The Acer Guy Forum » Problem corner
Acer 8920g Display Gone
(38 posts)-
Posted by: Martyn
MemberHi. A couple of months ago my display went on my Acer 8920g laptop. I rang Acer (UK) and they suggested a complete reinsatll to see if it was software related - well... it wasn't and I had to go through the installation process tapping 'Fn + F6' every 2 seconds. Doing this brought up the display for 2 - 3 seconds or so. And when the display came up, it was slightly duller than usual.
I just wondered if anyone here could specify what is wrong (or even any ideas) as it is no longer under guarantee or warranty and I would like to take it into the shop knowledgable of what is wrong so I don't get ripped off and could even preorder the part(s) so as to decrease me and my babys seperation.
After some light research, I found that it could be: The display, backlight or the inverter(?). As I said, I can bring up the display using Fn + F6 and it holds for a few seconds but then goes off again. I have been using an external monitor for the last couple of months as I'm a bit cash strapped and a gaming addict and can't bare to part with it!
Any help please. Also, if you think you know what is wrong, could you please mention any costs you may be aware of for parts etc..? Thank you
EDIT: Please forgive my ignorance, but I have only just checked some recent posts and have realised that several others have had this problem too. And I would just like to note that I bought my laptop in August of '08 - Another one clocked at 18 months! Intersesting....
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: meadeind
Memberhi,
i was wondering what exactly you did to resolve this issue? my 8920g just did this a week ago and its driving me nuts! i know the lcd itself is working because like you said, the screen flickers... tv out is working fine. i tried newest drivers, older drivers, flashing bios, reinstalling, nothing! tried all the fn buttons, nothing is jammed, keys are all fine. help!
mike
p.s.: mine too is out of warranty, go figure
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Martyn
MemberAnd another one...! Seems like they have a 'post warranty timer' on these. Wow.
I've not found a solution as yet - As you can see, I came to the Acer Guy forums looking for help...
I bought a Dell 20" monitor @ 1600x900 res and haven't done anything else to it as it's working as I need it to (apart from a slight down-grade in res).
I think that now I'm going to leave it this way - at least until I have the money to play with - because it now frees me to use an external monitor of any size and - plus maybe the option to go 3d - all by means of 'plug n play' instead of having to send it away for however long.
But in answer to your question, if I was to get it fixed up, I would get one of those guys out who come to your home to diagnose - then preorder parts - then take it to the shop.I'm just angry as I payed £1000 for this and the problem is obviously not exclusive to me and yet it's not being addressed. As many have said before me; " this is the last time I go Acer".
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: redevall
MemberWow..its funny you guys are saying that.....as my screen is starting to get dimmer and dimmer........and like you almost 2 years old and out of warranty.....
Acer Aspire 8920-6746 here...I love my laptop....I just hope this isnt some issue that turns out to be major....and if it is a defect then I hope that Acer can and will recall or fix these.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: cyberion1985
Member1.) I’ve disconnected all unneeded cables and accessories and installed a new INV board (stripped the entire unit & checked the service guide for a suspense switch but did not find any, if you are referring to the switch that is triggered by physical contact and turns the backlight off as soon as the units lid is closed).
2.) I’ve installed a known-good test backlight on the new and the old INV board.
3.) I’ve tested on external monitor and everything works fine.
4.) I’ve done a BIOS upgrade which did not solve the issue.
5.) I’ve tested on A/C and on battery.
6.) I’ve tested both backlights individually.
7.) I've tested the GPU in another unit and that works fine with it.With the above troubleshooting, I came to the conclusion that either the LCD cable or the mainboard is faulty. The backlight, which is turned off and on is powered by the mainboard but runs through the LCD cable. By disconnecting all accessories, the short-out problem of any faulty component should be certain. The new INV board shows, that the original INV board is not faulty. The backlight test, shows that the problem does not reside from the LCD backlight and with external screen, it displays, showing that the GPU and the LCD are not faulty. As it is possible for the issue to be temporarily removed with the FN & F6 for a few seconds, it would most likely be the mainboard with a function failure supplying incorrect voltages for powering the two backlight.
If anyone can find the LCD cover switch//LCD suspend switch cable then replace and retest maybe that solved this issue. As I haven't located that component yet, but assured there is a system in place - It puts the LCD backlight off when the lid is closed OR it puts the unit into hibernation when the lid is closed.
As it stands, one of these might be the problem : LCD cover switch, LCD cable or Mainboard
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Peter
ModeratorA local tech shop would be able to tell you for certain if it is the backlight or the wireset that needs replacement. Those are the two most likely candidates. They are more likely to go on larger laptops due to the increased bend and flex that they incur due to their form factor. This happens across all brands.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ok so the same thing happened to my aspire 8920G about 8 months ago. I sent it in to acer and they replaced the inverter board. Then, a few months later, my display started going wonkey. First it started with certain white areas of my screen going a dirty yellowish color, until now that it's completely screwed and started spitting out lines on bootup, which eventually turns into red squares when the screen clears, solid green lines on the windows startup splash screen and finaly green dashed lines almost looking like the matrix from top to bottom of my screen with 640x480 display running a maximum of 16 colors.
So I opened the thing since waranty has expired anyway, and now I sit with a dilemma. It could be one of 3 things by the looks of it. Either the LCD screen cable is faulty, or connections are dirty, the component on the motherboard is faulty or dirty, or it's the motherboard itself.
So now I'm wondering if anyone can answer me this... The LCD screen cable Jack seems to be missing a pin. I realize that these components vary between models, but should that Jack be missing a pin, or not. Then I'll just go buy a new LCD screen cable, but if I end up having to go through all three components only to find out it's the motherboard later is gonna make me rather grumpy.
Tks,
PipPosted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: cyberion1985
MemberDead PipIWYG and Peter,
Your issue was different from the inital issue although similar. Your new issue doesn't apply to the one in the original topic of this thread.
Your are correct: The LCD cables vary a great dead from model to model. Some might have an extra pin where others miss one.
Solution 1:
Reseat all LCD components and recheck. Sometimes the LCD cable wasn't seated properly or contained static for some or other reason.Solution 2:
Put the unit on extrernal monitor and recheck. If problem remains, then either your GPU or MB or Memory are the cause [red squares]Solution 3: Reseat RAM and recheck
Solution 4: Replace GPU, MB
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ok... Apologies for stearing off topic a bit, but tks for your response regardless.
Perhaps I should also have mentioned the following:
Just before I decided to strip her down, and the actual reason I decided to do it, was because when I applied slight pressure around the power button area, the display would suddenly jump back and lines gone, until I released my finger, then it would jump back to "broken" again. This alerted me that it could be the LCD cable or something possibly not making proper contact around the area. When I opened it up, and looked at the surroundings of where I applied the pressure, it was directly over the LCD cable along with the rest of the wires between LCD, AC input and MB. The LCD cable also seemed to be slightly pulled out on the one side of the jack on the motherboard. Then I reconnected the jack properly, checked connections on other wires, and fired it up again. Ever since then, whether or not I apply pressure in the same spot, it no longer jumps back to normal. Another thing is, when it all started, it wasn't pressure on top that made it work... it jumped back to normal when I put something underneath the laptop also below the AC input and power button, making it stand slightly skew. Neither one would turn it back to normal anymore.
As for the second solution you mentioned, I've connected external already. Lines remains on external, but the yellowish colour that I mentioned before did not appear on external (telling me there may be two different problems). I can live with the yellow for now, but this 640x480x16 view is driving me up the wall. Windows 7 just became seriously ugly :)
Anyway, if it turns out to be motherboard (which I'm now starting to think is the case), will I not be better off just buying new? It's a pitty the 8920G is so pricey.... a new one (8942G? Awesome specs) will break my bank account, and destroy my money pig all in one go.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: cyberion1985
MemberHello again,
Yes indeed, it would be better to buy a new unit; although Acer users can be more happy then HP or Mac Users. For a HP MB you would pay almost 4x to 5x more than a Acer MB.
With you saying that the External gives you the same issue, then it's most likely the MB.
Last but not least, Acer mentioned 3 things when I asked them for a solution on the 'almost black screen FN F5/6 issue':
*Replace Launch-board
*Check Suspend Switch
*Check RAMDisconnect all unnecessary components and recheck: No DvD, launchboards, LCD, HDD , ,Keyboard ,LED cables etc and power up. If it boots up fine with just A/C and MB on External one of the components you've disconnected is the cause. If NOT, then you know for sure its the MB.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Sammy
MemberIt seems like tons of people have this problem but no solution. If someone fixes this please let us know!
Here's a few forums about the same problem (and still no solution):
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25731-screen-problems-with-acer-aspire-8920g/page__st__20
http://www.theacerguy.com/forum/topic/lcd-display-on-8920g?replies=10#post-5561
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33963381
http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/351618-acer-aspire-8920g.html
http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/OrdinateursPortables/portable/demonter-facade-8920g-sujet_56916_1.htm
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Martyn
MemberHey Sammy. This is what I refuse to do - Pay money out of my own pocket for a problem that was obviously caused on the manufacturing side of this particular batch(?). I rang acer about a month back and stated my problems along with strong reference to this site/thread, and even then (though they agreed it seemed to be a faulty batch) I was met with "well it will cost you £50 to have it sent in and looked at, and then any additional costs on top of that". So, yeah, just as I thought... no help there - unless of course you are willing to part with £50+ to fix a problem that isn't yours! It says it all for me; Even while it seemed that it had been accepted that there had been a 'faulty batch', they still wanted your money. I paid near to £1000 for this and I'm not over-willing to part with yet more cash for acers incompetence. I am angry and view the 'acer way' as truly pathetic.
I'm currently using a Dell 1600x900 display, but instead of paying the repair costs, I would sooner go out and buy a full HD monitor.
So it seems it boils down to: Part with more cash, or lump it...
And yes, thank you to all who have posted to shine a bit of light on the issue. I like others am not too capable when it comes to diagnosing these types of things :/
Maybe if everyone calls up acer, refers to this thread and others, then maybe...just maybe...through some act of justice they will recall all of our faulty comps and send us out brand spanking newest top-of-the-range monster machines - ones out of their very own 'personal' batches..? Who knows... :D
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: henrys
MemberHi,
Just to let you know, I've the same screen problem with my 8930G with a manufacture date of the 2008-07-26. Pressing Fn/F6 will give me 2 seconds of display before dimming. I've contacted customer services with a link to this thread, so hopefully they'll take a look.
I'll post an update when I get one.H
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: johnnyj555
MemberMy screen had the same issue aswell i bought it around the same time as everyone else, after weeks of arguing with Acer they would not honour the extended 3 year warranty i had taken out because i registered it 3 weeks after the deadline, they were going to take it back then at the last min some jobs worth superviser told me no and that was tough luck on me, this was months back and i have been using the machine via the vga out, the hdmi out doesnt work either, but i got a shock today when the screen just came back on for several hours i didn't want to touch it but decided to give it a clean, as soon as i put pressure near the screen it just went of again, i was devastated again i payed a fortune for it, what can we do to make them listen
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: BBCreporter
MemberHi everyone,
I'm looking into these problems which I discovered on my own 8920G. I'm looking for a few case studies to help with a news feature.
Hopefully, together we can get a result for the benefit of everyone, as a quick look on the internet reveals an interesting pattern.
Unfortunately, for my purposes, I'm looking for UK based case studies, and if based in the East of England and Buckinghamshire / Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire .. even better.
Many thanks
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Martyn
MemberHey BBCreporter, I live in lancashire so I'm not exactly in your area of preference, but I am willing to lend a hand to bring about some form of justice to this situation - for myself and others.
I don't want to leave my email here, so I don't know how you want to go about contacting me if I can be of help.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: Peter
ModeratorAny reputable repair shop would be able to fix this for you. I recently repaired an Apple laptop that had the same problem, it was the inverter board. However I've also had the same issue and had to replace the wireset. It just depends.
As for Acer's warranty their legal liability does end at the end of said warranty period. However be persistent and don't be afraid to ask to be elevated when you're talking with phone support. It's always good to be nice to the people as they get yelled at all the time and having someone on the other end who's being nice will improve your odds of getting help.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: BBCreporter
MemberIn the UK the Sale of Goods Act is part of every buyers statutory rights.. which, as Acer makes clear in their warranty statement, is not affected by the Acer Limited Liability Warranty.
SOG Act states items bought must be fit for the purpose described by product literature and specifications.
Crucially - in these cases - the law also says you have six years from the date of purchase to claim damages for faulty goods.
Please email bbctvreporter@live.com from where I will be happy to disclose my BBC email address from where we can take things further.
Many thanks
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted by: flakybandit
MemberHi did any one ever find a solution to this problem my 8920g is doing all the above symtoms and its was also bought in august 2008 pc world chester. Tried everything latest drivers, old drivers, factory restore nothing helps i can get a few seconds of light with the fn-f5 buttons has anyone what the problem is for sure.
It seems to have been narrowed down to either lcd cable or lcd or inverter. I first thought it was the switch when you close the lid but now with the fn_f5 that line of enqiry has been binned. Also there is a faint bussing noise that you can hear when the screen works and as soon has the light goes the buzzing goes as well. any more ideas..?Posted 1 year ago #
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