Acer Extensa 660 Maintenance Manual

                                                                                                  Troubleshooting Procedures  5-1
5
Troubleshooting Procedures
5.1 Introduction
This section provides an overview of the fault isolation process, provides guidelines for 
isolating 660 Series computer malfunctions to replaceable subassemblies and 
provides instructions for executing diagnostics and interpreting error messages.
5.2 Overview of Fault Isolation Process
The fault isolation process  (summarized in...

5-2   Troubleshooting Procedures
Figure 5-1  Notebook Computer Troubleshooting Flow Chart
START
COMPUTER
TROUBLE
INDICATION
?
DEAD
COMPUTER
SYMPTOMS
?
RUN
SELF TEST
ERROR
MESSAGE
?
MODEM
PROBLEM
?
RUN
DIAGNOSTICS
DIAGNOSTICS
ERROR MSG
?
NO
YES
NO
YESSEE PARAGRAPH
5.3.5
NO
YESSEE PARAGR APHS
5.3.3.1 and 5.3.3.2
NO
See Paragraphs
5.3.1 &  5.3.2
NO
YES
YES
SEE PARAGRAPH
 5.5 
When Power button 
is pressed, no indication
of power is present (dark
LCD, no Status icons lit, 
no disk drive activity, etc.)
Press...

                                                                                           Troubleshooting Procedures    5-3  
5.3 Troubleshooting Procedures
The built-in self test program and the disk resident diagnostics program (PC-Doctor) 
are useful tools in computer troubleshooting. However, if the computer has a power, 
keyboard or display problem, you must first solve this problem before running 
diagnostics. If the computer powers up and displays messages on the LCD or emits a 
series of beeps,...

5-4   Troubleshooting Procedures
¨Faulty LCD - Replace the cover-display assembly as described in Section 6 of 
this manual.
¨Low battery - Use a fully charged battery and/or plug in the AC adapter.
Table 5-1 contains fault isolation information for Display Problems on the notebook. 
Symptoms are listed along the left side of the chart and the various Display FRUs are 
listed along the top of the chart. Within the body of the table are the probabilities of 
each of the FRUs causing that particular...

                                                                                           Troubleshooting Procedures    5-5  
5.3.3 Fault Isolation Using Power On Self Test 
When the computer is first powered up, it automatically performs a Power On Self 
Test (POST) that checks the notebook’s central hardware and memory functions. 
During POST (which lasts for a few seconds), the display shows copyright and version 
number information.
Note: Some procedures in this paragraph require you to use...

5-6   Troubleshooting Procedures
Table 5-2  Power On Self Test Error Messages
Message Possible Cause Action
Diskette drive A failure
The drive failed or is missing. Check the drive to determine the
problem.
Diskette read failure -
press F1 to retry boot,  F2
for SETUP utilityThe disk is either not
formatted or is defective.Replace the disk with a bootable
disk and retry.
Display adapter failed,
usi ng al ternateThe primary video adapter
failed.Check the primary video
adapter.
Gate A20 failure
The...

                                                                                           Troubleshooting Procedures    5-7  
Table 5-2  POST Error Messages (continued)
Message Possible Cause Action
No boot device available -
press F1 to retry boot, F2
for SETUP utilityEither disk drive A:, the fixed
disk, or both the disk and
fixed disk are defective.Try rebooting. If problem
persists, replace the disk or the
fixed disk.
No boot sector on fixed
disk - press F1 to retry
boot, F2 for SETUP utilityThe C:...

5-8   Troubleshooting Procedures
5.3.3.2 POST Beep Error Messages
In the event of a hardware problem that affects the display, the Notebook also 
communicates errors via a series of beeps. These codes may be heard over the 
systems speaker as three bursts of beeps. The interpretation of the beep codes is 
provided in Table 5-3.
To recover from a self test error, try cycling power to the computer.  Also, press 
Ctrl-Alt-Esc to ensure that the Setup configuration is correct. In general, most of the...

                                                                                           Troubleshooting Procedures    5-9  
Try running PC-Doctor (Paragraph 5.5) if possible to verify the source of problem.
Table 5-3  Self Test Beep Messages
Beep Code Port 80h Description
None 01h CPU Register Test in Progress
1-1-3 02h CMOS Write/Read Failure
1-1-4  03h ROM BIOS Checksum Failure
1-2-1 04h Programmable Interval Timer Failure
1-2-2 05h DMA Initialization Failure
1-2-3 06h DMA Page Register Write/Read...

5-10   Troubleshooting Procedures
3-1-2 21h Master DMA Register Failure
3-1-3 22h  Master Interrupt Mask Register Failure
3-1-4 23h Slave Interrupt Mask Register Failure
None 25h Interrupt Vector Loading In Progress
3-2-4 27h Keyboard Controller Test Failure
None 28h CMOS Power Failure and Checksum in Progress
None 29h CMOS Configuration Validation in Progress
3-3-4 2Bh Screen Memory Test Failure
3-4-1 2Ch Screen Initialization Failure
3-4-2 2Dh Screen Retrace Test Failure
None 2Eh  Search for Video ROM...