Acer Aspire v3-772g won't boot, black screen. Power/lights all work.

draga

Estimable
May 12, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hey guys!
I have an Acer Aspire V3-772g, a relatively new laptop (8 months old), which randomly decided to stop booting.

Windows 8.1
Core i7 2.2ghz
nVidia GTX 760m
8gig's of ram (2x4gb)
7200 RPM SATA

Was playing a game just fine. Shut down as normal, went to work, came home 8 hours later, attempted to boot - nothing.

Exact problem: Hit power button, power button comes on. Light next to the lightbulb (power light?) Comes on, stays solid. Charging stays solid orange/blue.

HDD light? Flickers.
Screen flickers a dark grey color that may be the very initial part of a startup. No acer logo.
The screen and HDD light flicker in synchronisation, at the same exact time. You can hear the fans fire up, and the HDD spin up. Screen just flickers about once per second (it's very faint.)

--Heres what I've tried--
-Removing power cord/battery, holding button for 60 seconds 3 times, plugging back in and powering up. - No
^Almost every varation of that, I have attempted.
-Inserting a new harddrive. Same result.
-Plugging in an external monitor. (Tried VGA and HDMI) - power does not transfer to external monitors. Screen still flickers on laptop, no change in behavior.
-Removed 1 stick of RAM - No **BUT** behavior changes slightly. Flickering of screen and HD light reduced to about once every 45 seconds rather than once every second.
-Removed both sticks of RAM - no flickering, no HDD light flickering. Pure black screen.
-Rotated the sticks of RAM - No change.

Also interestingly, with everything normal, if I hold Fn+Esc, the computer will do a new startup process (Screen still black), then after about 20 seconds goes into the normal screen flickering/HDD indicator flickering. Different behavior, slightly.

Any ideas would be so appreciated guys, and thank you to all who take the time to respond.
 
Jul 22, 2014
4
0
4,510
with the new acers there seems to be a problem... the motherboard is horrible, i have had a desktop and laptop from acer and both ended up with a blown motherboard.From what you are saying and my experiences on acer im guessing you need a new motherboard

also i may very well be wrong I am no where near a computer expert but acer does have a rep for bad motherboards
 

junkeymonkey

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
402
0
11,260
bios may be locked by acer they can be that way let me show you this I give out its just the way it is

some models of store bought computers [dell.hp,acer,ect..] may come with a ''locked or fixed'' bios and may not allow you to change certain hardware as a video card.. this is done to protect them from undue warranty claims and refunds .this is not done to hurt you but to protect them. you really need to see if that upgrade has been proven to work in your model first before you invest money in it .. there are a lot of these threads here at toms to look at some models will allow upgrades and some dont.. and a lot of guys here say ya ya ya when is really no no no...it would be sad you spent $200 on a card that wount post after you installed it as most find out. then get told its your psu and you spend more and end up right back where you are now, but its up to you good luck..


you got to know the the boards in these computers are not like the ones we use to do custom builds witch are open to upgrading with in the boards compatibly . the bios is custom made for there design and just for the parts they authorize to be used on there computers
 

draga

Estimable
May 12, 2014
3
0
4,510


After all I have tried, my assumption was the motherboard as well. I'm 8 months into my 3 years of warranty. I fear that 3 years and some months is all I will get out of this very expensive machine. That's what I get for going Acer I suppose. 2 RMAs in less than a year is a bad sign. I've asked for my money back but you know how that goes.

But yeah, after trying every piece of hardware, the motherboard seems the only logical choice. And to think, a desktop I built 13 years ago is alive and well. Should've went that route again and got a cheap laptop for school.
 

eclectikat

Estimable
Aug 10, 2015
1
0
4,510

averv3... how did you do this... ?

 

acerv3

Estimable
Jul 30, 2015
2
0
4,510


Well does it boot sometimes? Mine was able to occasionally boot once every few days so it was rather easy. I just downloaded the new bios version from acer's site and installed it. In case it doesnt boot at all you should check on the internet on how to flash bios using usb flash drive since i dont know exactly how to. Also there is extensive information on how downgrade bios for acer laptops on one of the first few link in google. If you cant find anything useful PM me to try and find something
 

avinban

Estimable
Nov 25, 2015
3
0
4,510
Hey Draga,
I am having the exact same problem with my Acer Aspire e15.Did you manage to fix it?Did you try the bios downgrading and upgrading part?I want to try that.
Thanks,
Avin
 

jxic20

Prominent
Nov 6, 2017
1
0
510
Can confirm in 2017 that reflashing the bios to 1.15 works. No need to downgrade.
Since you probably can't reflash it via desktop (since it restarts and you get to the flicker loop thing) try via usb.
Follow instructions from this link:
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/490822/acer-v3-772g-black-screen-boot-on-usb

"...Then I downloaded the VA70 V115 bios on the ACER support,
uncompressed file and renamed the file isflash.fd to VA70HWX64.fd.
I formatted an usb key in fat32 and copied the file into it.
I plugged the key into one of the USB ports on the left side of the keyboard.
I was pressed on FN + Esc and plugging the power cord,
And pressed the ON button.
I stayed on FN + Esc until the key blinks (about 7sec)
And after 30 sec a beep sounded and another without stopping.
The PC no longer responded.
I unplugged the power, I plugged the battery without the power cord,
I turned on the laptop and ...

It started, then the acer logo appeared ...."

Hope this helps someone in the future.