Will they accept it for warranty?

Hi

I have just tried to change the 512 mb stick with a 1 gb, and after re-assembly the screen doesn't turn on, not even during POST. I did not damage the unit in any way.

I have lost the recepit, but the manufacture date is one month before I bought it anyway, and dated 08/08.

I have also taken off Windows XP and put Ubuntu on it. Figured all that slow 3-d effects and skippy music playback needed a bit more of memory hehe. RAM was Buffalo, 1024 MB DDRII 667 MHz PC-5300, but backwards compatible to PC-4200 (533 MHz), so that should have been fine. It also works great by itself in a different laptop (also Acer).

Here are my 2 questions

1. Will they honour the claim and fix it?
2. I think that the HDD is completely OK. Can I convince them NOT to format it?

 

Personally I wouldnt expect acer to repair it for free since the malfunction was caused by your fiddling with the hardware. When I upgraded my memory I also had lots of problems (crash, black screen etc) because of not fitting the flat cables properly back into their connectors. I suggest you open the unit again and carefully reattach the cables. You really need to force the flat cables into their socket, otherwise it wont work correctly.

good luck

 

Mine has just done the same - black screen for no reason ..

I have been trying to install XP (have removed Linpus) but no luck .. then when about to reboot and start the Windows graphical part after the HD part of the XP install I get a blank screen - rebooted several times and NOWT .. computer seems to be on .. but no screen AT ALL.

I am JUST trying to start removing the cables again and will see if that makes a difference ..

(I had too previously upgraded the memory) .. maybe Acer revenge for me tinkering !

 

i think its definietily worth diving back into it and giving it another shot perhaps with a different ram..have you tried with a different HDD? is the screen connected properly? did you bend any of the chips sticking out the the mobo?

 

Called Acer and they said probably the motherboard ..

I don't know what it is but the PC seems to come on but no visible screen.

He said try removing battery and just using power see what happens - nothing - apart from the PC came on but no screen :-(

 

I had some guy at a computer repair center in HK **** up my AAO when I paid him to add RAM. I sent it in for warranty and Acer replaced the motherboard, no questions asked. I guess it's always worth a try.

 

Cool, thanks for the replies!

No, I have not as much as scratched any parts of the laptop. Except bolts.
I have so far built every single desktop I used. Seeing no advantage in bundled Windows, I choose to buy higher quality components with that $100 Windows surcharge. I've built 6 computers (4 for myself, one for my sister, and one for my dad). Never had a problem with those (except frying an old GPU once overclocking, and a destroying a CPU (cheap one) modding it with exacto-knife. Don't listen to people who say it's OK to take an exacto knife to your computer!!!).

I haven't taken the RAM out (but I haven't put the lappy back together completely either yet, so there is plenty of opportunity). I have tried to reseat the flat cable for the monitor 5 or so times, all to no avail.

The PC does seem to turn on, the CPU fan spins, the lights come one, the HDD spins up, so I think the lappy is OK (save for the monitor), but the reasons I'm reluctant to send it in yet are that:
A. 1-st time I sent the laptop in to verify that windows XP was removed (in order to get a $53 refund) the monkeys at the depot had formatted the HDD and put XP back on it :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: I am afraid they will format it needlessly, "just for good measure".
B. I still have my schoolwork on it...

I have a desktop PC and a spare monitor, is there any way to boot the laptop so that it outputs to monitor without trying to use the on-board screen? Then I can easily back up the files I need (they don't even exceed 50 megs) on my desktop, and send it in without worry.

 

well yeah i guess you could try to link up the external monitor with no internal monitor and see what happens..or you could get

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-0-to-ID...14&_trkparms=72:1683|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

(you can find that abit cheaper)

and just back up your stuff off your aao hdd onto your desktop?

start by taking the ram out 1st, alot of pple found it was the rams fault..(i tried a 2gb stick the 1st time round in november thinking for some reason that it would work lol..and anyways it didnt, no screen no nothing..after i took it out it was all fine..)

 

Following the warranty strictly, it wouldn't be covered because they would probably say it was due to "...This Limited Warranty does not extend to any Product that has been damaged or rendered defective...(c) by modification of the Product;(d) as a result of service by anyone other than Acer or an Acer Authorized Service Provider..." or "...(f)as a result of improper installation of third-party products..."

If you don't tell them you changed the RAM and you put the original stick back in, they probably wouldn't notice or say anything unless you damaged the motherboard somehow, like a short, which you said you didn't. Usually warranty repair centers restore the factory image to make sure there's not a software problem causing the issue first. If it is, then they don't have to waste money on parts for it. I doubt they'll deny service for ubuntu being on it, especially if you don't mention it when you call. I seriously doubt you can get anyone to honestly guarantee they won't touch your data since they specifically state in the warranty, "...It is your responsibility to back up all software supplied on the hard drive..." which doesn't necessarily cover the original software. I bet it doesn't since they sell recovery discs. This part basically means that they can do whatever they want to the software on the computer for any reason they want to and are not legally obligated to keep your stuff on there.

The other part of the warranty that allows them to charge you for (once they receive the unit) is "...This Limited Warranty does not extend to any Product that has been damaged or rendered defective...You assume both the risk as to the quality and performance of this software and the cost of repair or service to remedy software defects". If that section was taken very literally, they could hold the unit and could either (a) charge you a research fee and send it back unrepaired or (b) charge the fee for "...repair or service to remedy software defects..."

The interesting thing about the screen not coming on is that there's a known issue for the Aspire One right now about the screen not coming on, but the computer working. You may have run into that or triggered that defect by changing the RAM. If you call Acer, they'll probably offer to send you a USB drive with files on it to flash your BIOs which fixes the display problem. If you did that and you still got a black screen, you would know for sure it was the RAM.

Usually the best thing to do in a situation like this is to backup all your stuff and restore the original factory image before sending in for warranty work.

 

It sounds like it could be the problem with the BIOS where it powers up, but theres no activity. Mine did this, and using the macles guide, I got it to boot fine. It did this when I was reloading Windows, so I imagine it can do it when you change out the memory.

If you do open it back up, put the original ram back in, make sure its seated correctly and give that a try. As someone else already said, those ribbon cable connectors are horrible, so make sure you have them seated correctly. A few other things to check for would be the usual, ground faults, lose connections, and even lose screws causing grounding issues.

Here is the macles guide I used to create the bootable USB key with the BIOS files on them to reset the BIOS (This does not update the BIOS at all, it merely resets it.) : http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer ... overy.html

I really hope you can get it fixed without needing to send it in. Good luck mate