(probably OT) Acer Aspire 7535G mostly dead

In message , dadiOH
writes:

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...

snipped much

It had been running W7 fine - home premium, upgraded from Vista before my
eyes using proper upgrade discs (which I still have) when I bought it
about 5 years ago we think - but that's _probably_ irrelevant (so OT for
here) as it behaves identically with the hard disc absent.

So, could it be possible that the HD is dead?

With a dead HD, I'd expect the PC to come up with "insert OS", "no OS
found", or similar. (But actually, the HD is fine enough that we've
copied its contents ready to put on the HD of the replacement, for the
owner.)

Also note for the above model: at first I thought it had a very
non-standard SATA connector on the drive (came out at the time SATA was
just coming in, maybe, I thought). It was at quite a late stage that I
realised that it had one the back of it the connector - or part of it -
from the mobo, which on removal revealed normal SATA connectors. (The
bit sort of turns the contacts through 90 degrees, and seems _intended_
to come off with the drive: on detaching it from the drive, I could plug
it back into the mobo, but it doesn't seem possible to take the drive
out of the PC without the corner-turner coming with it.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

By most scientific estimates sustained, useful fusion is ten years in
the future - and will be ten years in the future for the next fifty
years or more. - "Hamadryad", ~2016-4-4

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , dadiOH writes:

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...

snipped much

It had been running W7 fine - home premium, upgraded from Vista before
my
eyes using proper upgrade discs (which I still have) when I bought it
about 5 years ago we think - but that's _probably_ irrelevant (so OT for
here) as it behaves identically with the hard disc absent.

So, could it be possible that the HD is dead?

With a dead HD, I'd expect the PC to come up with "insert OS", "no OS
found", or similar. (But actually, the HD is fine enough that we've copied
its contents ready to put on the HD of the replacement, for the owner.)

Will BIOS display?

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Paul in Houston TX writes:
[]
My Lenovo T410 did exactly the same as yours last year. It's 7 yrs old.

Including not making any sounds - or do you run with most sounds suppressed anyway?

Researching possibilities on the web I found that laptops in general tend to
break the vid cable due to flexing - opening and closing the lid.
So, decided to take a chance on a new OEM cable from Ebay for $15 including shipping.
Took me a few hours to put it in but it did the job. I use the T410 as a backup for
the main laptop.

I think I could probably change the panel (including backlight, and inverter if it has
one), but the lack of sounds makes me disinclined to try.

It would not make sounds. It was like it would partially boot up to the bios and
not go further. Could not tell since it would not work with external monitor.
HDD was spinning, fan was spinning, no LCD lights, nothing on screen using flashlight,
hitting the start button for 4 sec would shut it down, removing bios battery - no change,
LT battery or a/c power - no change.
BUT... that was a Lenovo and not an Acer. It's likely that yours has a totally
different failure mode and a new cable won't do any good.
http://www.laptopparts101.com/lcd-screen-video-cable/