Acer laptop no image on internal display

[glennd]

I've been googling this for a while with no joy.

Acer Aspire V5-571G
Model: MS2361

Powers up and boots ok but no image on the internal display. External display everything is good. When I first hit the power button i can see the tiniest flicker on the panel which tells me there is power getting to it but no image. I've just installed a new replacement panel with the same result so i know the panel is not the problem.

Any ideas?

 

[Porthos]

Windows 10 ? I had one gateway/acer that needed a bios update and all was well.

 

[glennd]

Windows 10 ? I had one gateway/acer that needed a bios update and all was well.

i knew i forgot something:
Windows 8.1
I updated the bios to the latest from Acer but not change.
It's clearly nothing to do with Windows though as there is no image on the display at any time starting from power on.

 

[Markverhyden]

Linux results? Does the machine have a FN key display toggle and did you try that a few times?

 

[Porthos]

Might end up not cost effective.

 

[glennd]

Linux results? Does the machine have a FN key display toggle and did you try that a few times?

Same as windows. Works fine on external display but doesn't recognise an internal display. Display toggle button does nothing in linux and in Windows pops up the little window that says i have a choice of one display (external).

Device manager lists two display adapters, "Intel HD Graphics 4000" and "NVidia GeForce GT 620M", I presume the internal and external. That tells me it thinks there's an adapter but no display connected.

Not looking good... Porthos may be right

 

[Markverhyden]

Sounds like it. I've seen other laptops which had two video chipsets and the better one was actually a separate card. Saw this on Dells. YOu could pull the Nvidia card and the system would default to the Intel chipset. My guess is that the NVidia is toast but it's probably part of the motherboard. Is there a bios option to do something with the video chipset?

 

[Craka]

I would say the Intel is possible integrate graphics in chipset for base model board and the Nvidia Geforce is the discrete graphics chip. From what your dicribing I don't think it will be chipet but more to do with the laptop display, either cable or LCD inverter board. When you are using the external display you should be able to determine which display adapter is being used.

 

[Eagle21]

Device manager lists two display adapters, "Intel HD Graphics 4000" and "NVidia GeForce GT 620M", I presume the internal and external. That tells me it thinks there's an adapter but no display connected.

That's not two display adapters, internal and external. It is two GPUs - CPU integrated graphics and discrete graphics.
Gaming laptops often have two graphics cards - the Intel integrated graphics, and a faster discrete GPU for gaming.

 

[Porthos]

Throw snappy drivers at it....

 

[Diggs]

more to do with the laptop display, either cable or LCD inverter board.

That's my thoughts....

 

[glennd]

Sounds like it. I've seen other laptops which had two video chipsets and the better one was actually a separate card. Saw this on Dells. YOu could pull the Nvidia card and the system would default to the Intel chipset. My guess is that the NVidia is toast but it's probably part of the motherboard. Is there a bios option to do something with the video chipset?

Ok that makes sense. The NVidia is this:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-620M.72198.0.html
and according to this:
http://notebookschematic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/V5-471_Husk_Petra.png
is this:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/100-...S-A2-N13M-GS-S-A2-BGA-IC-Chip/1919835424.html

Well, I've removed every single screw on the thing and examined the motherboard and I can see something mounted on the board that looks like that but it has E2178883 which isn't anything. However, it's mounted and can't be unplugged. Nothing else apart from the network card and dvd card.

 

[glennd]

Throw snappy drivers at it....

Ok....

Nope, just bounced off and dropped down the back of the bench...

 

[glennd]

From what your dicribing I don't think it will be chipet but more to do with the laptop display, either cable or LCD inverter board. When you are using the external display you should be able to determine which display adapter is being used.

Agreed. Apparently the external monitor is using the Intel adapter.

 

[glennd]

All back together. The customer will have to live with the external monitor until he gets a new laptop. Maybe he'll get a decent one this time? Nah.....

Thanks everyone!

 

[fencepost]

I have a customer with a ThinkPad X220T that's working quite well in its second life as a desktop PC. It's one of those twist-screen tablets and the screen went out for the second time (well out of warranty). First one they paid for Lenovo to fix, second time I advised just getting a new laptop since it was never used as a tablet anyway. I had no desire to disassemble to see if it was the screen, backlight or wiring harness. Besides, it was XP-end-of-life time and they had an XP desktop that needed replacement so this was tailor-made for the situation - even has an available power button when you flip the screen around.

 

[gadgetfixup]

How closely did you look at the motherboard connector where the LCD cable plugs in? I can't tell you how many of these we've fixed by getting those under a microscope and bending the pins back in place. The new connectors are flawed. While it looks flat to the naked eye, when you get it under a microscope the ends of the connector have pads that act like stands. The length of the connector is plastic and warps. When it warps signnificantly, some of the pins will stop making connection to the LCD cable.

It causes all sorts of symptoms. Grey screens, black screens with a little light but no image, etc. Just depends on what pins are no longer making contact. We've even seen screens where we swore it was a defective backlight (faint image when using a flashlight) only to replace the screen and have the same results. Fixed the connector and put the old screen back on as there as nothing wrong with it. The error is very common with Samsungs and Acers although we've see it on a couple HPs as well.

That would be my guess and somewhere here I posted a picture that shows how this connector warps.

 

[fencepost]

I can't tell you how many of these we've fixed by getting those under a microscope and bending the pins back in place.

As a tip, a good digital camera or even cellphone camera can act as a reasonably decent microscope at this level. Actual cameras generally have better zoom and macro capability, particularly if you can slave the camera to a PC and use it like a highly zoomed webcam.