Acer Aspire 4250 User manual

Aspire 4250
SERVICEGUIDE

ii
Revision History
Refer to the table below for the updates made to this service guide.
Service guide files and updates are available on the ACER/CSD Website. For more
information, go to http://csd.acer.com.tw.The information in this guide is subject to
change without notice.
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 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.
Disclaimer
The information in this guide is subject to change without notice.
There are 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. The software described in this manual is sold or
licensed "as is". Should the programs prove defective following their purchase, the
buyer (not the manufacturer, 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.
Date Chapter Updates

iii
Conventions
The following conventions are used in this manual:
WARNING:
!
Indicates a potential for personal injury.
CAUTION:
!
Indicates a potential loss of data or damage to equipment.
IMPORTANT:
+
Indicates information that is important to know for the proper
completion of a procedure, choice of an option, or completing a task.
The following typographical conventions are used in this document:
 Book titles, directory names, file names, path names, and program/process names are
shown in italics.
Example:
the DRS5 User's Guide
/usr/local/bin/fd
the /TPH15spool_M program
 Computer output (text that represents information displayed on a computer screen, such as
menus, prompts, responses to input, and error messages) are shown in constant width.
Example:
[01] The server has been stopped
 User input (text that represents information entered by a computer user, such as command
names, option letters, and words) are shown in constant width bold.
Variables contained within user input are shown in angle brackets (< >).
Example:
At the prompt, type run <file name> -m
 Keyboard keys are shown in bold italics.
Example:
After entering data, press Enter.

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General Information 0
This service guide provides all technical information relating to the basic configuration
for Acer’s global product offering. To better fit local market requirements and enhance
product competitiveness, the regional office may have decided to extend the
functionality of a machine (such as add-on cards, modems, or extra memory capabilities).
These localized features are not covered in this generic service guide. In such cases,
contact the regional offices or the responsible personnel/channel to provide further
technical details.
When ordering FRU parts: Check the most up-to-date information available on the
Website. If, for whatever reason, a part number change is made, it may not be noted in
this printed service guide.
Acer-authorized Service Providers: The Acer office may have a different part number
code than those given in the FRU list in this service guide. A list must be provided by the
regional Acer office to order FRU parts for repair and service of customer machines.

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CHAPTER 1
Hardware Specifications
Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Audio Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Storage Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Privacy Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Optical Media Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Dimension and Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Power Adapter and Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Special Keys and Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
I/O Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Optional Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9
Notebook Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10
Touchpad Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-18
Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-19
Windows Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-20
Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-21
Specification Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-24
Computer specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-24
Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-25
Processor Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-25
CPU Fan True Value Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-26
GPU Fan True Value Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-26
System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-26
Memory Combinations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-27
Video Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-27
BIOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-27
LAN Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-28
Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-28
Hard Disk Drive (AVL components) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-29
Hard Disk Drive (AVL components) (Continued) . . . . . . . . . 1-30
Super-Multi Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-31
Super-Multi Drive (Continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-32
Super-Multi Drive (Continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-33
LED 14.0” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-34

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LCD Inverter (not available with this model) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-34
Display Supported Resolution (LCD Supported Resolution) 1-35
Display Supported Resolution (GPU Supported Resolution) 1-35
Bluetooth Interface (not available with this model) . . . . . . 1-36
Mini Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-36
3G Card (not available in this model) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-36
Audio Codec and Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-37
Audio Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-38
Battery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-38
VRAM (not available in this model) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-39
USB Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-39
AC Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-39
System Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-40
Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-40
System LED Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-41
System DMA Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-41
CHAPTER 2
System Utilities
BIOS Setup Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
Navigating the BIOS Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8
Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12
Exit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13
BIOS Flash Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-14
DOS Flash Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-15
WinFlash Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-17
Clearing BIOS Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-18
Removing BIOS Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-19
Removing Insyde HDD Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-21
Miscellaneous Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-22
Using DMITools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-22
Using UUIDTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-26
Using the LAN MAC EEPROM Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-27

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Crisis Disk Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-28
CHAPTER 3
Machine Maintenance Procedures
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Recommended Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Maintenance Flowchart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6
Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7
Battery Pack Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Battery Pack Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Dummy Card Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
Dummy Card Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
Keyboard Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10
Keyboard Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
Base Assembly Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12
Base Assembly Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13
ODD (Optical Disk Drive) Module Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14
ODD Module Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15
USB Module Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16
USB Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17
HDD (Hard Disk Drive) Module Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
HDD Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-19
Mainboard Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20
Mainboard Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-22
DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) Module Removal . . . 3-23
DIMM Module Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-24
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) Module Removal . . . 3-25
WLAN Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26
Thermal Module Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-27
Thermal Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-27
Power Switch Board Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-29
Power Switch Board Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-29
Speaker Module Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-30
Speaker Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-31
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) Module Removal . . . . . . . . . . . 3-32
LCD Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-33
DC-in Jack Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-34
DC-in Jack Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-35
LCD Bezel Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-36
LCD Bezel Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-37

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Camera Module Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-38
Camera Module Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-39
LCD Panel Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-40
LCD Panel Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-41
LCD Bracket Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-42
LCD Bracket Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-42
LVDS Cable Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-43
LVDS Cable Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-44
CHAPTER 4
Troubleshooting
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
Power On Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
No Display Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
LCD Picture Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Internal Keyboard Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
Touchpad Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Internal Speaker Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11
Internal Microphone Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13
USB Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Other Functions Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15
Intermittent Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Undetermined Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Post Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
CHAPTER 5
Jumper and Connector Locations
Mainboard Jumper and Connector Locations . . . . . . . . . 5-3
Clearing Password Check and BIOS Recovery . . . . . . . . . 5-5
Clearing Password Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
Clear CMOS Jumper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6
BIOS Recovery by Crisis Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7

ix
CHAPTER 6
FRU (Field Replaceable Unit) List
Exploded Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
FRU List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7
Screw List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-20
CHAPTER 7
Model Definition and Configuration
Acer Aspire 4250. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
CHAPTER 8
Test Compatible Components
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Environment Test. . . . . . . . . . . 8-4
CHAPTER 9
Online Support Information
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

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