Hangs up on cold Boot.....

[petros]

It's the caps.

My Acer Notebook, after three years has started acting-up on cold (overnight) start-up. It seems to hang up on the (Press F2 ) boot menu screen for sometimes as long as 35/40 seconds then goes at normal speed for the rest of the boot.
When it is warmed up and I either press "restart" or I shut down and start it while it is still warm......No problems!

Operational Signs
If your computer is acting up but has not yet failed you, symptoms of a faulty capacitor include:

• Difficulty turning on your computer, frequently having to hit reset or restart
• Instabilities (hangs, seeing the “Blue Screen of Death,” etc.), especially when the symptoms get progressively more frequent over time
• Memory errors, especially ones that get more frequent with time
• Spontaneous reboots
• In case of on-board video cards, unstable image in some video modes
• Failing to complete the POST (Power-On Self-Test) or rebooting before completion
• Never starting the POST; fans spin but the system appears dead
• Power system malfunctions, fluctuations in system voltage, possibly with an increase in CPU temperature as the core voltage rises
• In the case of Dell Optiplex GX270s, often a “Thermal Event” is brandished in white on a very dark computer display when rebooting.

http://www.pctools.com/security-news/faulty-capacitor-test/

 

[DaSleeper]

So your suggestion is scrapping the whole thing instead of investing in an easily replaceable 10 dollar battery, that the experts recommend changing every 3 years????...thanks....
When not adsolutely certain of the solution......Always try the simplest fix first
I'm not one to throw up my hands and give up on a problem.

 

[Johnnny]

My Acer Notebook, after three years has started acting-up

Iam familiar with such technical issues.... What i did was this

 

[petros]

So your suggestion is scrapping the whole thing instead of investing in an easily replaceable 10 dollar battery, that the experts recommend changing every 3 years????...thanks....
When not adsolutely certain of the solution......Always try the simplest fix first
I'm not one to throw up my hands and give up on a problem.

Go to dollarama for your battery, a CR2032, then you're only wasting a dollar when you have to replace your comp.

 

[Niflmir]

Does pressing F2 at any time during this process take you to the boot menu? If so, the problem is before the bootup and you might have motherboard issues. If F2 does nothing, then you might have some hard disks problems. Three years is well outside of warranty and laptops are not as easy to fix as desktops, so you might consider a new purchase. If you are not playing games, you can probably get one on the cheap.

 

[petros]

Does pressing F2 at any time during this process take you to the boot menu? If so, the problem is before the bootup and you might have motherboard issues. If F2 does nothing, then you might have some hard disks problems. Three years is well outside of warranty and laptops are not as easy to fix as desktops, so you might consider a new purchase. If you are not playing games, you can probably get one on the cheap.

And budget for use for your dollar over the three years before caps crap out. $200-300 per year for the average user. The cheaper it is the cheaper it is. If you're just hanging out here and tinkering with photos less is better, if it's a working comp spend to the higher end of the scale of $300. Unless you're a gamer or designer anything over $900 isn't getting value/necessity for your dollar.

 

[DaSleeper]

Iam familiar with such technical issues.... What i did was this

Go to dollarama for your battery, a CR2032, then you're only wasting a dollar when you have to replace your comp.

In a laptop this is what a cmos battery looks like........

And they run from 10 to 25 dollars,.....now you know why I take your advice with a grain of salt:lol:

 

[petros]

In a laptop this is what a cmos battery looks like........

And they run from 10 to 25 dollars,.....now you know why I take your advice with a grain of salt:lol:

You computer will still run without a battery. The battery is there for when the caps discharge over long periods of sitting and then it takes over keeping the CMOS alive. Don't waste the $10. Don't believe me, pull the battery and fire up without it.

:lol:

 

[JamesBondo]

you could get yourself the TRK disc and run a memory test. any check that only takes 30minutes is worth trying.

 

[DaSleeper]

Does pressing F2 at any time during this process take you to the boot menu? If so, the problem is before the bootup and you might have motherboard issues. If F2 does nothing, then you might have some hard disks problems. Three years is well outside of warranty and laptops are not as easy to fix as desktops, so you might consider a new purchase. If you are not playing games, you can probably get one on the cheap.

I'm able to access the menu and I have to wait approx. the same amount of time as it does to start on "windows" which leads me to believe the problem is either the cmos battery or the bios corrupted...in which case I will "flash" it, if and when I find out that it's not the battery and just before I go and buy a new laptop...
Like I mentioned before a reboot takes less than a minute ...total.

You computer will still run without a battery. The battery is there for when the caps discharge over long periods of sitting and then it takes over keeping the CMOS alive. Don't waste the $10. Don't believe me, pull the battery and fire up without it.

:lol:

Gawd you do have a fixation for caps.....similar to the one you have for the word spasdic...
When you start thinking outside the box I might start taking you seriously......

 

[petros]

Well, there is fvck all I can do about your ignorance and stubborness other than offer well founded advice. If you don't want it just fvcking say so but when reality sinks in and you find out it's caps, you know where to find me you fvcking azzhole.

 

[DaSleeper]

8O:roll:

 

[JamesBondo]

It's the caps.



Operational Signs

If your computer is acting up but has not yet failed you, symptoms of a faulty capacitor include:

• Difficulty turning on your computer, frequently having to hit reset or restart
• Instabilities (hangs, seeing the “Blue Screen of Death,” etc.), especially when the symptoms get progressively more frequent over time
• Memory errors, especially ones that get more frequent with time
• Spontaneous reboots
• In case of on-board video cards, unstable image in some video modes
• Failing to complete the POST (Power-On Self-Test) or rebooting before completion
• Never starting the POST; fans spin but the system appears dead
• Power system malfunctions, fluctuations in system voltage, possibly with an increase in CPU temperature as the core voltage rises
• In the case of Dell Optiplex GX270s, often a “Thermal Event” is brandished in white on a very dark computer display when rebooting.

[URL="http://www.pctools.com/security-news/faulty-capacitor-test/"]http://www.pctools.com/security-news/faulty-capacitor-test/[/URL]

the link that you provide was a 2010 article about caps produced in 2004.

If you read this link Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
you will read that the 'cap plague' was believed to come to end in 2010.

8O:roll:

Most failed caps, not all failed caps, can be identified with a visual inspection.

You will find bulges, and leaky, crusty crap on electrolytic caps.

And on surface mount 'tants' you will find them charred from heat, maybe even a bubble in the plastic, or the white paint which indicates polarity might be burned, missing, or discolored.

If you like taking apart your laptop and feel confident in doing so, then what the hell, why don't you give it a good dusting, and then give it a visual inspection?

IMO,if you don't find a visually defective cap, then your most practical next step is to consider all the caps as good. Why? because it is too much PITA to go around checking every good cap.

 

[DaSleeper]

the link that you provide was a 2010 article about caps produced in 2004.

If you read this link Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
you will read that the 'cap plague' was believed to come to end in 2010.



Most failed caps, not all failed caps, can be identified with a visual inspection.

Already did that days ago and all all capacitors looked fine

You will find bulges, and leaky, crusty crap on electrolytic caps.

And on surface mount 'tants' you will find them charred from heat, maybe even a bubble in the plastic, or the white paint which indicates polarity might be burned, missing, or discolored.

They all looked fine three days ago

If you like taking apart your laptop and feel confident in doing so, then what the hell, why don't you give it a good dusting, and then give it a visual inspection?

Oddly enough, I was pretty clean, maybe because I use the vacuum brush and the air can regularly,

IMO,if you don't find a visually defective cap, then your most practical next step is to consider all the caps as good. Why? because it is too much PITA to go around checking every good cap.

All the times I have seen capacitors fail, it was on power supplies and when they go there the only thing that usually came on was the power light..lol
Like I said before it hangs up on the bios screen (F2) for a while and it eventually starts up but on a restart it's normal, you have to be ready if you plan to hit the f2 key;-)
That's why I'm thinking of the battery, It's there to keep the board "Hot", so I'm reasoning that it takes a while to to charge everything up on a cold start, but a restart everything is still charged up.
One other thing Even though I ran a factory application to test the hard drive.....just in case it was slow at starting to spin on a cold start (on a restart, it never really stops), Because it is unusually quiet, I used a stethoscope on a cold start, and it goes to full speed within seconds with no funny noises.
If I eventually have to scrap this box, I'm keeping that drive and buying an external box for it like someone suggested.
My last notebook that went it was the drive.....getting noisy, then web pages freezing....
If I wanted something to putter with this winter........when the forum gets boring........I got it

A little story about capacitors...
About 45 years ago when I started to work in the paper mill.......When the paper is a bit too dry the reels of paper charge up with static from the friction as they turn.....well the electricians working on a DC motor (that's what they used back then on paper machines for speed control)
They had left a big ole capacitor lying on the floor, so instead of throwing in the garbage since cleaning up was my job when I started work, I grabbed one lead and slowly dragged the other along the reel of paper, then I would put it on the lunch table and watch for someone to pick it up and eventually touch both leads at the same time.
That little stunt went around three shifts before every one got wise...:lol:

 

[JamesBondo]

Do you have a volt meter? You could measure the voltage of the battery to get a loose sense of whether it is dead.

Just take it off the board, and compare it to the chart in this link.

2032 discharge curve - Google Search

as you can see, a battery stays pretty strong for hundreds of hours, then eventually its voltage reaches an 'elbow' where the battery will experience failure quite quickly.

For example, in applications like memory backup, the battery will last thousands of hours, then somewhere around 2.6-2.7 volts, it will die with less than an additional 1000 hours.

IMO, a battery that is between 3.2V and 2.8V is good. If it is 2.8-2.6 I would replace it rather than wait for it to fail. If the battery is 2.6-0V then it is already dead which leads me back to a comment that you made...

Yes, I agree that it is possible that a dead battery might cause a delayed start up. I am not sure that it has anything to do with a 'charging' period. Hoever, a dead battery also means no saved bios data. The hanging on the bios screen might actually be the computer having to do additional checks due to the absense of saved bios data.

 

[DaSleeper]

Do you have a volt meter? You could measure the voltage of the battery to get a loose sense of whether it is dead.

Just take it off the board, and compare it to the chart in this link.

2032 discharge curve - Google Search

as you can see, a battery stays pretty strong for hundreds of hours, then eventually its voltage reaches an 'elbow' where the battery will experience failure quite quickly.

For example, in applications like memory backup, the battery will last thousands of hours, then somewhere around 2.6-2.7 volts, it will die with less than an additional 1000 hours.

IMO, a battery that is between 3.2V and 2.8V is good. If it is 2.8-2.6 I would replace it rather than wait for it to fail. If the battery is 2.6-0V then it is already dead which leads me back to a comment that you made...

Yes, I agree that it is possible that a dead battery might cause a delayed start up. I am not sure that it has anything to do with a 'charging' period. Hoever, a dead battery also means no saved bios data. The hanging on the bios screen might actually be the computer having to do additional checks due to the absense of saved bios data.

I did another few tests earlier this afternoon, I unpluged the ac power, removed the battery then did a "hard reset" (held the power button for 30 seconds to a minute)
I then put everything back together again and booted her up, What surprised me was , that this one time only it didn't hang up, It started up normaly, but the clock was dead on, meaning that the cmos battery is good
I tried to repeat that good start....but no go.
So I went back inside and had another look at the mother board but with a lighted magnifying glass. And I seem to see a hairline crack in it and no discoloration of any of the componenents.
Tomorrow I'l go to the few repair shops around town and leave the model number of my laptop with them, should they scrap one that has something else wrong with it, so I can swap motherboards......hopefully befor this one give out.
One strange thing that I have noticed in the last few weeks...once in a while when I'm not doing anything, everything is Idle, I willhear the same beep coming out of the speakers as when you unplug something from the usb port????????

 

[Angstrom]

My wife's got the same notebook. It had a battery problem. I read its common in that model & brand.So I bought a cheap Battery from Hong Kong hoping it would solve the problem over on Aliexpress.com. Took 2 months to get but her notebook works fine now.

Here is where i bought it.

Wholesale Product Snapshot Product name is [Special Price]New laptop battery for Acer Aspire One A110 A150 ZG5, UM08A31 UM08A71 UM08A72 UM08A73 UM08B74 ,3 cells

 

[DaSleeper]

My wife's got the same notebook. It had a battery problem. I read its common in that brand. I bought a cheap one from Hong Kong over on Ali express.com. Took 2 months to get but her notebook works fine now.

Here is where i bought it.

Wholesale Product Snapshot Product name is [Special Price]New laptop battery for Acer Aspire One A110 A150 ZG5, UM08A31 UM08A71 UM08A72 UM08A73 UM08B74 ,3 cells

I was refering to the cmos battery....another thing altogether...but thanks.

 

[Angstrom]

I was refering to the cmos battery....another thing altogether...but thanks.

Her notebook was dead on boot similar to yours, So..... I thought it could be the same problem.
Hope you can get that fixed. sounds more complicated then my situation maybe. GL

 

[DaSleeper]

Her notebook was dead on boot similar to yours.... So I thought it could be the same problem.
Hope you can get that fixed. sounds more complicated then my situation.

You can run a notebook with the ac adapter only...the main battery is only for when you don't have a plug in available like at a coffee shop.