Totally bizarre laptop power problem

Life Technology
#1

Hey tech fans,
I’ve pretty much given up on fixing this laptop, and I’m recommending to the guy that he takes it to the Acer place to get it fixed, but it still bugs me that I don’t fully understand why this is happening, so I’d appreciate any input.

Basically this laptop (Acer Travelmate 420) hangs on a black screen (but still with the backlight on and a cursor in the top left-hand corner) when I try to shut it down. Once this happens, not even holding the power button will shut it down, and I have to remove the battery.

Now, here’s the REALLY WEIRD thing. I cannot then power the laptop on for about 20 minutes, after which time it powers up NO PROBLEM (I’ve done this now about 10 times and it’s consistent).

I was pretty sure from the get go that this was a hardware problem, but just to make sure, I’ve completely formatted and reinstalled Windows, and I’ve also flashed the BIOS. The only very slight difference this has made is that the freeze now happens on the Windows XP “shutting down” screen, rather than the black screen (oh and it previously had Windows 2000 installed, not that that matters).

Has anyone ever encountered any problems like these (especially the weird 20 minute wait before being allowed to power on)?

#2

Have you tried it with and without the battery?

You’ve already confirmed its not a software problem, so if its not the battery, I’d say the laptop has had it. Is it still under warranty?

#3

My TravelMate 8100 had a similar problem, and it took some serious change of parts to make it work again.

Don’t have the receipt, but it was some kind of converters that had faded out - took the Acer Garage a lot of testing and changing parts to figure out (trial and failure).

Maybe a weakness of an Acer component that show up every now and then.

Oh yeah, it has been perfect the last year - my problem was last summer when the notebook was approx. 9 months old.

#4

Hmmm… well, I have an update.

Immediately after I did my last-ditch BIOS update, the computer still failed to shut down right, and then of course refused to switch on until I waited for 20 minutes. That was pretty late at night, so when I saw that it wouldn’t power on immediately, that’s where I drew the line and gave up.

However, last night, I went home and powered it on, and what do you know? It works perfectly! I guess I should have waited those twenty minutes.

So I guess it was something in the BIOS, but what a weird problem.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback guys.

Oh, and yeah, I’d been trying with and without the battery, and the 20 minute wait was always with the battery and AC adapter both detached.