Acer Screen problem

emmambhyland

Hey just wondering if someone could help me...

I have an Acer Aspire 5610 and the screen has started to flicker to black for about ten seconds. It doesn't look good and I was just wondering if anyone else has had this difficulty and what they did about it. I'm hoping I won't have to get it fixed, but if I do, so be it.

Any help or info will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Emma

xsiborg

hi emma, when exactly does it flicker, like when you're actually doing something on it or just before (im guessing you're using windows) it logs on to windows?

ok actually just done a google there, i was hoping it wass simply a matter of reverting to the previous graphics card drivers, i thought they had been automatically updated.

seems the issue is actuually the LCD backlight is failing, and it seems common enough, might be pricey to get it fixed though so i'd ask first.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=Acer+Aspire+5610+flickering+screen&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Black_Knight

What he said!

Happened to my old Aspire. It would flick blank, and if it didnt come back on its own id have to kinda stress the frame of the LCD a bit to get it to come back on.
I think it was within warrenty at the time so Acer replaced it. I guess your not in such good luck to still have a warrenty?

emmambhyland

Heya, cheers lads! My computer's still under warranty so I'll ring up and see what they can do.

It just flickers when I'm in the middle of something, like just on a webpage or something.

To be honest, I wouldn't really care about the cost, just as long as I didn't have to get a new computer. My whole life is on this thing.

Well thanks again.

Emma xx

MunsterCycling

Save yourself a whole heap of trouble and get an external HDD to back up all your docs onto as if you have really important stuff you can't live without then you don't want to risk it. If they take the laptop back to fix, you may not get the same one back and they won't guarantee your info isn't lost.

MC

emmambhyland

Yeah, I was thinking of doing that... you're right I really should download all this stuff.

There's lots of stuff I need for college so, yeah I really should transfer it all to an external harddrive.

Do you know where I can get one? Any help would be appreciated...

Black_Knight

PC world, Currys, Dixons etc should all have ones. They wont be as well priced as ones online but you wont have to be waiting. PC world had a good deal on a 500Gb hard drive a while back, prob way too much space then you need though if its only college stuff. If you go online you can get handy USB powered ones for less then 100.
Dabs.ie
Komplett.ie

Adverts too might have someone selling an old external Hard drive.

emmambhyland

Hey thanks again for your quick response. I'll check out those sites and the stores for a hard drive.

BTW, love the Monty Python reference

xsiborg

i'll start by saying i haven't found a fix for this yet but as coincidence would have it anyway i got my hands on an acer aspire 5310 today when a guy brought it over for me to configure it and clean it up a bit, download updates, etc after he bought it yesterday, and i've just witnessed this exact "phenomenon" for myself just there now- screen flickers, black jagged lines in the top half of the screen, then goes (bright black) blank, then the screeen looks like its turned off).
so i just restarted the laptop and all seems fine now, so here's my thinking- its a graphics card issue (or lack therof, even! explain that in a mo...). this is why i asked about the graphics card drivers being updated last night, becuse that is exactly what this looks like, your screen does this when it's configuring your graphics card (do the windows experience test and you'll see what i mean).

now, here's the thing- a few months ago i purchased for another guy a pair of acer travelmate 7512's, and he's had no issues since apart from the well doccumented but fixed now webcam issue and a few callouts for maintenance. the travelmates had their own dedicated nvidia 8400GM graphics cards, whereas this aspire 5310 and the 5610 you have, both have onboard graphics.now if you could check for me in device manager what graphics adapter you have and what driver version, then i'd say you could avoid what now seems an unecessary hardware repair job, as there is nothing "wrong" as such with your hardware.

for the record, the graphics adapter and driver on the 5310 is:

-mobile intel 945 express chipset family
-driver version 7.14.10.1437

emmambhyland

The graphics adaptor is the same on the 5610 and the driver version is 6.14.10.4436

Thanks for your info, it really helps that I don't have to send the computer away to get it "fixed" or anything. I really appreciate the help!

xsiborg

ok, so i did a bit more research on this and the latest drivers on the acer website are the ones i posted earlier (version 7.14)- download here. these are ACER SPECIFIC drivers.

however, you can download the latest generic intel drivers (version 15.8) from here.

i didnt get a chance to try these out myself as the guy collected his laptop this morning. however i did call the other guy with the travelmates and he said it had never happened to him. i let the other guy know but he didnt seem too bothered by it as the problem didnt happen again and i was working on the laptop overnight.

i wouldnt think you'll have any problem installing the generic drivers from intel, but im just wondering emma has it happened to you again since?

emmambhyland

It happened a couple of times but it hasn't happened in like the last couple of days so hopefully it'll be okay.

Just wondering if downloading the new driver will stop the screen flickering or what??

Emma

xsiborg

not quite sure emma if it will actually "completely" stop the screen flicker issue because its very "hit-n-miss happens occasionally and might not happen again" and impossible to forcibly replicate, but OEM manufacturers such as acer, dell, hp do tend to be behind hardware vendors in releasing drivers because they like to have time testing or customising them. i say try the generic drivers, if nothing else other than to update your system, i would have myself last night if i'd thought of it! if it causes more issues than it fixes you can always roll back the driver to its previous version.

emmambhyland

Hey cheers for the advice, I'll try it out.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Emma

xsiborg

cool, little things like this bug the sh!t outta me til i get em solved...

i know, i know... saa-haaad, lol

chrisde

I am using a acer 5310 and the cursor jumps in the middle of the text i am typing Ruining whole letters sometimes . I am using Ubuntu but the Same was happening in Xubuntu and Vista .