BIOS corrupted? How to proceed? Acer Travelmate 290

Solution 1:

This isn't necessarily a BIOS issue. The first few things to check are

1) Hook up an external display. If you can get anything on that you have a video card/LCD issue. (You may have to use an Fn key combo to get the external display up. check your manual)

2) Swap some RAM around. Bad RAM can cause a machine to not POST.

3) Remove the HDD. Usually a machine will still boot with a bad HDD and just throw an error, but on occasion I've seen yanking the hard drive fix the issue.

4) Remove any extra add-in cards. You said you've taken it apart, so if you really want you can try and POST it outside of the chassis with the WLAN card removed. Just be very careful of where you're touching. An improperly grounded chassis can cause it to not POST as well.

Most likely you are not looking at BIOS corruption unless this happened directly after a BIOS flash. What it happening is your computer is failing to POST (Power On Self Test).

Solution 2:

Sounds that your problem is your screen the back light has gone. It is possible to replace the back light but is very tricky. Best is another screen (Look on EBAY) When you remove the screen you will see the make and number that is the screen you need or equivalent. Try a check with a desktop screen by connecting it to the blue adapter on the rear of your laptop.

Solution 3:

Had the same problem a few days ago.

To restore the notebook CMOS, remove the second RAM module (if installed) and look for a small broken conductor strip labeled JP1 on the motherboard. Make sure the battery is removed, and short the jumper JP1 with a screw driver for about two seconds. That fixed my TM290. This is the way to clear the BIOS passwords as well.

Solution 4:

Acer 290 series [290, 291, 292 and probably more] suffer from a common hardware issue of a chip that is losing connection from the mainboard after some time.

The position of the chip is on the lower right face of the MB just nearby the right hinge. I assume that the mechanical stress [fan vibration] + heating/cooling causes the chip to loosen a bit. Probably the situation of the chip was already at the edge and then it gave up.

You can find the position of the chip following this link [german language]:

blog entry The images are :

1 2

You will see the black CHIP marked with a red circle in the second picture.

Probably you would have to open up the laptop using the service manual [you can find in pdf on the web][can take 20 mins after a bit of practice] . Then try put some pressure on that chip to see if you have a boot. If that's the cause then go for re-soldering the chip to the MB. That's how I revived mine.