then flashes off, then comes back on, the entire time there is no display so I have no idea what exactly it is doing. I have a bootable USB drive with a Windows install on it plugged into the USB port, but the system does not seem to boot to it, or if it does there is no display. I have not tried to plug in an HDMI cable to it and then to one of my monitors, that will be by next step in troubleshooting, but I want to know if there are any other suggestions of things to try, also the computer is under warranty, so that might be the easiest option!

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4 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

My niece has a Acer Aspire A515-54 and according to her, it decided it need a windows update, and during the restarting (the updating, do not turn off your computer) the laptop started to fall, and she grabbed it, and it the process somehow shut it down. When I plug it in and attempt to power it up, there is nothing on the display, and the back light on the keyboard comes on for around 20 seconds or so, then flashes off, then comes back on, the entire time there is no display so I have no idea what exactly it is doing. I have a bootable USB drive with a Windows install on it plugged into the USB port, but the system does not seem to boot to it, or if it does there is no display. I have not tried to plug in an HDMI cable to it and then to one of my monitors, that will be by next step in troubleshooting, but I want to know if there are any other suggestions of things to try, also the computer is under warranty, so that might be the easiest option!

If it’s a more recent device (Windows 8+) you need to turn secure boot off and enable legacy boot on the UEFI settings before you can boot to the flash drive. Refer to your laptop manual and/or Google on what key to press to get into them. Some OEMs tell you what to press on startup. 

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Can not get into the BIOS/UEFI, there is nothing on the display at all, which leads me to think that there is more then software wrong.

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1 minute ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Can not get into the BIOS/UEFI, there is nothing on the display at all, which leads me to think that there is more then software wrong.

Are you certain it has actually turned off or have you been pressing the power button and it just puts it to sleep?

 

Can you remove the battery and put it back in? If not, hold the power button down for a good 30 seconds until it completely shuts off. 

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The battery is not accessible without removing the back cover, I held the power button down for 30 seconds, and it did not make any difference

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31 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

The battery is not accessible without removing the back cover, I held the power button down for 30 seconds, and it did not make any difference

Leave it on battery and let it drain itself. Then plug it into power and see what happens. I’ve seen this before; and it was because the device wasn’t truly restarting. 

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Weird that nothing shows on the screen ... even after a fresh start.  Probably not the issue (since I'm assuming it is reset after a boot) but it isn't toggled for an external display?  Have you tried the other various buttons Fn + display buttons (like brightness, display on/off, etc.)?  Once again ... doubt that is the issue but who knows.

 

Capture.thumb.PNG.cac8171788ff313b9619ae04d0ac8453.PNG

 

...just weird that there is no display ... at all even to get into the BIOS.  If that remains the case ... warranty.  

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5 minutes ago, Jim K said:

...just weird that there is no display ... at all even to get into the BIOS.  If that remains the case ... warranty.  

Yeah, I would send that in for RMA... Looks sketchy...

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in the 20 seconds it comes on, hold the power button down for 10 seconds until it shuts off. Then we know it's off and not sleeping.

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57 minutes ago, Jim K said:

Weird that nothing shows on the screen ... even after a fresh start.  Probably not the issue (since I'm assuming it is reset after a boot) but it isn't toggled for an external display?  Have you tried the other various buttons Fn + display buttons (like brightness, display on/off, etc.)?  Once again ... doubt that is the issue but who knows.

 

Capture.thumb.PNG.cac8171788ff313b9619ae04d0ac8453.PNG

 

...just weird that there is no display ... at all even to get into the BIOS.  If that remains the case ... warranty.  

My BIL has already said he will RMA it, rather then try to figure out WTF happened.

51 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Yeah, I would send that in for RMA... Looks sketchy...

For sure!

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38 minutes ago, warwagon said:

in the 20 seconds it comes on, hold the power button down for 10 seconds until it shuts off. Then we know it's off and not sleeping.

It is defiantly off now, I can tell by the temp on the bottom of the laptop (the vents) I just 'shut it down' and it is getting cooler to the touch, and my IR thermometer shows the temp has dropped almost 7 degrees from when it was 'on' (84 vs ~92F) room temp is 72 F

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1 minute ago, jnelsoninjax said:

It is defiantly off now, I can tell by the temp on the bottom of the laptop (the vents) I just 'shut it down' and it is getting cooler to the touch, and my IR thermometer shows the temp has dropped almost 7 degrees from when it was 'on' (84 vs ~92F) room temp is 72 F

just wondered if it was dying in it's sleep when it was waking up.

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2 minutes ago, warwagon said:

just wondered if it was dying in it's sleep when it was waking up.

I really have no idea what it is doing, the best I can tell is that it is trying to boot, but can not, so it reboots, rinse and repeat.

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8 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Look under the laptop and see if there is a battery reset paper clip pin hole. If there is hold it down for 15 seconds.

There is and it did not appear to do anything.

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3 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

There is and it did not appear to do anything.

I know it cuts battery power but I'm wondering if it also emulates removing the battery and holding the power button down for 10 seconds. Maybe try pushing the pin in and also holding down the power button at the same time.

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16 hours ago, warwagon said:

I know it cuts battery power but I'm wondering if it also emulates removing the battery and holding the power button down for 10 seconds. Maybe try pushing the pin in and also holding down the power button at the same time.

I tried that at least 3 different times, and nothing has changed. I did plug it into my monitor via HDMI, but nothing changed (still no display on either device this time) and I pressed the correct fn key to switch the display, and it did nothing.

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No display is pointing towards a falling hardware-rooted problem rather than WU unless there was some sort of firmware update in progress. WU does a pretty decent job of recovery in many cases. Best of luck with the warranty/service request (though I might avoid putting forward the fall and the update as possible causes - let them reach their own conclusion with whatever checklist they're forced to use for diagnosis).

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