Acer Aspire Predator G7700 Series User manual

Acer
Aspire G7700 Series
Service Guide
PRINTED IN TAIWAN
Service guide files and updates are available
on the ACER/CSD web; for more information,
please refer to http://csd.acer.com.tw

ii
Revision History
Please refer to the table below for the updates made on Aspire G7700 Series service guide.
Date Chapter Updates

iii
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by Acer Incorporated. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language or computer language, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of Acer Incorporated.

iv
Disclaimer
The information in this guide is subject to change without notice.
Acer Incorporated makes no representations or warranties, either expressed or implied, with respect to the
contents hereof and specifically disclaims any warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular
purpose. Any Acer Incorporated software described in this manual is sold or licensed "as is". Should the
programs prove defective following their purchase, the buyer (and not Acer Incorporated, its distributor, or its
dealer) assumes the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, and any incidental or consequential
damages resulting from any defect in the software.
Acer is a registered trademark of Acer Corporation.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.
Core Duo and Core 2 Duo are trademarks of Intel Corporation.
Other brand and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

v
Conventions
The following conventions are used in this manual:
SCREEN
MESSAGES
Denotes actual messages that appear on screen.
NOTE Gives additional information related to the current topic.
WARNING Alerts you to any physical risk or system damage that might result from doing
or not doing specific actions.
CAUTION Gives precautionary measures to avoid possible hardware or software
problems.
IMPORTANT Reminds you to do specific actions relevant to the accomplishment of
procedures.

vi
Service Guide Coverage
This Service Guide provides you with all technical information relating to the BASIC CONFIGURATION
decided for Acer's "global" product offering. To better fit local market requirements and enhance product
competitiveness, your regional office MAY have decided to extend the functionality of a machine (e.g. add-on
card, modem, or extra memory capability). These LOCALIZED FEATURES will NOT be covered in this generic
service guide. In such cases, please contact your regional offices or the responsible personnel/channel to
provide you with further technical details.
FRU Information
Please note WHEN ORDERING FRU PARTS, that you should check the most up-to-date information available
on your regional web or channel. If, for whatever reason, a part number change is made, it will not be noted in
the printed Service Guide. For ACER-AUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERS, your Acer office may have a
DIFFERENT part number code to those given in the FRU list of this printed Service Guide. You MUST use the
list provided by your regional Acer office to order FRU parts for repair and service of customer machines.

vii
System Tour 1
Features 1
Aspire G7700 Tour 4
Closed Front Panel 4
Front Panel 5
Rear Panel 6
Internal Components 7
System LED Indicators 8
Mainboard LED indicators 9
System Utilities 11
CMOS Setup Utility 11
Entering CMOS setup 12
Navigating Through the Setup Utility 12
Setup Utility Menus 13
System Disassembly 29
Disassembly Requirements 29
Pre-disassembly Procedure 30
Main Unit Disassembly 31
External Modules Disassembly Flowchart 31
Removing the Bezel Door 33
Removing the Hard Disk Drive 34
Removing the Left Side Panel 36
Removing the Right Side Panel 37
Removing the Front Bezel 38
Removing the Optical Drive 40
Removing the Video Cards 41
Removing the TV Tuner Card 43
Removing the Card Reader Drive 44
Removing the Card Reader Board 46
Removing the Backplane Board 48
Removing the Memory Modules 50
Removing the Liquid Cooler Fan Assembly 51
Removing the Fan from the Liquid Cooler 53
Removing the Processor 54
Removing the Power Supply 56
Removing the HDD Fan 58
Removing the Top Cover 59
Removing the USB Board 60
Removing the Mainboard 62
Removing the Front Foot Stand 64
Removing the Rear Foot Stand 65
System Troubleshooting 67
Hardware Diagnostic Procedure 67
System Check Procedures 68
Power System Check 68
System External Inspection 68
System Internal Inspection 68
POST Error and Beep Codes 69
Online Support Information 79
Table of Contents

viii
System Block Diagram and Board Layout 81
System Block Diagram 81
Board Layout 82
Mainboard 82
Back Panel I/O 83
System Switches and Jumpers 84
Power Button 84
Reset Button 84
IDE Connector 84
Serial ATA Connectors 85
Fan Power Connectors 85
Chassis Intrusion Connector 85
Front Panel Connector 86
Serial Port Connector 86
Power Connectors 87
Front USB Connector 88
IEEE 1394 Connector 88
S/PDIF-out Connector 88
Front Panel Audio Connector 89
CMOS Reset Button 90
FRU (Field Replaceable Unit) List 91
Aspire G7700 Series Exploded Diagram 92
Aspire G7700 Series (81.3V201.001G) 94
Technical Specifications 99

Chapter 1 1
Features
Below is a brief summary of the computer’s many feature:
NOTE: The feature listed in this section is for your reference only. The exact configuration of the server
depends on the model purchased.
Processor
Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor (up to 1333 MHz FSB)
Intel Core 2 Quad processor
Chipset
North bridge: NVIDIA nForce 780I SLI chipset
South bridge: NVIDIA nForce 570i SLI chipset
Memory subsystem
Supports up to 8 GB 240-pin DDR2-800/1066 MHz SDRAM
Dual-channel support on four DIMMs
Media storage
Two 5.25” drive bays
BD/HD DVD reader + SuperMulti DVD burner
Super-Multi DVD drive
Four 3.5” easy-swap HDD drive bays
Up to 1 TB SATA hard disk drive
RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1 capable with NVIDIA MediaShield Storage Technology
Networking
Gigabit Ethernet, Wake-on LAN ready
WLAN: IEEE 802.11b/g
Modem: 56K ITU V.92, Wake-on Ring ready
PCI I/O
Three PCI Express x16 slot s (including two PCI Express 2.0 with 5 Gb/s)
Two PCI Express x1 slots
PCI Express x8 slot
PCI 2.3 5V slot
Graphics
Enabled NVIDIA 3-way/2-way SLI
PCI Express 2.0 x 16 graphics card
System Tour
Chapter 1

2Chapter 1
TV tuner card
Hybrid analog (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) and digital (DVB-T or ATSC format) TV-tuner card, supporting
software MPEG-2 stream coding
Audio
Dolby system
Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel and EAX 4.0 audio support
Optional Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card
S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support
I/O ports
Front I/O ports
Five USB 2.0 ports
IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)
Multi-in-one card reader
Headphone jack
Microphone jack
Rear I/O ports
PS/2 keyboard port
PS/2 mouse port
IEEE 1394 port (6-pin)
S/PDIF jack
Two eSATA ports
Four USB 2.0 ports
Two Ethernet (RJ-45) ports
Six audio jacks
Graphics card I/O ports
DVI ports (up to six with 3-way SLI)
TV-out port (optional)
Operating system and software
Operating system options:
Genuine Windows Vista®Ultimate (32/64-bit)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32/64-bit)
Applications
Acer Empowering Technology (Acer eRecovery Management)
Acer Arcade Live
McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 Trial version
Adobe Reader
eSobi
NTI MediaMaker
Power supply
1000/750 W power supply

Chapter 1 3
Dimensions and weight
Length: 490 mm
Height: 430 mm
Width: 190 mm

4Chapter 1
Aspire G7700 Tour
This section is a virtual tour of the Aspire G7700 system’s interior and exterior components.
Closed Front Panel
Item Component
1 Hinge screws x4
2 Door hinges x4
3 Bezel door

Chapter 1 5
Front Panel
Item Icon Component
1 USB 2.0 ports
2 Headphone/line-out jack
3 Microphone/speaker-out/line-in jack
4 Power button/power indicator
5 Optical disk drives
6 XD (eXtreme Digital) slot
7 USB 2.0 port
8 IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)
9 CFI/II (CompactFlash Type I/II) slot
10 Drive bay door
11 Easy-swap hard disk drives (1-4)
12 MS/MS Pro (Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro Duo) slot
13 SD/MMC (SecureDigital/MultimediaCard) slot
14 Optical disk drive eject buttons

6Chapter 1
Rear Panel
Item Icon Component
1 Power supply
2 PS2 mouse port
3 System fan
4 Network ports
5 Rear speaker jack
6 Center speaker/subwoofer jack
7 Expansion slot locks
8 S-video port
9DVIport
10 Audio-in/line-in jack
11 Headphone/line-out/front speaker jack
12 Microphone/line-in jack
13 Side speaker/line-out jack
14 USB 2.0 ports
15 CL_CMOS CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) reset button
16 ESATA eSATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) ports
17 S/PDIF S/PDIF port
18 IEEE 1394 port (6-pin)
19 PS2 keyboard port
20 Power connector
21 Main power switch

Chapter 1 7
Internal Components
Item Component
1 Liquid cooling system
2 Mainboard
3 System memory
4 Release sliders for optical drives
5 Hard drive backplane board
6 Release sliders for HDD drives
7 Expansion slot lock levers
8 Expansion card
9 System fan
10 Power supply module

8Chapter 1
System LED Indicators
This section describes the different system LED indicators.
LED indicator Color LED status Description
Power Blue On The system has AC power and is powered on.
Blinking The system is in standby mode.
HDD activity Green Blinking Ongoing HDD activity.
Amber On HDD failure
Green/
Amber
Flashing HDD is rebuilding.
LAN port
network activity
LED
(left)
Orange On (steady state) Active network link
Blinking (brighter
and pulsing)
Ongoing network data activity
Off Off-line network
LAN port
network link
LED (right)
Orange On 1000 Mbps link network access
Green On 100 Mbps link network access
Off 10 Mbps link network access

Chapter 1 9
Mainboard LED indicators
The mainboard LED indicators are easy to check the system status when user open the cover or testing the system
board.
LED status Description
PCIE1 (blue) Lights when PCI E1 slot is functional.
PCIE2 (blue) Lights when PCI E2 slot is functional.
PCIE3 (blue) Lights when PCI E3 slot is functional.
PCIE4 (blue) Lights when PCI E4 slot is functional.
PCI (blue) Lights when PCI1 slot is functional.
PCIE5 (blue) Lights when PCI E5 slot is functional.
PCIE6 (blue) Lights when PCI E6 slot is functional.
DIMM1 (orange) Lights when the DIMM1 slot is functional.
DIMM2 (green) Lights when the DIMM2 slot is functional.
DIMM3 (green) Lights when the DIMM3 slot is functional.
DIMM4 (orange) Lights when the DIMM4 slot is functional.
HDD (pink) Lights when the HDD is functional.
Power (blue) Lights when the system is powered on.
Standby (pink) Lights when the system is in standby mode.

10 Chapter 1

Chapter 2 11
CMOS Setup Utility
CMOS setup is a hardware configuration program built into the system ROM, called the complementary metal-
oxide semiconductor (CMOS) Setup Utility. Since most systems are already properly configured and
optimized, there is no need to run this utility. You will need to run this utility under the following conditions.
When changing the system configuration settings
When redefining the communication ports to prevent any conflicts
When modifying the power management configuration
When changing the password or making other changes to the security setup
When a configuration error is detected by the system and you are prompted ("Run Setup"
message) to make changes to the CMOS setup
NOTE: If you repeatedly receive Run Setup messages, the battery may be bad. In this case, the system
cannot retain configuration values in CMOS. Ask a qualified technician for assistance.
CMOS setup loads the configuration values in a battery-backed nonvolatile memory called CMOS RAM. This
memory area is not part of the system RAM which allows configuration data to be retained when power is
turned off.
Before you run the CMOS Setup Utility, make sure that you have saved all open files. The system reboots
immediately after you close the Setup.
NOTE: CMOS Setup Utility will be simply referred to as “BIOS”, "Setup", or "Setup utility" in this guide.
The screenshots used in this guide display default system values. These values may not be the same
those found in your system.
System Utilities
Chapter 2

12 Chapter 2
Entering CMOS setup
1. Turn on the server and the monitor.
If the server is already turned on, close all open applications, then restart the server.
2. During POST, press Delete.
If you fail to press Delete before POST is completed, you will need to restart the server.
The Setup Main menu will be displayed showing the Setup’s menu bar. Use the left and right arrow keys
to move between selections on the menu bar.
Navigating Through the Setup Utility
Use the following keys to move around the Setup utility.
Left and Right arrow keys – Move between selections on the menu bar.
Up and Down arrow keys – Move the cursor to the field you want.
PgUp and PgDn keys – Move the cursor to the previous and next page of a multiple page menu.
Home – Move the cursor to the first page of a multiple page menu.
End – Move the cursor to the last page of a multiple page menu.
+and -keys – Select a value for the currently selected field (only if it is user-configurable). Press
these keys repeatedly to display each possible entry, or the Enter key to choose from a pop-up
menu.
NOTE: Grayed-out fields are not user-configurable.
Enter key – Display a submenu screen.
NOTE: Availability of submenu screen is indicated by a (>).
Esc – If you press this key:
On one of the primary menu screens, the Exit menu displays.
On a submenu screen, the previous screen displays.
When you are making selections from a pop-up menu, closes the pop-up without making a
selection.
F1 – Display the General Help panel.
F6 – Press to load optimized default system values.
F7 – Press to load fail-safe default system values.
F10 – Save changes made the Setup and close the utility.