(Alternatives) how to boot Aspire 7 A715-71G?

[Noms]

Hello there,

I have had some problems with my Aspire 7 A715-71G laptop recently. It all originated the moment i spilled some coffee on the right side of the keyboard. Having no experience with this accident I did not immediately act in the ideal manner. I turned the laptop off but did not took the battery out at that time and i let it to dry for a few hours upside down. After I got some information by researching i took out the battery aswell but checked way to early after that if all was well.

So a couple hours after the accident it first looked like there was no urgent problems and it all seems to work okay aside from some buttons on the right side of the keyboard were sticky and some were not functioning. The power button was working aswell at the time so i could turn the laptop on and off at the moment and just browse internet and manouvre through windows and programs.

Now comes the more problematic side. The day after the power button is not functioning anymore so I can not start my laptop anymore. However when I plugged the power cable in it seems liked there was no problems with charging or have other errors noticable from the lights. I Tried to see if there was dust mixed with dryed cofee spills below the keys that I could manually clean but that was not helping. After that I brought the laptop to a local repair shop and they adviced me to replace the keyboard including the top.

A few weeks later when the part arrived, according to the dude at the shop there was no visible moisture damage from the spills, if that is the correct word to use in english. The keyboard was set in place by him and unfortunately the power button dit not function and gave no connection to (the switch) to power on the laptop. After that he tried to look to boot the laptop in another manner but he told me he was nog adequatly equiped or has the knowledge about the hardware and the layout of this Acer series(version) sp I have to take it to someone else who has more experience with the Acer Aspire 7 series or to the manufracterer.

Now i am in the situation that I am looking for information and ways to solve this problem and to get the power button working or boot the laptop alternatively. The hardware layout of the motherboard and the power switch/pins seems different from previous Acer laptops and is more complex to find solutions for this on my own.

That is why I come to you noble computer wizards and seek for help.

Anyone that can help me on finding new information or alternatives to get me and my laptop one again will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Noms

 

[veeg]

Hello

So the laptop does not come on or boot when just plugged in now?

 

[Noms]

Hi Veeg,

Thanks for the quick response. While the power is plugged the lights seems to reflect on a good functioning battery and laptop.

However I can't boot, power on because the power button does not work anymore, see the last paragraphs of the thread.

 

[veeg]

OK,let's get another opinion..

@Bruce

 

[Bruce]

in my experience, once there has been a liquid spill, things are never quite the same again.
especially drinks like Coke. and coffee has some nasty acids, tannins and phenols that don't interact with electronics nicely. and if the coffee had milk and sugar as well, it escalates from there.

for me, I'd seriously be thinking of replacing the unit, especially if a few years old.
its hard drive can be removed and installed into an external USB enclosure for a) data recovery and b) use as a backup device.

but since you have sunk some money into so far and it's only a couple of years old, it may be worth continuing down that path and taking it to an authorised repair shop. the part should be easy and cheap to replace however labour may be a shocker.

 

[Noms]

in my experience, once there has been a liquid spill, things are never quite the same again.
especially drinks like Coke. and coffee has some nasty acids, tannins and phenols that don't interact with electronics nicely. and if the coffee had milk and sugar as well, it escalates from there.

for me, I'd seriously be thinking of replacing the unit, especially if a few years old.
its hard drive can be removed and installed into an external USB enclosure for a) data recovery and b) use as a backup device.

but since you have sunk some money into so far and it's only a couple of years old, it may be worth continuing down that path and taking it to an authorised repair shop. the part should be easy and cheap to replace however labour may be a shocker.

Thanks for the reply Bruce. It was quite an expensive laptop(relatively speaking) and it also interesting to learn more about hardware and the functionalities of the laptop on the way. So in that sense I would like to continue seeking for a repair solution and exclude all possible options that are left before I look for a new replacement.

I have some additional information and pictures that might bring some new ideas to mind:

To me it doesn't seem like the SW2 switch has any damage of getting wet or else, the spill was not around there aswell(see the overview picture, the blue elipse gives the location of the spill)

Altough it looks like there is some leftovers of the spillage if you look at the power board(see the second close up of the power board). This is also where the spill occured on the table, on the side of the power board near the fans and below the num keys.

Is there anyway to manually boot via the motherboard or any other way? Also if you look at the other picture, when the power is plugged it seems as the battery is getting charged and the blue light keeps on. Does that give any clue to how the power board is functioning?

On to the next step, thanks in advance.

I have put the images in URL links as to not fluid the thread with pictures.
Overview:

Other images:
Charging, battery light

https://puu.sh/GDDkb/3c842adcbb.png

Overview middle of the motherboard

https://puu.sh/GDDlH/fba2cffaa1.png

Other side of the motherboard, also the other side to where the spill happened

https://puu.sh/GDDmx/e920c6409d.png

 

[Bruce]

the fact you can still see the brown residue from the spill says it all to me.
when the actual event happened, what you now see as a brown mark would have been flowing, conductive liquid.
in other words, shorts would have been going on all over the printed circuit boards and current would have gone down pathways it was never meant to go down.
if you took the motherboard out, or removed the underside access panels (if there are any) you'd probably find more evidence of the spill.
gravity would have taken the liquid to the lowest point, when you turned the unit over you may have given the liquid a second chance to flow back through the circuitry.

next to those USB ports, one of those integrated chips would be a controller chip, and pin1 and pin 4 in those USB ports are your positive and negative pins, there was an excellent chance they all got shorted, and who knows what was fried.

as to the blue LED next to the power jack, that probably only a LED that draws its power right from the jack, not from the battery or the motherboard, so in effect, it's only telling you that its detected the power cord connected.

of course, I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but sadly, I think it is not looking good.
either way, you are in need of an electronic engineer, and even they will not replace faulty capacitors or controller chips, they'll simply swap out the motherboard for a new one, and that will be the most expensive part in the laptop.
than factor in time, travel and labour on top of the parts, and... well.... you see where I'm heading!

 

[phillpower2]

Thread closed due to lack of any feedback from the OP.